VANCOUVER – Coming into Friday night, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats had won three straight games. The BC Lions tried to stop them from getting a fourth, but the Ticats came back from down double digits and claimed the 32-29 victory in overtime at BC Place.
Bo Levi Mitchell tallied 315 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, Kiondre Smith caught a touchdown and recorded 92 yards, and Greg Bell rushed for 40 yards and a touchdown.
Nathan Rourke threw for 264 yards, Jevon Cottoy led all receivers with 81 yards and William Stanback rushed for 103 yards on 15 carries.
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The Lions got on the board on their first drive of the game as they started in solid field position, as the kickoff was returned by Terry Williams for 54 yards to the Hamilton 49-yard line.
Rourke connected with Cottoy for a first down before Stanback ran 10 yards to get to the seven-yard line, and Rourke took the ball into the end zone himself as the Lions went up 7-0 early.
As the Lions continued to force two-and-outs defensively to get the ball back, Hamilton’s defence did their part to hold the Lions to as little points as possible as the secondary eliminated the deep ball.
With the offence unable to get into the end zone, Sean Whyte stole the spotlight as he made three consecutive field goals for the Lions, with distances of 26, 45 and 50 yards being successfully kicked to put the Lions up 16-0 heading into halftime.
But any opponent knows not to let Mitchell, who leads the league in passing yards with 4,044 and touchdowns with 24, get hot, and the start of the third quarter saw Mitchell’s precise passing return as he connected with Smith for 20 yards before Bell rushed in a 13-yard touchdown.
Opting to go for the two-point conversion, the Ticats had Mitchell give the ball to Tim White who connected right back with Mitchell in the end zone, cutting BC’s lead to eight to open the second half.
Once the ball was back with BC’s offence, Stanley Berryhill III made the most of his receptions as he turned on the jets for a first down before Ayden Eberhardt, who had a quiet night up until the third quarter, gained 23 yards spinning off a defender.
After another run from Stanback, as he had multiple big runs on the drive, set the Lions up on the 13-yard line, it was Rourke once again who used his legs to find the end zone from the two-yard line to get BC back to a double-digit lead.
The Ticats looked to make a statement to open the fourth quarter, but as Mitchell was sacked for an eight-yard loss and Hamilton settled for a field goal, Marc Liegghio‘s field goal attempt from 48 yards out was successful.
Getting their chance to close the gap after getting the ball back, Mitchell’s hot hand connected with Tyler Ternowski, Smith, White and Bell as he completed 18 straight passes in the game before his first incompletion of the night. After resetting, he found Steven Dunbar for 11 yards, before connecting with Smith on third down for a six-yard touchdown.
Trailing by five, the Ticats moved downfield as Mitchell connected with a 10th different receiver on the night as he found Brendan O’Leary-Orange first for 15 yards, then for a 10-yard touchdown pass to take the lead. After a successful two-point conversion to White, the Lions trailed by three with less than a minute to play.
Hatcher picked up 23 and 15 yards to put the Lions on the 12-yard line, but after being forced into third down, BC opted for the safe option of an 11-yard field goal to send the game to overtime.
The Lions were forced to settle for a field goal after their offensive drive, but the Ticats secured their victory as Ante Milanovic-Litre rushed in a one-yard game winner.
Hamilton heads home to host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Tim Hortons Field on Friday, Oct. 4 at 7:00 p.m. EDT, while the Lions will play once again in front of their home crowd at BC Place as they face off against the Calgary Stampeders at 10:00 p.m. EDT the same night.