The Saskatchewan Roughriders opened the curtain on their 2026 season and on the franchise\u2019s fifth Grey Cup championship banner on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Prior to the Roughriders\u2019 down-to-the-wire 31-27 victory the B.C. Lions, three members of the 2025 Saskatchewan team \u2014 receivers Dohnte Meyers and Mitch Picton, along with long snapper Jorgen Hus \u2014 unveiled the banner before 30,168 spectators at Mosaic Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is for you,\u201d Meyers told the crowd, \u201cand this is for the province.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meyers signed with the NFL\u2019s Cincinnati Bengals after a 65-catch, 1,056-yard breakout season with Saskatchewan in 2025. Picton and Hus both retired as CFL players in May.<\/p>\n
The Roughriders then burst out of the gate, assuming a 14-0 lead on back-to-back touchdown passes from Trevor Harris to Samuel Emilus. They connected for majors of 11 and four yards.<\/p>\n
Alex Hale added his first field goal as a Roughrider \u2014 a 35-yarder \u2014 to help Saskatchewan lead 17-10 at halftime.<\/p>\n
The Lions\u2019 first-half points resulted from a 15-yard TD run by Nathan Rourke, converted by Sean Whtye, and a 25-yard field goal.<\/p>\n
Hale\u2019s 16-yard field goal at 6:06 of the third quarter increased Saskatchewan\u2019s lead to 20-10.<\/p>\n
The Lions countered with a three-yard touchdown run by James Butler, who scored midway through the third quarter. Whyte\u2019s convert reduced the Lions\u2019 deficit to three points.<\/p>\n
Hale\u2019s single on a missed 43-yard field-goal attempt gave Saskatchewan a 21-17 lead on the final play of the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Whyte\u2019s 23-yard field goal, at 4:02 of the fourth quarter, made it a one-point game in favour of Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n
Hale\u2019s 22-yard field goal, set up by a 52-yard pass from Harris to Kian Schaffer-Baker, gave the Roughriders a 24-20 lead.<\/p>\n
Butler gave B.C. its first lead of the game when he plunged one yard for a TD on third down at 11:18 of the fourth quarter. Whyte\u2019s convert put the Lions ahead 27-24.<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan responded with an 11-play, 82-yard drive that was punctuated by Emilus\u2019s third TD catch of the game. Hale\u2019s convert gave Saskatchewan a 31-27 advantage with 48 seconds left.<\/p>\n
The outcome was not decided until the final play, when Rourke\u2019s pass from Saskatchewan\u2019s 33-yard line fell incomplete.<\/p>\n
Harris was 30-for-36 for 417 yards, with a quarterback efficiency rating of 147.6,<\/p>\n
Schaffer-Baker registered regular-season career highs of 11 catches and 165 receiving yards. KeeSean Johnson added nine catches for 131 yards.<\/p>\n
Antoine Brooks Jr. was the Roughriders\u2019 leader in defensive tackles, with 12. Jameer Thurman added eight stops. Aubrey Miller Jr. paced Saskatchewan in special teams tackles (three).<\/p>\n
The Roughriders are to return to action on June 20 against the host Calgary Stampeders.<\/p>\n
EXTRA POINTS<\/p>\n
\u2022 Samuel Emilus was the first player to score the Roughriders\u2019 first two TDs in a season opener since Corey Grant at Toronto on June 19, 2003. Grant caught two TD passes from Nealon Greene late in the fourth quarter to give Saskatchewan a 20-18 victory over the host Toronto Argonauts. Emilus and Grant are among seven players who have scored the Roughriders\u2019 first two TDs in an opener.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Saskatchewan threw a touchdown pass on its first offensive possession of the season for the first time since July 7, 1983 at Montreal, where Joe (747) Adams found Ron Robinson for a 24-yard score.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Hale became the 51st Roughrider to kick a field goal and the 79th to register a point after via a placement.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rookie Roughriders defensive end Desmond Evans registered his first CFL sack. James Vaughters also had a sack for Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders opened the curtain on their 2026 season and on the franchise\u2019s fifth Grey Cup championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-735444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735444","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=735444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}