Argos edge the Lions
Another start, another comeback win for McLeod Bethel-Thompson and the Toronto Argonauts.
James Franklin’s one-yard TD run with 2:59 remaining rallied Toronto to an exciting 24-23 win over the B.C. Lions on Saturday afternoon. Franklin put the Argos ahead 24-20 at 2:59 of the fourth quarter after they’d fallen behind 20-10 in the third.
Bethel-Thompson was solid in his second CFL start, completing 18-of-29 passes for 260 yards with a TD. On Aug. 2, Bethel-Thompson provided plenty of second-half drama with four touchdown passes to rally Toronto from a 24-point deficit in a stirring 42-41 home win over the Ottawa Redblacks.
“We’re still shooting ourselves in the foot in the first half not completing drives,” Bethel-Thompson said. “I’m learning more each time I go out there.”
Toronto head coach Marc Trestman put BethelThompson’s performance into perspective.
“We now have a quarterback who’s played eight quarters, that’s it,” he said. “We have to grow with him.
“He made some very big throws when we needed him to. That’s a work in progress . . . our roster is fluid and will be that way until we put it all together.”
Marcus Ball appeared poised to cement the Toronto victory when he had a clear path to the endzone on an interception with just over two minutes remaining. But he fumbled and the Lions’ Chris Rainey recovered at the B.C. 22-yard line.
Ball redeemed himself by recovering Manny Arcenaux’s fumble at centre field with 38 seconds remaining. That thrilled the season-high BMO Field gathering of 18,104 with the CNE underway.
“Marcus is too good a player to not make up for that,” Bethel-Thompson said. “It was one of those glitches.
“I knew the defence was going to pick that up.”
Tyler Long’s 46-yard field goal at 6:37 of the fourth pulled B.C. to within 24-23.
“In the fourth quarter (of the Ottawa game) and the last half of this game, a light switch went on and we became more of a team we wanted to become,” said Trestman. “We weren’t that team to start this game.
“We were undisciplined, couldn’t contain the quarterback, couldn’t finish drives. But in the third and fourth quarters we found a resilience, an edge and a way to win the game.”
The Ontario 1 Miken/Kahunaverse Sports/Millwood Logistics Orioles needed twice the amount of wins as the Alberta Oilmen.
They delivered and are now the 2018 Men’s Canadian SloPitch Champions following a 28-19 win over the Oilmen in the gold medal game Saturday at Softball Valley in Peenaquim Park.
Needing two wins to clinch this year’s gold medal after the Oilmen finished first in the round-robin, the Orioles came though in a pair of highscoring games under smoky skies at Softball Valley. They opened the final with a 27-20 decision before salting this year’s title with another highscoring win.
On the women’s side, the B.C. 1 Adrenaline capped off a week of perfect ball with a 1513 win over the DC Kahunaverse/Miken Ladybirds.
In the men’s playoffs, the Orioles avenged an 18-17 loss to the Oilmen Friday night with the pair of wins they needed Saturday afternoon to capture the gold.
“It’s outstanding, not the way you would have drawn it up, but that’s the way we got it done,” said Orioles head coach Grant Garrett. “It was an outstanding job and a great group of guys we’ve got here. We’ve won this many times before, but it never, ever gets old.”
Earlier Saturday, the Ontario representatives downed Quebec DC Recrupharm/Rousseau Sport 35-32 to earn another shot at