Alouettes join Argos at top of the East
Montreal wakes up after first quarter for decisive win over Toronto
MONTREAL—The Alouettes scored three touchdowns in the second quarter, then held on to beat the Toronto Argonauts 3716 in Montreal on Friday night.
Matthew Shiltz threw for 212 yards and two touchdown passes, both to Eugene Lewis, as the Alouettes (6-4) joined the Argos (6-4) atop the CFL’s East Division.
Running back William Stanback added a third Montreal touchdown and rushed for 203 yards, while David Côté kicked three field goals.
Argos quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson racked up 291 passing yards and four interceptions.
Toronto backup quarterback Antonio Pipkin scored two rushing touchdowns, and Boris Bede kicked a pair of field goals, including a 25-yard strike.
The Alouettes woke up from a quiet start in the second quarter. Monshadrik Hunter became the first Alouette to intercept Bethel-Thompson and Shiltz made Toronto pay on the very next play with a 33 yard bomb to Lewis for the first touchdown of the night.
Lewis scored again on an even bigger play when Shiltz found him wide open for a 58-yard play.
Stanback made a one-yard rush on third and goal to give Montreal a 21-10 lead heading into halftime.
After missing his first field goal attempt and hitting the upright on his second, Côté made good the third time around, hitting a 43-yard attempt to give Montreal a 24-10 lead in the third quarter.
Stanback exploded with a 65yard run in the final moments of the third, his longest rush of the season, and Côté added a second field goal to put the Als ahead 27-10 early in the fourth.
With 6:20 left in the game clock, Pipkin rushed on third down for his second touchdown. The Argos opted for a two-point conversion but Chris Ackie intercepted BethelThompson, keeping the score at 28-16.
Najee Murray intercepted Bethel-Thompson a fourth time with just seconds left in the game, returning the ball 64 yards for a touchdown. The pick-six sealed the Als’ 145th home win since the franchise’s return to Montreal in 1996.
Hamilton (4-5) will try to move with a game of both teams when it hosts Ottawa on Saturday, trying to end a twogame slide at Tim Hortons Field.
The Ticats’ 23-20 overtime loss to Montreal there Oct. 2 snapped their 11-game home win streak. Then Hamilton dropped a 24-23 decision to the Argos on Oct. 11. Hamilton held double-digit leads in the fourth quarter of both games.
“Listen, we don’t sweep anything under the rug,” Ticats head coach Orlondo Steinauer said. “We’re always going to address the elephant in the room and that’s in all three phases of our football team. We feel like we address those challenges and then we move on.”