Game Summary

In what was unofficially the battle for sole possession of 3rd place in the CFL East, Toronto was defeated in front of a home crowd of 21,327 by the Ottawa Rough Riders by a score of 26-25. Ottawa started off the scoring in the first minute of the first quarter when John Kropke returned a Toronto fumble 29 yards for the TD. The Riders’ struck again in the 2nd quarter when Terry Baker banged a 15-yard field goal to make the score 10-0 in the early going. Toronto then scored their first points of the game when SB Manny Hazard and QB Reggie Slack connected on a 25-yard pass play. However, Ottawa came back and closed out the first quarter with another Baker field goal, this time from 50 yards. To open up the 2nd half, Toronto found new life and tallied 10 points on the strength of a TD reception again from the duo of Hazard and Slack, this time from 25 yards out. Lance Chomyc then fired a 15-yard FG to give Toronto 10 consecutive points. Ottawa countered with 2 FGs of its own when Baker hit for 2 consecutive 37 yarders. The Slack-Hazard connection then hooked up for a third time for a 61-yard TD bomb to make the score 25-19 with under a minute to play, and it was up to the Argonaut defence to hold the fort but unfortunately, the Riders got the better of the Argo defensive corps and hit for a 56-yard TD when Tom Burgess found Stephan Jones flying solo down the sidelines. The convert made the score 26-25 for the Ottawa Rough Riders and gave them 3rd place alone in the CFL East.