REGINA, Sask. — Brett Lauther came through when the Saskatchewan Roughriders needed him the most.
Lauther’s 39-yard field goal at 14:35 of Saturday’s fourth quarter propelled the Riders to a 27-25 CFL win over the Montreal Alouettes at Mosaic Stadium.
The kick atoned for two uncharacteristic misses — on a 33-yard field-goal attempt and another on a convert.
“I missed those kicks early, but I knew that with five,10 minutes left that I was going to kick a game-winner,” Lauther said. “It’s something that I put in my mind and I knew that I was going to do.”
Lauther has already come through in the clutch for the Riders this season, booting a 26-yard field goal with no time remaining to beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 19-17 at Mosaic Stadium on Sept. 1.
“Brett is cold-blooded and he’s been doing this the last two years that he has been here,” said Shaq Evans, whose 25-yard reception helped move the Riders into field-goal range. “Once we got into field-goal range, there wasn’t any doubt in my mind he would make the kick because he’s clutch.”
On Saturday, quarterback Cody Fajardo led the Riders on a seven-play, 54-yard drive that set up Lauther’s winning field goal. Prophetically, Fajardo had given Lauther a pep talk after the missed convert.
“I said, ‘Look, you’re going to make a huge kick for us tonight. Just wash it,’ and he did,” Fajardo said. “He made a huge kick for us. We’ve got all the confidence in the world in him and that’s why he’s on this team — because he can make big-time kicks.”
The Riders honoured the 1989 Roughriders — who won the Grey Cup when Dave Ridgway booted a 35-yard field goal to beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 43-40 — at halftime. Lauther wouldn’t have anything to do with comparing his heroics on Saturday to the 1989 feat.
“That team is amazing and Ridgway is the best kicker to ever play here,” Lauther said. “I was just trying to make that kick for the guys after letting them down earlier in the game.”
NOTES : Evans led the Riders with 79 receiving yards on three catches … William Powell, who had been limited to 60 yards on 12 carries in the Riders’ last two games, had 15 carries for 94 yards on Saturday. He scored TDs on a run and and a pass … Saskatchewan’s Jon Ryan averaged 52.7 yards on seven punts. He leads the CFL with a 50.8 average.
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