WINNIPEG — Samuel Emilus has taken the full-circle route to the 112th Grey Cup Game.

“I grew up in Montreal and I grew up watching the Alouettes, and now I’m playing them in a Grey Cup,” the 28-year-old Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver remarked on Monday after the team arrived in Winnipeg, where the CFL’s championship game is to be played on Sunday.

“It’s truly special.”

Emilus helped the Roughriders advance to their first Grey Cup since 2013 by registering game-high totals of nine catches and 100 receiving yards in Saturday’s Western Final against the B.C. Lions.

His 23-yard reception ignited the Roughriders’ seven-play, 76-yard march for the game-winning touchdown — a three-yard pass from Trevor Harris to Tommy Nield with 11 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter at Mosaic Stadium. The home side won, 24-21.

Harris completed six passes on the decisive drive. The first three connections were with Emilus.

“Truthfully, I just love this team,” Harris said on Monday, when he and Emilus met with the media at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport.

“You love your brothers and you love each other in the locker room. I see my teammate back there — Sam Emilus — and I want to see him hoist that Grey Cup over his head.

“With what he has gone through this year with returning from his injuries and how hard he has fought and how great a football player he is, I don’t think he has gotten the respect he has deserved.”

Emilus, who has fought through foot and knee injuries, caught 37 passes for 588 yards and two touchdowns in seven regular-season games for the 2025 Roughriders.

Extrapolate those stats over a full schedule (18 regular-season games) and he produced at a 95-catch, 1,512-yard pace.

Those are the kind of numbers one would associate with, for example, S.J. Green — who, as a member of the Alouettes, became Emilus’s favourite player.

Green, a Canadian Football Hall of Famer, played in the 2010 Grey Cup and helped Montreal register its second consecutive championship-game victory over Saskatchewan.

Emilus joined Green in the CFL’s 1,000-yard club in 2023 and hit the milestone again the following year.

The hope now is to celebrate another landmark by contributing to the fifth Grey Cup win in franchise history.

“With my first Grey Cup being against (Montreal), it’s going to make the experience even better,” Emilus said.

“I’m excited for the opportunity and we’re going to make the most out of it.”