REGINA \u2014 In a game reminiscent of their 2025 Western Final, the defending 112th Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan Roughriders struck late in a 31-27 victory over the BC Lions.<\/p>\n
Samuel Emilus was the hero in this West Division showdown as he registered three touchdowns, including one with with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
On a night where the Roughriders revealed their 112th Grey Cup banner, star quarterback Trevor Harris and the Green and White offence was firing out of the gate. Emilus was Harris\u2019 favourite receiver in the red zone, snagging two touchdowns on Saskatchewan\u2019s first two drives. The Riders\u2019 offence put points on the board in their first three drives. Emilus had six receptions for 91 yards with all three touchdown receptions.<\/p>\n
Harris spread the ball around all night as the 40-year-old showed no signs of slowing down. The 112th Grey Cup Most Valuable Player threw for 417 yards and three touchdowns leading the Riders in their quest to defend their 2025 title.<\/p>\n
Kian Schaffer-Baker was a big play machine as the Riders\u2019 receiver registered 11 catches for a game high 165 yards. KeeSean Johnson led the Riders air attack last season and was able to bring in nine receptions for 131 yards to complement Schaffer-Baker\u2019s massive night.<\/p>\n
The Lions roared back, after Saskatchewan got out to an early lead. Sean Whyte would get BC on the board as the sure-footed kicker easily converted a 25-yard field goal. After an Alex Hale answer, reigning Most Outstanding Player and Canadian, Nathan Rourke sparked the BC offence with his legs, scampering for a late first half touchdown to cut the lead to seven.<\/p>\n
Hale, in his first CFL game, would put through his second field goal of the night to restore the Riders\u2019 two possession lead. The Australian kicker would finish the night 3\/4 on field goals, and converting all three of his extra point attempts.<\/p>\n
A penalty-aided march down the field in the third saw James Butler go untouched into the end zone to cut the lead to three on a quick touchdown drive.<\/p>\n
A single for a missed field goal saw the Green and White go up by four before Whyte and Hale alternated field goals in the fourth. Butler would give the Lions the lead with just under four minutes to go as he punched in a one-yard run on third down to give BC their first lead of the night.<\/p>\n
Another heartbreak for the Lions as Harris stormed down the field and connected with Emilus for the game-winning touchdown score with 51 seconds left in the game.<\/p>\n
Justin McInnis led the Lions wideout room with eight receptions and a team leading 129 yards. Rourke aired it out for 330 yards but all the touchdowns came on the ground for the Lions\u2019 offence.<\/p>\n
Although the stats may not show a dominant run game, the Lions rushing attack generated all three of their touchdowns with Butler leading the way with two touchdowns on nine carries for 35 yards. Rourke\u2019s legs were key to get the offence going with a second quarter rushing touchdown, but his scrambling was not enough as he went for 59 yards on five carries.<\/p>\n
RELATED SCORING PLAYS<\/p>\n Trevor Harris<\/a> 11-yard touchdown pass to Samuel Emilus<\/a> (09:28, Q1) | SSK 7 BC 0 \u00a0<\/p>\n NEXT UP<\/p>\n The BC Lions head east to the Hammer to take on Bo Levi Mitchell and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Friday, June 19. In their last meeting at Hamilton Stadium, the Lions won a thriller 41-38 in overtime. Mitchell had 305 passing yards with three touchdowns while Rourke threw for 408 yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n The Saskatchewan Roughriders hit the road to Calgary to take on the Stampeders Saturday, June 20, who are coming off a bye. The last time at McMahon Stadium was a tough loss for the Riders as the Stamps scored 18 unanswered second half points to erase a one-point Roughrider lead at half to win 32-15. Both defences had great games with two takeaways each.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REGINA \u2014 In a game reminiscent of their 2025 Western Final, the defending 112th Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-737028","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\/737028","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=737028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00bb Depth Charts:\u00a0BC<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0SSK<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Game Notes: Lions at Roughriders<\/a>
\u00bb Game Tracker: BC at Saskatchewan by the numbers<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Sign up and watch CFL games on CFL+ in the U.S. and Internationally<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nTrevor Harris<\/a> four-yard touchdown pass to Samuel Emilus<\/a> (13:31, Q2) | SSK 14 BC 0
\nSean Whyte<\/a> 25-yard field goal (08:40, Q2) | SSK 14 BC 3
\nAlex Hale 35-yard field goal (05:25, Q2) | SSK 17 BC 3
\nNathan Rourke<\/a> 15-yard touchdown run (02:33, Q2) | SSK 17 BC 10
\nAlex Hale 16-yard field goal (08:56, Q3) | SSK 20 BC 10
\nJames Butler<\/a> three-yard touchdown run (07:29, Q3) | SSK 20 BC 17
\nSingle given to Alex Hale for a missed field goal (00:00, Q3) | SSK 21 BC 17
\nSean Whyte 23-yard field goal (10:59, Q4) | SSK 21 BC 20
\nAlex Hale 22-yard field goal (08:08, Q4) | SSK 24 BC 20
\nJames Butler one-yard touchdown run (03:44, Q4) | SSK 24 BC 27
\nTrevor Harris six-yard touchdown pass to Samuel Emilus (00:51, Q4) | SSK 31 BC 27<\/p>\n