The B.C. Lions finally put the Hamilton
Tiger-Cats out of their misery Saturday night.
Defensive back Mark Washington returned an interception 40 yards
for a touchdown and quarterback Dave Dickenson looked sharp playing
30 minutes as the Lions defeated the Tiger-Cats 23-17 in Hamilton's
final game of the CFL season.
As planned, Dickenson played the game's second half. It was his
first appearance since being pulled from a Sept. 24 game in Regina.
He had missed the previous three games suffering from
post-concussion syndrome.
The vocal crowd of 31,294 held its breath early when Dickenson
took a couple of solid blows, then heaved a sigh of relief when he
jumped back to his feet.
With Dickenson at the helm, B.C. scored 20 unanswered points in
the third quarter. During one stretch he had nine straight
completions.
With first place wrapped up in the West the 12-5 Lions used the
game to stay sharp.
The loss ended a disastrous 4-14 season for the Tiger-Cats. They
used the game to do some auditioning for next year.
Jason Maas was left on the bench and Kevin Eakin started at
quarterback.
Eakin built a 10-3 half-time lead and threw a 14-yard touchdown
pass to Terry Vaughn. He was replaced early in the third quarter by
Ritchie Williams after throwing the interception to Washington.
Williams threw a 18-yard touchdown pass to DaVon Fowlkes late in
the fourth quarter.
Buck Pierce played the first half at quarterback for B.C. He
completed eight of 12 passes for 91 yards and threw an interception.
Joe Smith scored on a one-yard touchdown run for the Lions. Paul
McCallum kicked field goals of 20, 18 and 28 yards.
Washington's major was the eighth defensive touchdown scored by
the Lions this year.
B.C. slotback Geroy Simon made the first two catches of the game
for 20 yards, putting him over 1,750 receiving yards for the season,
breaking his own franchise record set in 2004.
The Lions dodged a couple of bullets, and blew a couple of golden
chances to put points on the board, in the first half.
After looking shaky on the first series, Eakin settled down and
began to move the team. He put together a 10-play, 84-yard drive
that ended with Vaughn getting behind the B.C. defenders in the end
zone for the half's lone touchdown.
That march was aided by an unnecessary roughing penalty against
the Lions. Later, a B.C. holding penalty would wipe out a 55-yard
touchdown pass to Simon.
Late in the half B.C. looked poised to cut into the Hamilton lead
after LaVar Glover intercepted a pass on the Tiger-Cat 39.
That opportunity was squandered when Pierce was sacked for an
eight-yard loss, then on the next play B.C. was called on a
time-count violation.
The Lions wrap up their regular season at home against Winnipeg
Saturday. B.C. then waits to play either Calgary or Saskatchewan in
the West Final on Nov. 12.
Notes: _ Simon came into the game needing 326 receiving yards
to break 2,000. ...The Lions have used two or more quarterbacks in
nine games this year. ... B.C. was 5-4 on the road this year, the
fourth consecutive year the team has had a winning record away from
home.
