In a highly anticipated return to his home province, Oakville native Nathan Rourke delivered a standout performance for the B.C. Lions on Saturday at Toronto’s BMO Field

Yesterday afternoon, Aug. 23, Oakville’s Nathan Rourke trotted onto the field as the quarterback of the B.C. Lions for the first time ever at Toronto’s BMO Field.

Rourke played high school football at Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School here in Oakville, prior to going to play for Ohio University. But this game was one he looked forward to.

“It’s always cool to play close to where I grew up,” Rourke said. “Hamilton and Toronto are always games I look forward to. I have some high school teammates here today which is cool to see.”

The quarterback made his debut in Toronto, and was looking to continue his winning ways after a great performance last week against the Montreal Alouettes.

Rourke got off to a great start, leading the Lions to two touchdowns on their first two drives to go up 14-3 early.

B.C. took that lead into the second quarter until the Argos began to mount a comeback. Toronto scored11 unanswered points to tie the game, and then on the Lions next drive, Rourke threw an interception that the Argos took to the end zone making the score 21-14.

After his mistake, Rourke and the Lions marched down the field on their next drive and tied the game with a touchdown pass to Jevon Cotty to tie the game 21-21.

THAT’S HOW YOU ANSWER!

Jevon Cottoy gets his second touchdown today and we have a tied game again!#CFLGameday

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Then just before the end of the quarter, Argos quarterback Nick Arbuckle found Kevin Mital for a 15-yard touchdown giving Toronto a 28-21 lead heading into halftime.

Coming out of the half, Rourke tried to get his Lions back into the game.

B.C. drove down the field but were unable to to get to the end zone and settled for a field goal to cut their deficit to 28-24.

After cutting the deficit, Toronto marched down the field with ease to extend their lead to 35-24.

Rourke began another quick drive with for the Lions leading to a touchdown, the Lions tried to go for a two point conversion but were unsuccessful bringing the score to 35-30.

After cutting the lead once more, Argos quarterback Nick Arbuckle threw a magnificent pass down the middle for a touchdown. Extending the Argos lead to 42-30.

Rourke chipped away at the Argos lead once again with a field goal after the Argo touchdown, but Toronto came right back with another touchdown making the game’s score 49-33.

When the Lions were given the ball back after the Argos touchdown, the team couldn’t score a touchdown but recorded a single point after punting the ball through the end zone.

The Lions were able to get the ball back after their defence finally got a stop, but Rourke was stripped of the ball and the Argos recovered to give Toronto the ball back. 

That fumble put the final nail in the coffin for Rourke and his Lions.

Toronto added one more field goal to finish the game with a 52-34 score.

Rourke finished his homecoming game in Toronto with 326 passing yards and 2 touchdown passes along with an interception and fumble recovered by Toronto.

Aside from the two turnovers, Rourke played a great game that should have been enough to win against a struggling Argonauts team but the Lions defence was not able to stop Toronto when they needed it the most.

Lions Head Coach Buck Pierce praised the Toronto offence and commended Nick Arbuckle on his game.

“That’s a good offence, Arbuckle is playing at an extremely high level. I credit them first and we will continue to look at what we’re doing and go from there.”

Although not the homecoming Rourke probably wanted, he was still able to be an effective player for the Lions just as he has all season and scoring 34 points in the CFL will win you games more often than not.

Unfortunately for Rourke, Saturday was one of those games where it was not enough.