DESTINATION: Winnipeg.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders punched their ticket to the 112th Grey Cup Game — with the Montreal Alouettes to provide the opposition on Nov. 16 at Princess Auto Stadium — by registering a 24-21 victory over the B.C. Lions in Saturday’s Western Final at a sold-out Mosaic Stadium.
Tommy Nield scored the winning touchdown with 11 seconds left in the fourth quarter, catching a three-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Harris.
“You can’t really put it into words,” Nield said. “It’s just a super-exciting moment. I’m thankful to be put in that position.
“That’s a play you dream about making. I’m just grateful to make a play for my team.”
Nield’s major capped the Roughriders’ most dramatic Western Final win since 1972, when they defeated the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers 27-24 on a last-play, 32-yard field goal by Jack Abendschan.
On that occasion, the Roughriders rallied from a 24-7 third-quarter deficit by scoring 20 unanswered points. Ron Lancaster — whose grandson, Marc Mueller, is now the Roughriders’ Offensive Co-ordinator — moved the offence 41 yards in five plays to set up the winning field goal.
George Reed rushed for 156 yards, including a late-fourth-quarter touchdown that enabled Saskatchewan to tie the game at 24-24 on Nov. 19, 1972.
Reed’s daughter, Georgette, performed the ceremonial coin flip before Saturday’s game.
The Roughriders won the toss and, three hours later, the game.
Harris was at the controls for Saturday’s climactic possession, guiding a seven-play, 76-yard drive that consumed just 52 seconds.
“It’s one people will remember for a while,” Harris said of the classic contest.
The Eastern Final also went down to the wire. Jose Maltos Diaz kicked a 45-yard field goal on the final play to give Montreal a 19-16 victory over the host Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
The Alouettes and Roughriders will now square off in a Grey Cup Game for the third time, having previously collided in 2009 and 2010.
This year’s final will be the fourth Roughriders-Montreal matchup, if you include a national final that was won in 1931 by the AAA Winged Wheelers.
Saskatchewan has reached the Grey Cup for the 20th time since the community-owned franchise’s inception as the Regina Rugby Club in 1910.
The Roughriders have not played in a Grey Cup Game since Nov. 24, 2013, when they defeated Hamilton 45-23 at historic Mosaic Stadium. Saskatchewan’s previous Grey Cup wins were in 1966, 1989 and 2007.
“We have an opportunity to go to work next week — come back together for another week,” Head Coach Corey Mace said.
“What a time. That’s important to us. We love being around each other and we have an opportunity do something that we’ve set out to do since training camp. That’s pretty cool.”
On a cool night at Mosaic Stadium, Saskatchewan’s Jesse Mirco opened the scoring with a 63-yard punt single at 3:40 of the first quarter.
The Lions got on the board when Nathan Rourke ran for a four-yard touchdown at 10:51 of the second quarter to punctuate a nine-play, 103-yard drive. Sean Whyte added the convert.
Saskatchewan concluded the first-half scoring with a 22-yard field goal by Brett Lauther on the final play of the second quarter.
Harris was 5-for-10 for 44 yards before going 5-for-5 for 50 yards on the march that set up Lauther’s first of three field goals.
At halftime, the Roughriders had as many punts (six) as first downs.
The game livened up over the final 30 minutes, with the teams amassing 465 yards of net offence after combining for 317 in the first half.
And what an ending!
“This fan base deserves it,” Harris said. “They were awesome tonight. It was really, really cold out there, but they stuck with us.
“I don’t even think they booed us in the first half — and they could have. Offensively, we didn’t perform very well, so a shout-out to our fans.”
The Roughriders reached the end zone on the first possession of the second half, marching eight plays in 64 yards — the last of which was a two-yard TD pass from Harris to Kian Schaffer-Baker on a third-down gamble.
Schaffer-Baker’s first TD of the season came at 4:45 of the third quarter. Lauther’s convert put the Roughriders ahead 11-7.
Midway through the third quarter, the Lions advanced to the Roughriders’ seven-yard line before a bobbled pass was intercepted by Marcus Sayles.
The offence then moved 66 yards in eight plays before a Lauther field goal from 34 yards expanded the Roughriders’ lead to 14-7.
B.C. tied the game at 1:53 of the fourth quarter when Whyte converted a 19-yard TD pass from Rourke to Keon Hatcher Sr.
