Redblacks get past Tiger-Cats

Hamilton Tiger-Cats coach Kent Austin didn’t worry about wins or losses on Thursday night, which was a good thing.

Ray Early kicked a 37yard field goal with 68 seconds left to play to give the Ottawa Redblacks a 30-29 win over the TigerCats, who had a ninepoint lead with six minutes to play.

“I think our effort was pretty good and we played a pretty clean game, but game’s like this, the only thing that’s important is that you learn from it,” said Austin, adding that the late loss was a teachable moment. “Learn from it as an individual player, learn from it as a football team.

“We had a nine-point lead and we let them get back in the game. We need to learn to be more resilient and extent the lead.”

Both teams combined to use seven quarterbacks as they opened the preseason portion of their CFL season.

The Tiger-Cats used Jeremiah Masoli, Everett Golson, Matt Johnson and Cody Keith while the Redblacks countered with Trevor Harris, Drew Tate and Ryan Lindley.

Ottawa used all three of its available quarterbacks in the first half and in keeping with the theme of getting everyone involved, 11 different receivers caught passes in the first half alone.

“We just came out here to play fast,” said receiver Tori Gurley, who was making his Redblacks debut after signing with the team in the offseason. “Everything we’ve been scripting in practice, it’s just great to see it come to life. We’ve got a lot of work to do and we’re going to watch the film and break it down and get ready for the next game.

“We’ve still got to work on timing and I know there’s some things I need to work on but we have to just keep practising and keep having fun.”

Harris started, completing 12-of-15 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown.

Harris led his team 87 yards downfield culminating in a 17-yard touchdown pass to Juron Criner at 3:45 of the first quarter on the opening drive of the game. A twopoint conversion gave Ottawa an 8-0 lead.

“I’ve been ready to start the season since December. It was a relief to get out there and get executing. I was itching for a while to get that,” said Harris, the only returning QB from the Redblacks Grey Cup championship team last year.

A 17-yard field goal by Early gave the Redblacks an 11-0 lead, then Hamilton’s Masoli threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Ross Scheuerman 13 minutes into the first quarter.