VANCOUVER — Nathan Rourke threw for 366 yards and three touchdowns, two of them to Jevon Cottoy in the third quarter, as the BC Lions beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders 33-26 in the West Semi-Final on Saturday at BC Place.
The Lions advance to the West Final against the Edmonton Elks. It was BC's first West Semi-Final win over Saskatchewan since 2008, ending the Roughriders' run of three straight wins in the matchup, and the Lions' fifth straight home playoff win.
It was the fourth meeting of the season between the clubs. Both finished 10-8, and BC won the season series 2-1, taking both games at BC Place.
The game started badly for the Lions. Rourke's first pass went to his running back and the ball came loose, with Damarcus Fields recovering for Saskatchewan at the BC 48. The Roughriders did not move it far, but Brett Lauther hit a 55-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead. On BC's next series, Habakkuk Baldonado sacked Rourke coming completely unblocked off the edge. Saskatchewan drove again, and after Samuel Emilus could not haul in a diving attempt in the back of the end zone, Lauther made it 6-0 from 26 yards.
BC answered after Zander Horvath broke a 40-yard run. Sean Whyte's 26-yard field goal made it 6-3. Saskatchewan's next drive ended with Darnell Sankey shooting the gap to drop Emilus for a three-yard loss, and the Roughriders punted BC back to its own 12.
Lauther drilled his second 55-yard field goal early in the second quarter for a 9-3 lead. BC gambled on third and one at its own 49 and was stopped, and Saskatchewan took over. Deontai Williams dropped Emilus for a loss, but Trevor Harris hit Emilus for 23 yards to the BC 33, then found Kian Schaffer-Baker for eight, and Tommy Stevens ran it in from four yards. Emilus caught the two-point convert and Saskatchewan led 17-3.
BC needed two plays to answer. Rourke scrambled right, evaded pressure and launched it deep to Stanley Berryhill III, who had nobody within a country mile of him. The 69-yard touchdown cut the lead to 17-10.
Rourke said the smarter play was probably to throw hot against the pressure. "Probably the smarter play was just to throw hot, but at that moment I tried to just play a little bit," Rourke said. "Stanley did a really good job. He had a deep route on the opposite side of the field and was able to come all the way back for me."
"He never ceases to amaze me," head coach Buck Pierce said. "That play right there, you just look at the effort, the will that he had to get something going for the offence and get something going for the team. And it ignited the crowd. It ignited the sideline."
Saskatchewan started its next drive on its own eight after a penalty on the kickoff, but KeeSean Johnson got them out with a 34-yard catch, and another Johnson grab at the sideline reached the three-minute warning. Harris then looked for Emilus and Robert Carter Jr. made a diving interception. BC drove back the other way, helped by a 15-yard James Butler run, and a huge Saskatchewan hit on Keon Hatcher jarred the ball loose to break up another pass. On the Lions' last drive of the half, Rourke put a perfect ball on Hatcher that would have tied the game, but it was dropped. BC settled for Whyte's 48-yard field goal on the last play of the half, the ball barely clearing the crossbar to make it 17-13.
"It was a bit of a slow start. Credit where credit is due, they had a good plan for us to start," Rourke said. "We needed to talk some things over, get on the same page, but it was good to bounce back the way we did in the third quarter and be able to finish the game. We made enough plays, and our defence kept us in it."
The defence played without linebacker Parker McKenna, who was ruled out on Friday. "No limitations. Go play football," Pierce said. "I thought it was stellar."
Saskatchewan opened the second half at midfield after a good return and a facemask penalty. Harris hit Emilus for 14 yards along the sideline and Dhel Duncan-Busby twice, though a holding call wiped out one first down. Harris was sacked to stall the drive, the Roughriders challenged the play for roughing the passer and lost, and Lauther's 34-yard field goal made it 20-13.
Rourke answered on the next series, finding Cottoy with the Saskatchewan secondary nowhere to be found. Cottoy caught it on the run and went 70 yards to tie the game 20-20.
"Throughout the week we've been prepping for Sask bringing different blitz from different sides," Cottoy said. "We have a couple plays where different guys are in positions to break that blitz, and on that play it was me. I had to make sure me and Nate were on the same page, and we connected."
Duncan-Busby's 26-yard catch set up Lauther's 33-yard field goal and a 23-20 Saskatchewan lead. Rourke then hit Hatcher on the run at the sideline, and found Cottoy wide open again. Cottoy waltzed into the end zone untouched from 13 yards, and BC led 27-23 after three quarters. A 47-yard kickoff return by Sexton set Saskatchewan up near midfield, but the Roughriders punted it away.
"Relax. Slow down. Do what we've done all year," Pierce said of the message as the game turned. "Slow starts are usually just a bit of execution here or there and just not being on top of details. Refocus, go back out there and do what we do."
BC opened the fourth quarter with an 11-yard Jermaine Jackson catch, a 26-yard Rourke run and a Berryhill grab to the Saskatchewan 25. Whyte's 34-yard field goal made it 30-23 with 10:28 to play.
Saskatchewan's next drive died at midfield when a procedure call on third and short turned it into third and seven and forced a punt. BC drained the clock from there. Rourke found Hatcher in space, and Justin McInnis took a pass over the middle down to the 16, getting hit hard and holding on for a 22-yard gain. Whyte's 24-yard field goal at the three-minute mark pushed the lead to 33-23.
Harris kept Saskatchewan alive with a third-and-nine completion to Duncan-Busby to midfield, with BC Place ready to erupt. Two Schaffer-Baker catches followed, the Roughriders spiked the ball, and Lauther's 44-yard field goal cut it to 33-26 with 1:41 left.
Saskatchewan's onside kick was recovered by the Lions. Whyte missed a 49-yard field goal wide left with 38 seconds left, giving Saskatchewan one last chance from its own 22, and the Roughriders reached the BC 49 in the final seconds. With two seconds left, Harris was sacked and the game was over.
"It wasn't pretty. It was physical. It was tough. It was playoff football," Pierce said. "And just happy that we have another week to go."
For Harris, the loss ends Saskatchewan's bid to repeat as champions. "You want to win a championship every single year, of course you do," Harris said. "So when you come up short, it sucks. It hurts. You can't lie about that. And a game like this is one that'll keep you up at night. But it'll drive you for improvement and the ways to get better."
Harris, 40, said he will decide on his playing future in the coming weeks. "I don't take too long with decisions like that, but you do kind of mull over things like that," he said.
Rourke finished 21 of 32 for 366 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Cottoy caught eight passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns, and Berryhill had two catches for 78 yards and a score. Harris went 29 of 40 for 309 yards with one interception. Schaffer-Baker caught seven passes for 73 yards, and A.J. Ouellette totalled 89 yards from scrimmage. Lauther was six for six on field goals, two of them from 55 yards. BC outgained Saskatchewan 452 to 403 in net offence, while the Roughriders held the ball for 33:34. The loss leaves Harris at 3-2 in the postseason as Saskatchewan's starter. Rourke is now 3-2 in five career playoff starts.
"For me it hasn't really been a revenge type of thing," Rourke said. "These guys are in the way of where we want to go. Our goal is to be Grey Cup champions."
BC now travels to Edmonton for the West Final against the Elks on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 5:30 p.m. MT at Commonwealth Stadium. "It's going to be loud. It's going to be cold," Rourke said. "But we're excited for this one for sure."
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