Fajardo leads Roughriders to gritty 33-29 victory over Lions in season opener

REGINA — Despite an arm injury, B.C. Lions quarterback Michael Reilly threw quite a scare into the Saskatchewan Roughriders Friday night.

Reilly, who has been dealing with a sore throwing arm, didn’t start the game, instead watching from the sidelines as the Riders (1-0) stormed out to a 32-9 lead at halftime.

The Lions veteran jumped into the fray in the third quarter and almost pulled off an incredible comeback, but B.C. (0-1) ultimately dropped a 33-29 decision in the season opener for both sides. 

“I’ve been in the CFL long enough to know there’s no such thing as a safe lead,” said Riders quarterback Cody Fajardo. “You can’t take your foot off the gas pedal if you expect to win.

“I told (Reilly) that he’s a warrior. You could see that there was something wrong with his arm but he gutted it out. … It was a tremendous effort to try and will his team to a victory.”

Fajardo threw 230 yards on the night, completing 28-of-35 attempts with two touchdowns and one interception.

Rookie Nathan Rourke started at quarterback for the Lions, taking the sellout crowd of 32,975 at Regina’s Mosaic Stadium by surprise. 

Riders head coach Craig Dickenson was also caught off guard.

“I found out Rourke was starting when he came out on the field at the start,” said Dickenson. “I’ve known Michael a long time and if he’s not playing, then there’s definitely something wrong.”

The Riders blasted out of the starting gate, scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions. 

Saskatchewan opened the contest with an 11-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with a two-yard touchdown run by William Powell. Fajardo then capped the next two drives with touchdown passes of 12 yards to Brayden Lenius and seven yards to Shaq Evans to boost the Riders lead to 21-0. The TD catch was the first of Lenius’s career.

On B.C.’s ensuing possession, Rourke was picked off by Riders cornerback Nick Marshall who returned the interception for a 27-yard touchdown to give Saskatchewan a seemingly comfortable 28-0 lead. 

A 31-yard field goal by Brett Lauther with four minutes left in the half upped the cushion to 31-0.

Rourke connected with Lucky Whitehead on a 75-yard scoring pass late in the half but the B.C.’s struggles continued with a failed two-point convert attempt, putting the Riders up 31-6 heading into the locker rooms.

Reilly entered the game in the third quarter and the Lions offence suddenly came to life. He completed nine-of-11 passes for 106 yards in the quarter and slashed the Riders lead to 32-15.

Reilly ended the night with 203 yards, connecting on 17-of-24 attempts with one touch down. 

Rourke, a 23-year-old native of Victoria, B.C., tossed for 194 yards in his CFL debut. He completed 10-of-18 attempts with two TDs and two interceptions. 

Whitehead had five catches for 136 yards and one touchdown for the B.C.

Marshall was quick to give the Lions credit for the comeback but was concerned with the Riders’ defensive effort in the second half.

“I wouldn’t say that it was Reilly completely who changed the game, we just got a little bit comfortable in the second half,” he said. “We stopped doing what we were doing in the first half and it almost cost us.”

While Reilly got the Lions’ offence moving, Fajardo and the Riders struggled to match their first-half success. 

The Riders were limited to two first downs in the second half after compiling 19 in the first two quarters.

Saskatchewan was outscored 20-1 in the second half, with punter Jon Ryan adding a 77-yard single with 2:49 left in the fourth quarter.

When the Lions returned to the field, Rourke was back in the game. He engineered a six-play, 75-yard touchdown drive with an 18-yard scoring toss to Bryan Burnham. 

Rookie kicker Takeru Yamasaki missed the convert, forcing the Lions into an onside kick. 

Yamasaki became the first Japanese born player to compete in a CFL game Friday, and hit two-of-four field goal attempts in his debut.

The Lions did get the ball back deep in their end with 31 seconds left on the game clock but A.C. Leonard sealed the Riders’ victory with an interception.

With the CFL electing not to play any pre-season games this years, teams have additional challenges preparing for opponents. Asked what contributed to the second-half struggles on Friday, Fajardo pointed to a lack of advance information on the Lions as part of the problem.

“They were blitzing off the edges in the second half and we didn’t know they would do that,” he said. “With no game film to study tendencies, you have to make changes on the fly.”

Still, the atmosphere at Mosaic Stadium was electric and Fajardo admitted the crowd affected him.

“It felt great. It made life feel normal. There’s been so many changes but it felt we were back to normal,” he said. “I teared up a bit in the tunnel before we ran out onto the field but once we got out there, it was business as usual.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2021.

Jeff DeDekker, The Canadian Press