Lions pounce on Alouettes' miscues in victory

VANCOUVER — Shaun Shivers spread his arms wide as teammates hoisted him into the air after he scored his first touchdown as a B.C. Lion.

Shivers has only been in Canada for 13 days, but teammates and head coach Rick Campbell said they had full confidence the former Indiana Hoosier would make an instant impact in the Lions' offence.

"We were expecting it," said Campbell about Shivers' performance. "That's how he looked in practice. He was kind of eye-popping with some runs in practice with how quick and fast he is."

Shivers' second quarter touchdown helped the Lions (4-1) to a 35-19 win over a Montreal Alouettes team that repeatedly found ways to fumble its chances to score.

An Alouettes (2-2) blocked field goal was returned by Lions cornerback Jalon Edwards-Cooper, while a fumbled kick return set B.C. up for an eventual field goal.

"We didn't play our best, that's for damn sure," said Als head coach Jason Maas after the game. "A lot of uncharacteristic mistakes throughout the game. We've got to figure out the penalties, that was for sure an issue in this game."

B.C. quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. had faced questions heading into this game after throwing six interceptions against the Toronto Argonauts last week.

But, he went 20-for-25 throwing for 283 yards and one touchdown.

"I knew we were going to come back and do our thing," Adams said. "I wanted to start off and score. When we did go down there and score, it was 'yes, this is what we want.'"

Cody Fajardo went 24-for-38 for the Alouettes (2-2) but was sacked six times by an aggressive Lions defence.

Shivers first touchdown as a Lion came as he rushed three yards out of the shotgun formation to cap off a six-play, 45-yard scoring drive in the second quarter to extend the Lions lead to seven at the time.

"It's great. There's great talent here," he said after the game. "We are going to put up a whole lot of numbers this year."

He finished the game with 57 yards and one touchdown.

Shivers nearly had a chance to add to his tally in the fourth quarter after a 68-yard rush but was stripped of the ball on the one-ard line.

"I started relaxing. I never do that and I don't know why I did that. I'm going to have to hear it from my mom, cause I know she's waiting to call me and talk about that play

Mathieu Betts, who leads the league in sacks, added two to his tally to bring his season record to nine after repeatedly pressuring Fajardo.

The game nearly had a nightmare start for the Lions, with Adams throwing a pick six on the second play of the game only for it to be called back for illegal contact by the Als.

The quarterback rebounded to lead the first scoring drive of the game, with backup Dom Davis punching it in from the one-yard line.

"His body of work is really good here," said Campbell about Adams. "Personally, for me, I thought he took a disproportionate amount of flak last week for a guy that's done so good here."

The Alouettes have lost the last three of four games against the Lions and their all-time record at B.C. Place slipped to 9-31-1.

UP NEXT

The B.C. Lions have a bye next week before returning to host the Saskatchewan Roughriders on July 22. The Alouettes will play the Toronto Argonauts in Montreal on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2023.