Riders punch ticket to Winnipeg, beat Stamps 33-30 in CFL West semifinal

When Brett Lauther jogged onto the field to try a 34-yard, game-winning field goal in overtime Sunday, he had no doubt in his mind what the result was going to be.

“I knew it was over at that point. I didn’t need any extra pep talk or nothing like that,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ kicker said. “I told a few guys around to keep everyone down (from me) and I’m going to end this.”

His kick came moments after Rene Paredes missed a 44-yard attempt on Calgary’s second possession of overtime.

As Lauther ran down the field celebrating the kick that won the game 33-30 for Saskatchewan over the Calgary Stampeders, he motioned to his wrist as if there was a watch on it.

“I was just letting them know what time it was. When I come out on the field at the end of the game, everyone knows what time it is,” Lauther said.

And just to add to the drama of the CFL West Division semifinal ending, there was a flag on the final play which might have had more than a few Riders fans flashing back to the 2009 Grey Cup when a special-teams penalty snatched victory from them.

Brett Lauther. (File photo courtesy of Saskatchewan Roughriders)

“After seeing the flag, I just thought there was no way it was on us,” Lauther said. “I was just hoping we didn’t have to redo it but also try and stop my heart rate for a second in case I had to go back out there.”

But the flag was on Calgary, ending the Stamps’ season and punching Saskatchewan’s ticket to the West Division final, Dec. 5 in Winnipeg against the Blue Bombers.

“It was a lot of fun out there. Right from the get-go there was a different energy and you could feel it in our locker room,” Riders head coach Craig Dickenson said.

“That’s just playoff football to a T. It’s hard to get a big lead in a game like that (and) it’s hard to pull away from somebody. That’s just playoff football and I felt like our guys just continued to play throughout the game and found a way to win it at the end and I’m proud of them.”

While the ending of the game will be something Riders fans remember for a while, the first half of the game will be something they try to forget.

Both offences struggled mightily to produce much of anything in the first half. Riders quarterback Cody Fajardo threw three interceptions — all of them to Stamps defensive back Jonathan Moxey.

“If you had told me going into this game I would have thrown four picks and we would have won, I would have told you you were psychotic,” said Fajardo, whose fourth interception came in the fourth quarter when Stamps linebacker Jameer Thurman picked him off to set up a late Calgary field goal.

“What we do best in that room is rally together. We’ve got a lot of confidence in each other and we’ve played in a lot of close games to know we had a chance.”

But the Stamps’ offence also couldn’t do too much, with quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell throwing a pair of picks to Riders defensive back Ed Gainey.

Calgary was the only team to find the end zone in the first half, when running back Ka’Deem Carey ran in from five yards out in the first quarter. Carey finished the game with 117 yards and two touchdowns.

One critical moment in the game came during the second-half kickoff. After some confusion that Dickenson blames on himself, the Riders performed an onside kick that fell into the hands of defensive end A.C. Leonard.

“We thought, ‘Let’s go ahead and start the second half with an onside kick.’ so that’s why we did it. We felt like this was a game of possessions so we tried to steal one as well,” Dickenson said.

While the offence was far from prolific, it came alive when it needed it most.

Down by four points and with 5:33 left in the fourth quarter, Fajardo engineered a 75-yard drive that saw him go 6-for-6 passing for 71 yards. The drive culminated in a one-yard touchdown run by the pivot.

“Cody finds a way to win. He feels like he can play better, he knows that, but when you need a drive late, he finds a way to move the chains,” Dickenson said. “The guy is a winner, that’s all you can say about him. He finds a way to win.”

Fajardo completed 22 of 33 pass attempts for 189 yards and a touchdown to receiver Kian Schaffer-Baker. Fajardo also added 89 yards on the ground, including a one-yard touchdown.

Mitchell finished the game with 26 completions on 36 attempts for 285 yards and no touchdowns.

Paredes went 5-for-8 on field-goal attempts.

“It looked ugly early on for me but like I said, throw the statistics out the window. That win meant a lot to me and probably the favourite win as a starter. It meant a lot to me tonight,” Fajardo said.

It also meant a lot to the franchise after the way 2018 and 2019 ended — both with home playoff losses to the Bombers.

“There’s lots of happy faces and guys really excited about advancing. It has been a while for me personally and it has been a while for some of them as well. We worked really hard,” Dickenson said. “That was our goal, to try and get to the playoffs and somehow make a run. You’ve got to win the first one to get to the second.”

“It feels great, it was an emotional roller-coaster but it was great,” said Gainey, who was on the 2018 and 2019 teams that lost at home. “Instead of us being at home, we’re going to be in a hostile environment next week. It’s always fun to rise up to the challenge and hopefully quiet the stadium a little bit.”

Winnipeg won both of the games the two clubs played this year by a combined score of 56-17. For the majority of the 2021 season, Winnipeg has been seen as the best team in the entire CFL.

“Me and my brother (Calgary head coach Dave Dickenson) were joking that the winner of this game gets to play Goliath out West and that’s who they are,” Dickenson said of the Bombers.

“They’ve been the best team all year and we’re happy to be playing them. We’re going to give them a good game and we’re going to go there to try and win.”