Als lose last-second heartbreaker to Lions
Football can be such a cruel game. One moment you’re riding the high of taking a late lead and the next you’re being handed a loss with no time left on the clock.
The Alouettes dropped a 21-20 decision to the B.C. Lions at Percival Molson Stadium on Saturday night in front of 21,144 people. The Als led for most of the game, and they took a two-point lead with 28 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter thanks to a Jose Maltos field goal.
Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke did just enough to get his team into field goal range with under one second left on the clock, and kicker Sean Whye made a 43-yard field goal to give the visitors the win.
“From the start, we just have to be more disciplined,” linebacker Tyrice Beverette said. “At the end of the day, we still had an opportunity to go out there and make a stop…To lose like that is a bummer, but we’ll all stick together. We’re going to learn from it.”
The offence made some strives and showed big improvements from last week’s loss in Hamilton. McLeod Bethel-Thompson looked more comfortable at quarterback, as he threw a pair of touchdown passes to Tyson Philpot and Sean Thomas Erlington, but the team still fell just short.
“We have to score more than 20 points. We have to put more points on the board,” quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson said after the game. “We were really close on a lot of shots that we took, but they didn’t quite connect. Those inches are so hard to fight for in professional football. We felt like we dominated the game, but that’s the great thing about the CFL, the last three minutes is a game in itself. We have to put them away earlier so it’s not enough close.”
The veteran finished the night 15-for-23 for 192 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, but that stat line doesn’t tell the entire story. The Als were able to draw at least five pass interference/illegal contact penalties on the Lions secondary, which isn’t calculated in Bethel-Thompson’s totals.
After the game, a brawl broke out near the Alouettes’ bench, as a B.C. player attempted to get into the Alouettes locker room. Thankfully, no one appeared to be seriously hurt, but the incident did get ugly.
“I don’t know why it happened,” defensive end Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund said of the incident.
“But there’s a guy in our locker screaming profanity and throwing punches at coaches and players. What else can you do? This is our locker room, and someone is trying to enter our locker room. That’s not going to fly.”
The return matchup will take place in B.C. on August 16th.
What’s next?
The Alouettes will head into their first of three bye weeks this season. They’ll return to the field on July 17th when they host the Toronto Argonauts.
