Derek Mortensen/Electric Umbrella
REGINA – After a tumultuous off-season and a long two weeks of training camp, the 2016 Saskatchewan Roughriders finally took the field for their first preseason game of 2016. They entered the game with many questions to be answered and the first few would be solved tonight at Mosaic Stadium against the B.C. Lions.
The Riders began the game with B.J. Coleman at the helm of the offence and on the second play of the game, a swing pass to Rob Bagg ended up in a 55 yard run to the Lions 14-yard line. The drive was finished with a short Tyler Crapigna field goal and the early lead.
Mid-way through through the first quarter Coleman was intercepted by the Lions Devonn Coleman to set them up deep in Rider territory. The drive was snuffed out by a Shawn Lemon sack of Keith Price and B.C. had to settle for a 37 yard Richie Leone field goal to tie the game at three’s.
Brett Smith came into the game late in the fourth quarter, he put together a long drive capped with another short Crapigna field goal for the 6-3 lead.
Late in the fourth quarter, the Lions caught fire, Jonathan Jennings hit Manny Arceneaux on a long pass, deep into Rider territory. Then on the next play, Jennings connected with Shawn Gore on a 14-yard touchdown strike and after the two-point convert, the Lions led 11-6.
Late in the fourth quarter, B.J. Coleman was intercepted again, and Ronnie Yell took it back the other way 50-yards for the touchdown for the 18—6 halftime lead.
Then…the power went out. A long power outage led to an one-hour and 24-minute delay before the second half began.
After the Lions conceded a safety, and a missed Crapigna field goal to cut the lead to 9, Richie Leone hit a 42-yard field goal to stretch the lead back to 21-9.
Another Rider turnover early in the fourth quarter led to more B.C. points. A fumbled a punt that the Lions recovered on the Rider 13-yard line turned into Leone’s third field goal of the game and a 15-point lead.
The Riders pulled within eight when Brett Smith connected with CFL vet, Clarence Denmark on a 56-yard pitch and catch for the touchdown and the Lions lead was cut to 24-16.
B.C. added a late punt single and one final Leone field goal for the 28-16 victory.
The Lions will finish the preseason next Friday when they host the Calgary Stampeders and the Riders will head on the road a week from today for a Saturday night affair in Edmonton.
