Saturday night’s game between the BC Lions and the Ottawa Redblacks at BC Place stadium ended before it even began. The Lions were looking for their first home win of the season and made no mistake about it. BC put up two early touchdowns in the first quarter via an eight-yard reception by Keon Hatcher, his first CFL touchdown, and, moments later, a 38-yard catch and run made by Jevon Cottoy. Ottawa managed to get one touchdown drive put together in the first quarter after that, but it did little in the grand scheme of things. The Lions marched back down the field their very next possession and, quarterback Michael Reilly hung a 39-yard bomb down the field to the receiver, Bryan Burnham, waiting in the endzone for the score. The second quarter began the way the first quarter ended, the BC Lions getting points on the board. Less than a minute in the quarter, Lions’ receiver, Lucky Whitehead, returned a missed field goal attempt out of his own endzone all the way back for a Lions touchdown making the score 28-7 in favor of the home team. Later in the quarter, Ottawa was able to get a little bit of momentum via a converted fake punt on third down and a couple of  Lewis Ward field goals to cut the Lions’ lead down to 15. However, the Lions’ stuck again before the half, putting the game out of reach for the Redblacks. In a crazy sequence involved 3 offensive turnovers in less than a minute of game time, the Lions forced a fumble near Ottawa’s goalline, threw an interception back to Ottawa seconds later before picking off Redblacks’ quarterback, Dominique Davis, and returning the interception all the way back for a touchdown. BC went into the half up 35-13. The second half featured only 10 points total, all of which being scored by the already dominating BC Lions. Bryan Burnham made an incredible 10-yard touchdown catch and run in the third quarter before Lions’ kicker Jimmy Camacho put the finishing touches on an impressive win with a fourth-quarter field goal.

With the win, the Lions are now tied for second place in the West Division with a 3-2 record in this young CFL season. Next Saturday, the Lions will be in Montreal to take on the Alouettes before returning home on September 24th to host their division rivals, the Saskatchewan Roughriders.