The BC Lions needed a win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday night to keep with the pack in the tight CFL Western Division. They got that won, but made it a lot harder on themselves than it should have been, squeaking out a 19-16 victory before over 31,000 fans at BC Place stadium.

Fresh off the opening kickoff, things looked good for the BC Lions. Nine plays, starting from the 41-yard-line, and the Lions had the ball at the Saskatchewan one. Unfortunately, the Green Riders stood tall with their backs to their own end-zone, stuffing Martell Mallett on third-and-goal. The Riders strung together a ten play drive of their own to answer, but kicked the ball back to the Lions, who started moving it again, only to have a second drive result in no points when Sean Whyte’s 31-yard attempt caught nothing but upright.

The first quarter would close with the Lion defense starting to assert itself, and opening the second, Rickey Foley tallied the first sack of the evening, bring down Darian Durant for a loss of seven, and forcing another Jason Boreham punt.

Again, the Lions would drive. Ryan Grice-Mullen opened the possession with a twenty-four yard scamper, followed by Martell Mallett rushes for nine and thirteen yards. A Buck Pierce toss to Geroy Simon fell to the carpet along with a penalty flag as Omarr Morgan ran Simon over in the end zone, resulting in a first-and-goal for the Lions from the Saskatchewan one. But yet again, the goal line offense would sputter, settling for a nine-yard field goal from Whyte as a disappointing cap to the seven play, sixty-six yard drive. What could have been a 17-0 BC lead was only 3-0.

The defense would continue to perform solidly, holding the Riders to another two-and-out, giving the Lions the ball back in Saskatchewan territory after a no-yards penalty. A twenty-one yard completion from Pierce to Paris Jackson set the stage for another Whyte field goal, this one from 43 yards out.

Ryan Phillips would pick off a Durant pass on the Riders’ next play from scrimmage, but the ensuing drive would fizzle on a Whyte miss wide left from forty-five yards out, and Lions’ fans couldn’t help but wonder if the missed opportunities would come back to haunt them.

A pair of ineffective possessions would give Saskatchewan the ball back in the closing seconds of the half, and Luca Congi put the visitors on the scoreboard with a forty-nine yard boot, making the score 6-3. The half ended with a Pierce throw intended for Geroy Simon, rather than electing a fifty-yard attempt from Whyte to close the half, which had the potential to be yet another uncapitalized chance. Pierce at this point had been knocked down on eight attempts and hurried on seven more, knocking Buck Pierce to the turf repeatedly. Pierce would sustain an injury- losing the nail from the ring finger of his throwing hand, but pushed on past pain. Fans at BC Place had to be wondering which hit would be the one to send Pierce to the sidelines for Travis Lulay.

Pierce hung tough, though, playing for his career after recent criticism of his performance, and had the Lions on the march again to open the third quarter. But it was Travis Lulay, coming in on second-and short from the Riders’ thirty-eight who orchestrated a brilliant play-action fake, completing a pass to Paris Jackson for the touchdown to put the Lions ahead 13-3.

The Riders started to shift the field position in their favour, starting when Jamie Boreham successfully kicked to the coffin corner, rolling a punt across the sideline at the BC four. Pierce would take another hit and have the ball knocked loose by Stevie Baggs, but Damane Duckett came up with the recovery. An illegal contact flag would move the ball out to the BC fourteen, but only for two plays, as Baggs would register a sack on Pierce for an eight yard loss. The Lions elected to concede the safety, making the score 13-5.

On the ensuing drive, the Riders would get another Luca Congi field goal, this time from forty-seven yards out to bring the visitors to within five, and it would stay that way until about halfway through the fourth quarter, when the Lions started moving again, only to have Grice-Mullen lose the ball to Saskatchewan’s Donovan Alexander, who returned it twenty-five yards to give the Riders’ the ball in BC territory. Barron Miles would step up to thwart the threat on the next play, picking off Durant’s pass intended for Andy Fantuz and returning it seven yards to the Lions’ thirty-six. It looked as if the Lions would be able to run a little time off the clock, but after runs of twenty-one and five yards from Mallett and a Pierce keeper for another twenty, two incompletions forced the Lions to stretch the lead to eight on a twenty-five yard kick from Whyte to make the lead eight.

The Lion defence would show their only real vulnerability, as the Durant went three-for-four of his next attempts, culminating in a twenty-four yard throw Fantuz had to stretch to reel in for the touchdown to close the gap to two with under three minutes to play. On the two-point conversion attempt, sheer athleticism allowed Durant to elude the BC pass rush and connect with Gerran Walker to knot the score at sixteen with 2:33 remaining on the clock and the stage was set for the Riders to steal a game they really had no business being in.

But the Lions buckled down, clawing down the field. The game winning drive featured some hard running  from Mallett, and a key shoestring catch by Geroy Simon to keep the drive alive. A gutsy run by Buck Pierce got the Lions down close to set the stage for Sean Whyte to win the game with a thirty-three yard field goal with five seconds left on the clock.  The Riders attempted some trickery on the ensuing kick off, but an attempted on side punt down field was blocked and recovered by former Rider Anton McKenzie to seal the win for BC.

The win combined with Edmonton’s loss to Winnipeg earlier in the evening lifted the Lions to 6-7 and into a tie with the Eskimos for third place in the Western Conference, two points behind the Riders and Calgary. The effort was a gutsy one, particularly by Pierce, but fans have to wonder about the potential quarterback situation with Jarious Jackson still recovering from a shoulder injury and Casey Printers tucked away on the practice roster; especially should Pierce have to endure another pounding like the one he withstood tonight.

Quick Hits:

• The club honoured Wally Buono before the game with a video tribute, a game ball and a portrait to mark his CFL coaching record.
• Rider fans pushed attendance to over 31,000 for the game.
• Paris Jackson left the game with what was reported to be a knee injury and did not return.
• Jackson and Geroy Simon both went over 100 yards receiving, netting 114 and 134 respectively.