REGINA — With the way things had gone in the rest of the Canadian Football League through the first two weeks, it seemed only right that the Saskatchewan Roughriders and B.C. Lions would end up in an absolute barnburner in their season opener on Saturday night.
In a near repeat of the legendary 2025 West Final, Roughriders' quarterback Trevor Harris engineered a late-game 11-play, 82-yard drive that ended with a six-yard catch by Sam Emilus in the back of the end zone to give Saskatchewan a 31-27 victory in front of over 30,000 fans at Mosaic Stadium.
Emilus finished with six catches for 91 yards and three touchdowns, but he was actually arguably outshone by two of his contemporaries, as KeeSean Johnson hauled in nine catches for 131 yards and Kian Schaffer-Baker had one of the best games of his career, catching 11 passes for 165 yards.
Schaffer-Baker was named the Rider Broadcast Network offensive player of the game and was naturally jubilant with the opening-day victory.
“We. Are. Back. That’s all that matters” he said. “Rider Nation, they're feeling the juice, this whole locker room, we're on one right now. But you know, we're already thinking about the next game, we got Calgary next week and a new opportunity to go 1-0.”
Harris ended up with an amazing performance in his own right, completing 30-of-36 passes for 417 yards and the aforementioned three majors to Emilus. That included two surgical drives for touchdowns as Saskatchewan built a 14-0 lead on their first two possessions and the winning major with 51 seconds remaining in the game.
“In every single aspect of life physically, mentally, spiritually, he picks every single one of us up,” Schaffer-Baker said. “He's the best leader to learn from, to be honest. He goes out there, he gives it his all each and every single day. He has the mentality that he's got to go out there and feed his family and he never looks back on the opportunity. He goes out there and runs through that brick wall.”
Riders' head coach Corey Mace also had plenty of praise for offensive coordinator Marc Mueller and his offence, especially with how they started the game and kept finding ways to put points on the board.
“He dials them up, man, he's a hell of a coach,” Mace said. “I think we all understand that. We got some really good players out there executing and we can point to a handful of guys, but it's all 12 out there working in unison. You need every single person out there for one play to be successful and I thought we had many of those.”
As well as things started for Saskatchewan, Nathan Rourke is Nathan Rourke. The B.C. quarterback saw to it the game wasn’t going to be a blowout as the Lions defence stiffened in the second half.
Justin McInnis ended up as the main set-up man with eight catches for 129 yards, with Rourke finishing off a first-half drive with a touchdown and James Butler running in for two more in the second half.
All told, Rourke completed 24 passes for 330 yards while also having five carries for 59 yards, eventually leading B.C. to a 27-24 lead with 3:42 to play in the game and setting up Harris’ heroics.
Linebacker Antoine Brooks Jr. led Saskatchewan with 13 tackles on the day and talked about how he dealt with the reigning Most Outstanding Player.
“Trying to slow my feet down and keep them contained, make sure that he’s thinking twice about his decisions and try to make him take that first look,” Brooks Jr. said, adding that Rourke’s ability to extend the play and successfully move the ball when out of the pocket makes him extremely dangerous.
“That’s when we got to start locking in on what receivers are open, get out of the zone, start playing the man and stuff like that. You got to communicate, even with the fans being loud and extra, you point at each other and get it done.”
The contest marked the first chance for Roughriders' rookie kicker Alex Hale to do his stuff, and he finished three-for-four on field goals with a long of 35.
All told, it was a whale of a game for both offences, with the Riders putting up 489 yards total and the Lions 418.
The Roughriders are back in action on Saturday, June 20 when they travel to Calgary to face the Stampeders. Game time is 5 p.m. and you can catch all the action on the Rider Broadcast Network.
