Snow time like the present for Redblacks
Ottawa upends Esks with big effort from little-used running back
OTTAWA — It figured that a guy from Winnipeg would play a key role in the Canadian Football League’s East Division Final on Sunday.
Second-year running back Kienan Lafrance replaced an injured Mossis Madu and slalomed across the snow-covered turf for 157 yards and a touchdown to power the Ottawa Redblacks to a 35-23 victory against the Edmonton Eskimos and a berth in the Grey Cup game Sunday.
The Redblacks will play their second straight CFL championship contest against the Calgary Stampeders, who defeated the B.C. Lions in Sunday’s West Division Final.
“You’re not always going to be the man, you’re not always going to be the starter, so you have to kind of accept your role, embrace it and take advantage of it when your time comes,” said Lafrance, a sixth-round draft pick in 2015 from the University of Manitoba who saw special-teams duty in the 2015 Grey Cup game.
“Opportunities like this don’t come around very often, second chances,” he added. “But we have a great squad. We have a very strong defence and very strong offence.”
Lafrance didn’t do it himself, of course. Quarterback Henry Burris threw first-half touchdown passes to Greg Ellingson and Khalil Paden and the defence kept the Eskimos’ offence in check long enough for the Redblacks to build a lead and to protect it when things got a little discombobulated in the second half of a contest better suited to snowballs.
The touchdown pass to Paden and a two-point convert on a run by Lafrance put the Redblacks up 17-3 in the first half, and the advantage grew again when Tristan Jackson raced through the heart of the Eskimos’ punt-cover team for a 75-yard touchdown in the third quarter. With another two-point convert on a pass to Patrick Lavoie, it was 25-3.
Defensive halfback Abdul Kanneh made reference to the Redblacks’ substandard regular-season home record — two victories and a tie in nine tries — but also noted that the Redblacks had got the job done when it mattered in the playoffs.
“I’m done with this game. As soon as the clock hit zero …,” said Kanneh, who had one of three pass knock-downs by Redblacks defenders. “I have been thinking about the Grey Cup since the season started, but now I can really talk about it because we’re there.”