Victory a mixed bag
ROUGHRIDERS 30, REDBLACKS 2 9
Tyler Crapigna’s clutch kick delivered the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ first victory of the Chris Jones era Friday night.
Crapigna’s 53-yard field goal with 1:09 left in the fourth quarter stood as the winning points as Saskatchewan downed the Ottawa Redblacks 30-29 at Mosaic Stadium. Crapigna hit all five of his field-goal attempts during the game.
Saskatchewan had lost its first three games under Jones, who was named the Roughriders’ head coach, general manager and vicepresident of football operations eight days after guiding the Edmonton Eskimos to a victory over Ottawa in the 2015 Grey Cup.
Ottawa entered Friday’s game with an undefeated record (3-0-1).
The Roughriders opened the scoring at 2:13 of the first quarter when Crapigna hit a 24-yard field goal. During the opening possession, the Roughriders had completions of 22 and 48 yards from Mitchell Gale — making his first CFL start — to Ricky Collins Jr.
Crapigna connected again, from 42 yards, at 8:14 of the first quarter to give Saskatchewan a 6-0 lead before 30,172 spectators.
Ottawa quickly countered when Brock Jensen, in at quarterback for the injured Trevor Harris, hit Brad Sinopoli for a 65-yard pass-and-run major at 9:30. Chris Milo’s convert put the Redblacks up 7-6. Milo then registered a single on the ensuing kickoff.
Josh Bartel had a 77-yard punt single at 11:32 to reduce Ottawa’s lead to 8-7.
The Redblacks went ahead 9-7 when Milo missed a 43-yard fieldgoal attempt and settled for a single 42 seconds into the second quarter.
Another Crapigna field goal, from 28 yards away, gave Saskatchewan a 10-9 lead at 5:28 of the second quarter. The Roughriders went ahead 17-9 when Crapigna converted a touchdown by Tevaughn Campbell, who scored on a return of a blocked punt. Otha Foster blocked a punt by Milo and Campbell, formerly of the University of Regina Rams, retrieved the loose ball and scored at 7:06 of the second quarter.
The Roughriders are to return to action July 29 against the host Montreal Alouettes. The Redblacks are to play host to the Toronto Argonauts on July 31.