REGINA \u2014 Touchdown Tommy Nield is going to the Grey Cup again — and this time he\u2019s taking the Saskatchewan Roughriders with him.<\/p>\n
Nield, a two-time Grey Cup winner with the Toronto Argonauts, caught a three-yard touchdown pass from Riders quarterback Trevor Harris with 11 seconds left in the fourth quarter to give Saskatchewan a 24-21 victory over the B.C. Lions in the West Division final Saturday, sending the Riders to the 2025 Grey Cup.<\/p>\n
The Riders will face the Montreal Alouettes in the Grey Cup in Winnipeg on Nov. 16. The Alouettes advanced to the championship game with a 19-16 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the East Division final earlier on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Trailing 21-17 with 1:03 left in the fourth quarter, the Riders drove 74 yards in seven plays to score the game-winning touchdown. Neild ran a quick slant route into the end zone from the left side of the formation and Harris snapped a quick pass into a tight window for the completion.<\/p>\n
Nield, who signed with the Riders in the off-season after four seasons with the Argos, was still trying to comprehend the catch after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t really put it into words. It\u2019s just a super exciting moment, thankful to be put in that position, and that\u2019s a play you dream about making, and I\u2019m just grateful to make a play for my team,\u201d said Nield.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt honestly wasn\u2019t the greatest look for that play, so I knew Trevor was going to put it into the body, a bang-bang type of catch. It was going to be like a body, bang, bang, type of catch. He put it on the money and I\u2019m just happy that I made the play.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Nield was confident he made the catch, the touchdown was reviewed by the CFL\u2019s Command Centre. After a lengthy review, the reception was confirmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I caught it the whole time. Then I\u2019m seeing the review, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Is there something they saw?\u2019 because you never know what\u2019s going to happen there. I was just sitting there waiting, making sure I didn\u2019t do all that celebrating for it to get turned over,\u201d said Nield.<\/p>\n
Nield\u2019s touchdown capped a wild finish which saw Saskatchewan head coach Corey Mace decide twice against gambling on third down in the final three minutes. The first decision came with the Lions leading 21-14 and the Riders facing a third-and-goal situation on the B.C. five-yard line. Mace chose to kick a field goal to cut the deficit to 21-17 with 2:42 remaining.<\/p>\n
Mace said it was a tough decision to take the points.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery close. I feel like last year, I probably just would have said, \u2018F it, let\u2019s do it.\u2019 But to take the points, just knowing what we\u2019re capable of doing, to be able to make sure that we\u2019re taking points rather than if we didn\u2019t get it, and then we\u2019ve got to do the same thing just to tie the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just faith in the guys. That\u2019s all it came down to. I thought about it for sure, but it was a pretty easy decision,\u201d said Mace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made aggressive decisions before for this team and it hadn\u2019t worked out for us in games prior. And while I understand (the fans\u2019 frustration), I totally get it. Just have faith. But I get it, I totally get it, but I think you still love us.\u201d<\/p>\n
What was Harris thinking about the decision?<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing. I trust Corey Mace. He knows what he\u2019s doing. As you guys all saw, I\u2019m sure that there\u2019s people at home going, \u2018What are you doing?\u2019 And now they\u2019re like, \u2018Mace is the man,\u2019\u201d said Harris.<\/p>\n
The second decision came with 1:42 left and the Riders in a third-and-10 situation on their own 36-yard line. Rather than gambling, Mace decided to punt and put his faith in his defence getting the ball back.<\/p>\n
The football gods smiled on Mace and the Riders because that\u2019s exactly what happened.<\/p>\n
The Riders forced the Lions into a two-and-out after A.J. Allen sacked quarterback Nathan Rourke on a second-and-three play. The ensuing punt gave the ball back to the Riders with 1:10 remaining. Harris knew that was enough time for a scoring drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at the clock and thought in the CFL this is plenty of time. Typically, when you see an NFL game or college game down in the United States, it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, man, no, it\u2019s not a lot of time.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHere, it\u2019s plenty of time for us to get down there so we just kind of meticulously drove the ball down the field,\u201d said Harris, who finished the game 26 of 38 passing for 305 yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n
For Rourke, B.C.\u2019s final offensive play was a missed opportunity to put the Lions in position to seal the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looked like they were heavy in the box, expecting some kind of run. I appreciated the confidence from (head coach) Buck (Pierce) for putting the ball in my hands and seeing what happens,\u201d said Rourke.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably going to be the play that I\u2019ll be thinking about the most, just wishing that I would have done something with it. Obviously, you want the ball in your hands at that time, and I just didn\u2019t make a play so that\u2019s on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rourke, who is the West Division finalist for the CFL\u2019s Most Outstanding Player, completed 20 of 30 passes for 290 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He also scored two rushing touchdowns.<\/p>\n
Defensive back T.J. Lee felt Saskatchewan\u2019s last drive just got away from the Lions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe final drive was hurry-up tempo. They caught us in a defensive package, and then they just kept running plays and hurrying up and kept completing the ball,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a veteran, I wish I would\u2019ve have done something different. I wish I could\u2019ve have took it upon myself to call a timeout or something, just to help reset things for us. But we stayed playing. We were hoping to make a play, and they made the play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Running back A.J. Ouellette had an impressive game for the Riders, who will be returning to the Grey Cup for the first time since 2013 when they defeated the Tiger-Cats 45-35. Ouellette gained 113 yards rushing on 17 carries.<\/p>\n
Kian Schaffer-Baker also had a touchdown catch for the Riders while Brett Lauther kicked three field goals.<\/p>\n
Keon Hatcher caught a 19-yard scoring pass for the Lions.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2025.<\/p>\n
Jeff DeDekker, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REGINA \u2014 Touchdown Tommy Nield is going to the Grey Cup again — and this time he\u2019s taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[712,87800,49,48,77833,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-271745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-bc-lions-sports-football-team-team-genius-sports-93775","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-saskatchewan-roughriders-sports-football-team-team-genius-sports-106752","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271745","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=271745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}