HAMILTON \u2014 Dejon Brissett added his own unique twist to the wild, often crazy Labour Day series between the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats.<\/p>\n
Brissett\u2019s 63-yard catch to Hamilton\u2019s four-yard line with one second remaining set up Lirim Hajrullahu\u2019s 11-yard field goal that gave Toronto a stunning 35-33 victory Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Brissett caught Nick Arbuckle\u2019s pass at the Ticats\u2019 35-yard line between defenders DaShaun Amos and Stavros Katsantonis and was so intent on scoring that he seemingly stepped out of bounds with no time left.<\/p>\n
Upon review, one second was put on the clock, giving Hajrullahu a shot at the game-winning boot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m thinking touchdown or nothing,\u201d Brissett said. \u201cI knew, obviously, the situation and it happened the way it was supposed to.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they called the play in the huddle I was excited because I know that ball over the middle is supposed to go to me. I knew there was no way I couldn\u2019t come down with that because of the situation we were in. I just made a play on the ball like we do every day in practice, just like we do every day in the off-season working out. It\u2019s routine.\u201d<\/p>\n
But both Arbuckle and Toronto head coach Ryan Dinwiddie were screaming at Brissett to get out of bounds much earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was convinced there was zero seconds left,\u201d Arbuckle said. \u201cI was furious on the sidelines, I still don\u2019t think I\u2019ve even really smiled since the game was over.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrissett made a huge play. I\u2019m upset he didn\u2019t step out of bounds but he also caught the ball in double coverage and if he doesn\u2019t do that then there\u2019s nothing even to (talk about).\u201d<\/p>\n
Bo Levi Mitchell\u2019s eight-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Lawler at 14:42 put Hamilton ahead 33-32 as the two-point convert was unsuccessful. Jake Herslow\u2019s 34-yard kickoff return put Toronto at its 44-yard line with 12 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was screaming \u2018Get out of bounds,\u2019\u201d Dinwiddie said. \u201cThat\u2019s a tough situation to teach going into it \u2026 it\u2019s going to be one of those teaching moments I\u2019ll be showing the clip of for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton head coach Scott Milanovich said the Ticats were well aware they still had to close out the contest following Lawler\u2019s TD.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith 18 seconds \u2026 we still had to play football,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody is going to focus on that last play (but) offensively we weren\u2019t good on second down in the first half.<\/p>\n
\u201c(On) special teams we didn\u2019t cover kickoffs very well and (defensively) obviously we gave up too many points in the fourth quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arbuckle finished 33-of-40 passing for 352 yards with three TDs. Herslow had six catches for 67 yards and two touchdowns, the fourth straight game he has scored.<\/p>\n
Toronto (4-8) earned its first win in five matchups against Hamilton (6-5) and evened the season series 1-1. The two teams meet again Oct. 4 at BMO Field.<\/p>\n
Toronto claimed just its third win in 11 Labour Day clashes at Hamilton Stadium. The Ticats still lead the series 37-16-1.<\/p>\n
Hamilton drove to the Toronto 19-yard line but Argos linebacker Wynton McManis batted down Mitchell\u2019s third-down pass with 1:28 remaining.<\/p>\n
Mitchell finished 27-of-37 passing for 405 yards with three TDs and an interception. He fell to 7-1 all-time on Labour Day but reached 250 career touchdown passes, the 12th CFL player to do so.<\/p>\n
Kiondre Smith had seven catches for 171 yards while Lawler recorded nine receptions for 123 yards and two TDs.<\/p>\n
Hamilton suffered a third straight loss but remains atop the East Division, two points ahead of idle Montreal (5-6).<\/p>\n
Toronto heads into a bye week standing third in the East Division.<\/p>\n
Mitchell put the Ticats ahead 27-18 with a 23-yard TD pass to Shemar Bridges just 1:58 into the fourth. That prompted the sun-drenched gathering of 25,619, the largest crowd at Hamilton Stadium outside of a Grey Cup game, to finally begin its \u201cArgos suck,\u201d chant.<\/p>\n
But Arbuckle\u2019s three-yard touchdown pass to Makai Polk at 7:38 pulled Toronto to within 27-25.<\/p>\n
Rookie linebacker Devin Veresuk also had a TD for Hamilton. Marc Liegghio kicked two field goals and three converts.<\/p>\n
Hajrullahu booted three field goals, four converts and a single while John Haggerty added a single.<\/p>\n
Mitchell found Lawler on an 18-yard touchdown pass at 6:37 of the third to give Hamilton a 20-15 lead. Hajrullahu\u2019s 43-yard boot at 11:33 cut Toronto\u2019s deficit to 20-18.<\/p>\n
Veresuk\u2019s recovery of a blocked punt in the end zone at 12:25 of the second cut Toronto\u2019s halftime lead to 15-13. Receiver Tyler Ternowski came in untouched on Haggerty and got his right arm on the kick.<\/p>\n
Hamilton got one final possession when offensive lineman Liam Dobson knocked the ball out of bounds on Tarvarus McFadden\u2019s fumble during an interception return. But the Ticats ran out the clock on a rather sloppy opening half that featured three turnovers and the two teams combining to convert just seven-of-19 second-down opportunities.<\/p>\n
Arbuckle put Toronto ahead 14-6 at 8:52 with a 27-yard TD strike to Herslow. Hajrullahu added a 100-yard kickoff single.<\/p>\n
Liegghio made a 13-yard field goal at 3:46 before Haggerty\u2019s 71-yard single at 5:08 put Toronto head 7-6.<\/p>\n
Hajrullahu gave Toronto a 6-3 lead with a 24-yard field goal to end the first. It came after Arbuckle\u2019s 10-yard TD pass to Brissett was nullified by a holding penalty.<\/p>\n
Hajrullahu\u2019s 16-yard field goal at 6:05 opened the scoring before Liegghio countered with a 36-yard boot at 8:42.<\/p>\n
UP NEXT<\/p>\n
Argonauts: Host the Edmonton Elks on Saturday, Sept. 13.<\/p>\n
Tiger-Cats: Visit the Montreal Alouettes on Saturday.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAMILTON \u2014 Dejon Brissett added his own unique twist to the wild, often crazy Labour Day series between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-113706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}