Toronto Argonauts 27 Montreal Alouettes 29 (August 1, 2007)
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0 commentsMontreal slotback Ben Cahoon stepped in for the ejected Damon Duval to kick a winning 22-yard field goal in overtime as the Alouettes completed a home-and-home sweep of the Toronto Argonauts with a wild 29-27 victory Thursday night.
Jarrett Payton, Ashlan Davis and Chip Cox scored touchdowns in regulation for the Alouettes (3-3), who won for the first time in three home games this season in front of a sellout crowd of 20,202 at Percival Molson Stadium.
Noel Prefontaine was wide right with an attempt from 42 yards in overtime, costing the Argonauts (2-4) a chance to prolong things.
Toronto kick returner Dominique Dorsey, replacing the injured Bashir Levingston, tied Levingston's league record set in the first game of the season with a 129-yard missed field goal return for a touchdown at 6:39 of the fourth quarter.
Duval and Toronto cornerback Byron Parker punched at each other during the play and both were ejected.
Obed Cetoute and Andre Durie also scored touchdowns in regulation for the Argos.
Damon Allen, making his first start since Toronto's opener, left midway through the second quarter with a tendon injury in one of his big toes. Allen, who turned 44 on Sunday, completed two out of four pass attempts for 18 yards and rushed twice for seven yards.
Rocky Butler took over and had four passes intercepted. He had three consecutive throws picked off in the second half. The first led to an Als touchdown 20 seconds before halftime, and his third was returned 66 yards by Cox for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
In addition to his overtime kicking heroics, a Cahoon catch early in the second quarter was the 707th of his career, putting him alone in eighth place on the CFL's all-time receptions list ahead of Hamilton's Rocky DiPietro.
Down 19-3 at halftime, Butler moved Toronto 65 yards on three plays on the opening drive of the second half to make it 19-10. Scrimmaging from his own 46, Butler found Derrell Mitchell with a 14-yard pass and ran for 16 yards himself before Cetoute got behind Montreal's Jesse Hendrix on a slant and scampered into the end zone for a 34-yard touchdown pass at 1:29 of the third quarter.
Butler then threw three straight passes to Alouette defenders to open the fourth quarter, with two passes picked off by Randee Drew and another by Cox, who ran it back 66 yards for a touchdown at 2:55 of the fourth to make it 26-10 for Montreal.
Duval lined up a 42-yard field goal a few minutes later that went wide and all the way to the back of the end zone, where Dorsey caught it, weaved his way out of the end zone and up the right sideline for his record-tying 129-yard touchdown at 6:39 of the fourth.
Toronto missed the two-point convert, but Prefontaine booted a 39-yard field goal at 9:01 of the fourth to bring the Argos to within a touchdown at 26-19.
Defensive end Riall Johnson's third sack of the game on Montreal quarterback Anthony Calvillo forced another Alouettes punt late in the quarter. An outstanding 40-yard catch by Arland Bruce III put Toronto at the Montreal 1, and running back Andre Durie plunged in a play later to to the game 26-26 at 13:33 of the fourth.
Montreal backup quarterback Marcus Brady - punting in place of the ejected Duval - had a chance to give the Alouettes the win with 9.7 seconds left in regulation with an attempted single. Scrimmaging from the Argos 32, Brady's punt bounced in front of the goal line and into the arms of Prefontaine, who booted it back. The ball bounced out of bounds as time expired.
Notes:
Marcus Brady, Montreal's backup QB, had to handle the punts after Duval's ejection. He booted his first two tries 47 yards. There was no return on either kick . . . Levingston missed the game with a sore back, while wideout Andre Talbot was out with a torn muscle in his thigh and QB Michael Bishop missed his third game with a broken right wrist . . . Als running back Robert Edwards - last year's CFL touchdown leader - was a healthy scratch for a second game in a row. The Alouettes lengthy injury list includes LB Tim Strickland (hamstring), C Bryan Chiu (knee), OT Luke Fritz (knee), WR Kerry Watkins (ankle), LB Kai Ellis (foot), DB Davis Sanchez (knee), RB Mike Imoh (collarbone) and FB Mike Vilimek (knee).
courtesy cfl.ca
Date
August 1, 2007
