HAMILTON \u2013 The Edmonton Elks took on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in CFL Week 16 action at Hamilton Stadium on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Edmonton battled the East Division leaders right to the finish, but it was ultimately the Ti-Cats who would prevail by a score of 29-27, winning\u00a0a wild back-and-forth contest that featured 10 lead changes, the last coming on the final play of the game when Marc Liegghio made a 41-yard field goal to lift the home team to victory.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a ways to make plays,\u201d Elks coach Mark Kilam said. \u201cWe\u2019re prepared when we show up here and we\u2019ve got to execute in critical situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elks quarterback Cody Fajardo was 21-for-29 passing for 280 yards with touchdown tosses to Justin Rankin and Kurleigh Gittens Jr. Vincent Blanchard made all four of his field goal attempts for the Elks, tying his CFL career high.<\/p>\n
Rankin led the Elks with 118 yards on offence, gaining 41 on the ground and 77 from a pair of receptions. Edmonton receivers Arkell Smith and Kaion Julien-Grant tied for the team-high with five receptions each.<\/p>\n
Elks linebacker Joel Dublanko had a game-high 11 tackles, and was the lone Edmonton defender to sack Hamilton pivot Bo Levi Mitchell. JJ Ross had an interception for the Green and Gold.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to make the plays at the end of the game \u2026 and unfortunately we didn\u2019t make the plays at the end of the game and that\u2019s where we\u2019ve got to take our next step as a team,\u201d Dublanko said in a post-game interview on 880 CHED. \u201cWe\u2019ve done it before but we\u2019ve got to be more consistent at at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton opened the scoring with a 45-yard field goal from Liegghio, but the Elks took the lead midway through the opening quarter when Fajardo made a short pass to Rankin who took off down field for a 72-yard touchdown. The Ti-Cats answered with a touchdown of their own, as Brendan O\u2019Leary-Orange hauled in a 12-yard touchdown pass from Mitchell, making the score 10-7 in favour of the hometown after one quarter.<\/p>\n
Quarter No. 2 opened with Blanchard hitting a 42-yard field goal to even the scoreboard at 10 points apiece. Edmonton\u2019s Jake Julien then scored a rouge Edmonton on a 59-yard punt, and the Elks went ahead by a point.<\/p>\n
The teams continued to go back-and-forth throughout the second quarter, as Leigghio hit a 34-yard field goal to put Hamilton back on top, but Edmonton answered with a 21-yard field goal from Blanchard. Then, Mitchell found Kenny Lawler in the endzone with a 15-yard pass, with just over a minute remaining before half. But that left Edmonton just enough time to drive into field goal range, where Blanchard split the uprights from 29 yards out to cut Hamilton\u2019s lead to 20-17 at the break.<\/p>\n
TOUCHDOWN ELKS!<\/p>\n
Cody \u2795 Kurleigh \ud83d\udff0 \ud83d\ude4c#CFLGameday<\/a> \u2014 CFL (@CFL) September 21, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n On the opening possession of the second half, Ross intercepted Mitchell at the Elks 49-yard line. Fajardo then then marched Edmonton into the redzone, where he connected on a 12-yard pass with Gittens Jr. for a touchdown, and the Elks went in front 24-20. Leigghio made his third field goal of the game, from 38 yards, trimming Edmonton\u2019s lead to a single point going into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n Leigghio and Blanchard exchanged field goals earlire in the fourth quarter, before Hamilton drove into Edmonton territory Leigghio broke Edmonton\u2019s hearts on the final play. It marked the second consecutive game the Elks lost on a walk-off field goal, following a 31-30 defeat against the Toronto Argonauts at BMO Field in Week 15.<\/p>\n This was the annual Hall of Fame game. The 2025 class of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame was inducted during a ceremony in Hamilton on Friday night.<\/p>\n The Elks return to Play Alberta Field at Commonwealth Stadium for their next game, against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 5 p.m. Tickets are available now<\/a>.<\/p>\n THEY SAID<\/p>\n Fajardo on how the Elks will respond in their next game:<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve responded well to every time we\u2019ve been gutted, it\u2019s just how many times are you going to get gutted before you don\u2019t get back up, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the mentality in that locker room, that\u2019s definitely not me. I\u2019m a guy who\u2019s gritty, gonna fight, toughness, I\u2019m going to get up every time, and wipe it clean from my mind after 24 hours and then start preparing for Sask. You play for a lot of pride, you play for your family, you play for the city, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do and I\u2019m going to go out there and give everybody who believes in me every right and every reason to believe in me.\u201d<\/p>\n Kilam on the Elks learning to execute in critical situations:<\/p>\n \u201cYou feel what it feels like when you\u2019re in and them you have to learn from positive and negative experiences, so that you grow as a player and grow as a defence and grow as a play-caller. You have to, otherwise it\u2019s all for not. It\u2019s a commitment to constant never-ending improvement, but in these critical times, that\u2019s when you have to learn the lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n
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