By Richard Obrand,
MontrealAlouettes.com
Montreal – Hours before the Alouettes took the field for their Saturday afternoon encounter with the Edmonton Eskimos, head coach Marc Trestman hung a note in every one of his players’ lockers in the depths of Olympic Stadium.
Healthy or injured, dressed or watching on the sidelines, all of Trestman’s soldiers looked face-to-face with the words “Everything Matters.”
“He wanted to stress that everything now matters and that everything that happened in the past 18 games doesn’t,” said running back Avon Cobourne.
All injuries suffered in the past 18 weeks? Forgotten.
The two-game losing streak heading into Saturday’s East Division Final? In the past.
What mattered to them was winning on Saturday, and that’s exactly what they did.
Montreal quarterback Anthony Calvillo threw for 295 yards and one touchdown, while Jamel Richardson had six receptions for 91 yards and the major as the Alouettes won the right to play in their 16th Grey Cup, scoring 33 unanswered points en route to a 36-26 Eastern Final victory.
Down 13-3 in the second quarter after a blocked punt touchdown by Edmonton’s Justin Cooper and a pair of field goals by kicker Noel Prefontaine, it was the Alouettes’ defensive play that ultimately got Calvillo and his offence going.
After Prefontaine was forced to concede a safety to cut the Eskimo lead to eight, Calvillo walked onto the field for his next possession and drove 75-yards downfield, capping off a nine-play drive with an eight-yard touchdown pass to Richardson to bring the Als within one.
“I felt like (we) lifted the team and got us going,” said Richardson. “Our special teams were also great.”
After a two-and-out by the Eskimos, Prefontaine came out for his third punt of the game, booting the ball 39 yards into the hands of rookie kick returner Larry Taylor.
Taylor promptly returned the ball 64 yards for a touchdown to give the Als their first lead of the day.
But he wasn’t done yet.
After running back Avon Cobourne punched one in from a yard out and kicker Damon Duval connected on a 12-yard chip shot to extend Montreal’s lead to 29-13, Taylor was at it again, this time returning a punt for a playoff record 97 yards to the big house.
“Both of the (kick return touchdowns) came at the right time, they shifted a lot of the momentum our way,” said Taylor. “And it felt really great, doing it in the East Final in front of such a big crowd.”
Over 38,000 fans were on hand to watch Alouettes take on the Eskimos, a factor that Trestman felt played to his team’s advantage.
“The crowd was great. They were loud, very loud,” he said. “They were definitely the 13th man today.”
With Montreal up 36-13, and with the East Division championship within their grasp, Edmonton pivot Ricky Ray showed exactly why he already sports two Grey Cup rings.
He orchestrated a short-but-effective scoring drive, finishing it off with a 55-yard pass to receiver Kelly Campbell to cut the lead to 16.
Then with just over a minute remaining in the game Tristan Jackson returned a punt of his own for a score, cutting the lead to 10.
It was too little too late, however, and the Als became East Division Champions for the second time in three years and the sixth time this decade.
Out West, the Stampeders hosted the BC Lions at Calgary’s McMahon Stadium, winning 22-18 to earn the right to visit the Alouettes in the 96th Grey Cup this Sunday, Nov. 23 at 6 p.m. at Olympic Stadium (RDS HD, TSN HD, CKAC SPORTS, CJAD).
