BITTERSWEET VICTORY
Leos trounce Als, but lose Lulay again
The B.C. Lions snapped a threegame losing streak Friday night, riding a stout defence, a specialteams touchdown and an explosive offence to a 41-18 victory over the Montreal Alouettes.
But, in the aftermath of the Lions’ sixth win of the Canadian Football League season, the details of their performance didn’t seem terribly relevant. On the second play of the game, B.C.
quarterback Travis Lulay suffered a severe injury to his right knee.
An MRI will be performed but the initial fear is Lulay is done for the season with a torn ACL.
“It’s definitely bittersweet,” Lions head coach Wally Buono said. “Obviously everyone is disappointed. It’s a devastating injury for someone who’s meant so much for this football club.”
On the game’s second play from scrimmage, Lulay was flushed out of the pocket to his right but, instead of heading out of bounds, cut inside where he was drilled by Als defensive end John Bowman. He was helped off the field and eventually carted to the Lions’ locker-room wearing an air cast.
Lulay, awarded the starter’s job after the Lions’ loss in Ottawa two weeks ago, had led the Lions to three wins in his four games while Jonathon Jennings was out with a shoulder injury. He was the CFL’s highest-rated quarterback heading into Friday night’s action.
Jennings picked up for Lulay and promptly led the Lions on an eight-play, 79-yard touchdown drive, culminating with a 28-yard TD pass to Manny Arceneaux before hitting Bryan Burnham on a two-point conversion.
In addition to completing his first 10 passes, Jennings tossed an eight-yard touchdown pass to Chris Rainey late in the second quarter, setting the stage for the game’s defining sequence.
With the clock ticking down, the Als drove into field-goal range when Rainey came off the edge and blocked Boris Bede’s field goal attempt. Anthony Gaitor scooped up the loose ball and went 73 yards for a major.
The Lions’ defence, meanwhile, didn’t allow an Alouettes touchdown until midway through the third quarter. With three new starters — linebacker Micah Awe, defensive end Ken Boatright and rookie tackle Junior Luke — the Lions held quarterback Darian Durant and company to just 68 yards in net offence in the first half.
David Menard also sacked the Als’ quarterback for a safety and Boatright recovered a Tyrell Sutton fumble late in the third quarter.
Jennings, who finished completing 22 of 29 passes for 295 yards and two touchdowns in his most productive game of the season, mounted two more touchdown drives in the second half that were both capped by Jeremiah Johnson touchdown plunges.
Arceneaux and Burnham both cracked the 100-yard mark as receivers and Johnson ran for 91 yards.
Rookie Alex Ross, who becomes the Lions’ backup, ran the offence on their last possession. The Leos are expected to bring in another quarterback this weekend.
“When (Lulay) was down, we just said, ‘We’ve got to play for (Jennings) and we’ve got to play for Lulay,” said Johnson. “We know (Lulay) is a huge part of our offence but we couldn’t let that weigh on our hearts.”
“You never know when the opportunity is going to come back for him,” Buono said of Jennings. “Jonathan was ready for this.”
That just left the questions about Lulay to resolve and none of the answers were especially positive on this night. The Montana State quarterback had come back from two devastating shoulder injuries earlier in his career and, this season, had displayed the form that made him the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player in 2011.
Lulay turns 34 later this month. He’s also a free agent at the end of this season.
“Football is a funny, funny game,” Buono said. “Injuries are accepted in the locker-room but you still have to have a tremendous amount of compassion for Travis and his family.
“It’s not just the injury. It’s the reality of everything that goes with it.”