Montreal Alouettes 29 Hamilton Tiger-Cats 20 (July 14, 2007)
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0 commentsAnthony Calvillo threw three touchdown passes and became just the fourth player in CFL history to surpass 50,000 career passing yards as the Montreal Alouettes held on to beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 29-20 on Saturday night.
Calvillo picked a terrific time to throw his first TD strikes of the season, leading Montreal (1-2) to its first victory of the season.
Hamilton (0-3) is now the CFL's lone winless squad.
After leading Montreal to a touchdown on its opening series, Calvillo hit Kerry Watkins on a 13-yard pass over the middle - the fourth of 14 straight first-half completions. With that, the 14-year veteran joined Ron Lancaster (50,535 yards), Danny McManus (53,255 yards) and Damon Allen of the Toronto Argonauts (pro football-high 72,109 yards) in the 50,000-yard club.
When the announcement was made, Calvillo received a warm ovation from the Ivor Wynne Stadium gathering of 21,542, a nice gesture considering Calvillo was often vilified during his three-year tenure in Hamilton - the club was 18-36 with Calvillo there from '95 to '97. He joined Montreal in '98.
Saturday's attendance was significantly less than the 29,000-plus that watched Hamilton's dismal 30-5 home loss last weekend to arch-rival Toronto - maybe a sign fans are losing patience with their rebuilding club. But those present certainly saw a thrilling finish.
For the third straight game, Ticats coach Charlie Taaffe replaced starter Jason Maas with rookie Timmy Chang, an interesting development considering the Ticats only trailed 26-10. But Chang hit Brock Ralph on a 71-yard touchdown pass at 5:40 of the fourth, then guided the club on a march that ended with Nick Setta's 27-yard field goal at 9:54 to make it 26-20.
Chang and Co. had one last chance, taking possession at the Hamilton 28 with 1:33 remaining. But Montreal took over with 1:03 left after three Chang incompletions. That set up Damon Duval's 26-yard field goal at 14:11 to clinch it.
Watkins, Mike Imoh and Danny Desriveaux had Montreal's touchdowns. Duval booted the converts and a two field goals. The other points came on a safety.
Talman Gardner scored Hamilton's other touchdown. Setta had the converts and two field goals.
Montreal rode a hot Calvillo, who was 19-of-22 passing for 209 yards in the half, to a 19-10 lead.
Calvillo hit Watkins on a 27-yard strike at 2:09 of the first and a six-yard touchdown toss to Imoh 31 seconds into the second. Maas countered with a 67-yard pass to a streaking Gardner at 1:24 of the second - Hamilton's first touchdown of the season - to cut Montreal's lead to 14-7. However, Maas fumbled in the end zone on the next possession and was tackled for the safety.
After the two teams traded field goals, Maas marched Hamilton to the Montreal 40, but Setta's 47-yard field goal try on the half's final play was wide.
NOTES: Former Ticat defensive end Tim Cheatwood missed his third straight game for Montreal with a knee injury. But Thyron Anderson, a former 1,000-yard receiver with the Als, suited up for Hamilton . . . Veteran Sandy Beveridge started at safety for Hamilton after the Ticats announced this week incumbent Wayne Shaw would either be traded or released . . . Taaffe was the CFL's coach of the year in '99 and 2000 with Montreal before heading to the University of Maryland.
courtesy cfl.ca
Date
July 14, 2007
