Redblacks Grey Cup-bound again after beating Eskimos

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Redblacks 35, Eskimos 23

It figured that a guy from Winnipeg would play a key role in the Canadian Football League’s East Division final on Sunday.

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Second-year running back Kienan Lafrance replaced an injured Mossis Madu and slalomed across snow-covered turf for 157 yards and a touchdown to power the Ottawa Redblacks to a 35-23 victory against the Edmonton Eskimos and a berth in the Grey Cup game at Toronto next Sunday.

The Redblacks will play their second consecutive CFL championship contest, this time against the Calgary Stampeders, who downed the B.C. Lions 42-15 in the West final at McMahon Stadium.

“You’re not always going to be the man, you’re not always going to be the starter, so you have to kind of accept your role, embrace it and take advantage of it when your time comes,” said Lafrance, a sixth-round draft pick in 2015 from the University of Manitoba, who saw special-teams duty in the 2015 Grey Cup game that the Redblacks lost 26-20 to the Eskimos.

“Opportunities like this don’t come around very often, second chances,” he added, “but we have a great squad. We have a very strong defence and very strong offence. Just to have the opportunity to go back is going to be special and I think that the guys returning for it have that hunger a little bit more.”

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Lafrance didn’t do it himself, of course. Quarterback Henry Burris threw first-half touchdown passes to Greg Ellingson and Khalil Paden and the defence kept the Eskimos offence in check long enough for the Redblacks to build a substantial lead and to protect it when things got a little discombobulated in the second half of a contest better suited to snowballs.

The touchdown pass to Paden and a two-point convert on a run by Lafrance put the Redblacks up 17-3 in the first half, and the advantage grew again when Tristan Jackson raced through the heart of the Eskimos’ punt-cover team for a 75-yard touchdown in the third quarter. With another two-point convert on a pass to Patrick Lavoie, it was 25-3.

It didn’t stay that way for long, though. A long kickoff return by Shakir Bell and a spectacular 33-yard run by John White helped set up an Eskimos touchdown on a five-yard throw from Mike Reilly to Adarius Bowman. With the one-point convert by Sean Whyte, the score was 25-10.

Things then got interesting early in the fourth quarter. On second-and-short from somewhere near the Redblacks 45-yard line — with snow accumulating everywhere, it was frequently hard to tell — Burris fumbled the snap and the Eskimos’ Deon Lacey recovered.

Four plays later, the visitors were in the end zone with a touchdown catch by Chris Getzlaf. After Whyte converted, it was 25-17.

Then it happened again. Paden fumbled on the kickoff return and Alex Hoffman-Ellis recovered for the Eskimos near midfield.This time, however, the Redblacks defence stood tall, forcing a turnover on downs.

Burris was sacked on the next play, but a 42-yarder to Juron Criner got the Redblacks back in Eskimos territory and Ray Early’s punt pinned the Eskimos at their own four-yard line.

Another strong defensive series and a bad punt by the Eskimos’ Grant Shaw set the Redblacks up in prime scoring position, and Early’s 23-yard field goal extended the lead to 11 with about four minutes remaining.

These being the 2016 Redblacks, though, it still wasn’t over.The Eskimos scored again on a 57-yard pass from Reilly to a wide-open Bowman, but the two-point convert attempt failed.

After the Redblacks received the ensuing kickoff, they strung together catches by Criner and Ernest Jackson and two nifty runs by Lafrance — the last his touchdown romp of 20 yards — to put the Eskimos away for good.

“We had games like this early in the season and we let them get away,” Tristan Jackson said, “but this game meant a lot to us and we kept the focus and came out with a win.”

Defensive halfback Abdul Kanneh made reference to the Redblacks’ substandard regular-season home record — two victories and a tie in nine tries — but also noted that his team had gotten the job done when it mattered in the playoffs.

“I’m done with this game. As soon as the clock hit zero …,” said Kanneh, who had one of three pass knockdowns by Redblacks defenders. “I have been thinking about the Grey Cup since the season started, but now I can really talk about it because we’re there.

“This win is great, it’s nice, it’s a big achievement, but the big goal lies ahead of us.”

Reilly pointed out that the Eskimos had also faced the Redblacks in their last contest of 2015: The Grey Cup game at Winnipeg.

“There are eight teams that get to feel this way, there’s only one team that doesn’t,” Reilly said. “We were that team last year and we’re not that team this year.

“That’s the way it goes. What makes it that much sweeter when you do win is how sh—- it feels when you don’t.”

The Eskimos outgained the Redblacks 340-246 through the air, but the home team had a 179-66 edge in rushing and an advantage of slightly more than two minutes in time of possession.

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