Rourke’s second TD run of the game, from two yards, put the Lions ahead at 8:24 of the fourth quarter. Whyte added the convert to make it 21-14.
Saskatchewan responded by moving 63 yards in eight plays before stalling on the five-yard line. Lauther then kicked a 13-yard field goal with 2:42 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Saskatchewan then forced a two-and-out. Following a B.C. punt, the Roughriders scrimmaged the ball on their 36-yard line with 1:57 left.
However, the Roughriders themselves were forced to punt after back-to-back incompletions, the latter of which took place with 1:48 remaining.
Two consecutive runs — including a quarterback draw by Rourke for no gain on second-and-three — failed to move the chains, necessitating another punt.
Following the change of possession, Saskatchewan was on its 34-yard line with 1:03 left.
“I looked up at the clock and thought, ‘This is the CFL. There’s plenty of time,’ ” Harris said. “Typically, when you see an NFL game or a college game down in the States, it’s like, ‘Oooh, man. I don’t know. That’s not a lot of time,’ but there was plenty of time for us to get down there so we just meticulously drove the ball down the field.”
Harris began the possession in emphatic fashion with a 23-yard completion to Samuel Emilus. The same duo combined for 14 yards and a first down two plays later.
Another five-yarder to Emilus — who had game-high totals of nine receptions for 100 yards — was followed by a nine-yarder to A.J. Ouellette and a 21-yarder to Dohnte Meyers. The connection to Meyers moved the ball to the three-yard line with 14 seconds remaining.
Harris then found a diving Nield two yards past the goal line for the deciding score.
“It honestly wasn’t the greatest look for that play,” Nield said. “I knew it was going to be a bang-bang type of catch. He put it on the money and I’m just happy I made the play.”
After Lauther’s convert, his kickoff was returned to the Lions’ 41-yard line. With three seconds left, the Lions had enough time for one play — a frantic toss-it-around-and-punt exercise that ended when Sayles pounded on the football with time expired.
Cue pandemonium.
“We pray for moments like this,” Schaffer-Baker said. “I dreamed of this as a little kid.
“The team has been working all year towards this — one week at a time, going 1-and-0. We finished today at 1-0 and we get to go to the dance.”
EXTRA POINTS
• Ouellette became the first Roughrider to rush for 100-plus yards in a playoff game since Nov. 12, 2017, when Marcus Thigpen carried the ball 12 times for 169 yards against the host Ottawa REDBLACKS. Ouellette gained 113 yards on 17 carries.
• Ouellette’s rushing-yardage total was the 16th highest by a Roughrider in a playoff or Grey Cup game. Reed set the record of 204 vs. Calgary on Nov. 26, 1967. The legendary fullback occupies seven of the top 16 spots.
• Harris finished with 26 completions in 38 attempts for 305 yards and two touchdowns, without an interception. His quarterback-efficiency rating: 110.1. Rourke, the favourite to win the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award, was 20-for-30 for 290 yards, with one TD and one pick. Quarterback efficiency rating: 95.1.
• Harris registered the 13th-best passing-yardage total by a Roughrider in a playoff or Grey Cup game. Lancaster set the record of 492 vs. Calgary on Nov. 11, 1963, in the Little Miracle of Taylor Field.
• Emilus tied his career high for receptions (nine). His other nine-catch game was also against B.C. in the playoffs (Nov. 2, 2024). On Saturday, he registered the 32nd game of 100-plus receiving yards by a Roughrider in playoff or Grey Cup competition.
• Saturday’s nine catches put Emilus in a seven-way tie for the third-most by a Roughrider in playoff or Grey Cup competition. Schaffer-Baker had 12 catches in the 2024 Western Final versus Winnipeg. Don Narcisse made 10 receptions in the 1992 Western Final at Edmonton. Emilus has two of the seven nine-catch games.
• Jameer Thurman led the Roughriders in defensive tackles, with seven. Rolan Milligan Jr. was next in line with five. Antoine Brooks Jr., Melique Straker and Nick Wiebe shared the Roughriders’ lead in special teams tackles, with two.
• Brooks Jr., Habakkuk Baldonado and A.J. Allen had the sacks for Saskatchewan. Allen’s late-game stop of Rourke on second-and-three was the third sack. The Roughriders, by contrast, did not allow Harris to be sacked by a B.C. team that had won its previous six games.
• Saskatchewan’s Mario Alford fielded seven punts with an average of 12.4 yards per return.
