Tiger-Cats and Eskimos Get their First Wins of Season

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeated their Ontario rivals, the Toronto Argonauts, at Rogers Centre to spoil the home opener for Argos fans. The 30,822 who attended that game witnessed Jesse Lumsden rushing for 189 yards on 20 carries, of which two ended up in the Argos' goal area. QB Casey Printers also had a strong day for the Tiger-Cats that day: 16-for-23 passes for 171 yards to go along with his 8 rushes for 32 yards.

This win for the Ti-Cats was only their second win in 19 meetings with the Argos; Hamilton had lost 9 straight battle-of-Ontario games before finally getting their first win of the 2008 CFL season.

In the battle of Alberta, the Edmonton Eskimos emerged victorious as they edged past the Calgary Stampeders 34 to 31. After a 21-7 Eskimo lead at the half, Calgary stormed back, taking the lead on a Henry Burris 20-yard touchdown pass to Nikolas Lewis with 1:42 left in regulation. Although Burris threw for 330 yards in that game, the day belonged to Eskimos QB Ricky Ray. Ray finished the game with 448 yards passing, but none were bigger than his 36 yards to Jason Tucker that put Edmonton out in the lead for good.

While Hamilton gets a bye next week, the Stampeders will play at Montreal next Thursday at 7 PM EST. The Argonauts and Eskimos will both try to attain 2-1 records when they face off against each other later that day at 10 PM EST in Edmonton.