Monday, September 14, 2020

Week 4: Toronto at Sacramento

 

The Argos and Gold Miners took to the field for Week 4 action. An uncharacteristically rainy evening at Hornet Field greeted the two teams, and that would play a factor in this matchup. Roman Anderson opened the scoring for the Gold Miners with a 26 yard field goal, to put them up by three in the first quarter. Lance Chomyc, not to be outdone, scored from a measly 12 yards after Matt Dunigan got them to the red zone with a massive 59 yard pass. Matt Dunigan however would turn the ball over with an interception at the end of the quarter.

In the second quarter David Archer would give the ball back to the Argos after fumbling the ball while being sacked. Matt Dunigan would take the field and get the Boatmen to the red zone again, but would have to settle for another Chomyc field goal making the score 6-3 in favour of the Argos. Right after the kick sailed through the uprights. BOOM! Lightning. The refs halted the game and the teams went to the locker room to wait out the storm.

After the storm cleared, the game resumed and Troy Mills was fired up exiting the locker room. The first drive after the storm had him fire off a 61 yard run. A massive contribution to the drive, as Charles Miles took over in the red zone and made no mistake, as he scampered in for a touchdown making it 10-6. The Argos struggles in the red zone continued as the got close in the next drive but had to settle for another chip shot field goal from Chomyc. At the half, Gold Miners had a one point lead.

The third quarter for the Argos echoed what happened in the first half. They couldn't finish drives. Despite that, they actually took the lead with yet another chip shot field goal. 12-10 at the end of the third for the Argos. The fourth started out hot for the Miners as Malcolm Frank picked off a Matt Dunigan pass (Dunigan's fourth of the game after giving up 3 picks in the first quarter). Miners would take the ball and use the hot running game to get them into Toronto territory. The Argo defense would stop them at their forty, forcing Anderson to make a 47 yard field goal attempt. Anderson would be picture perfect and split the uprights to give the Miners a 1 point lead, 13-12.

With 3 minutes to go, The Argos would take the ball at their own 34. Manning the bilge pumps, the Argos began to show their class. Matt Dunigan would find Rocket Ismail for a big 33 yard pass. He would also find Darrell K Smith for 17 yard pass. The running game was a bit of a let down for the Argos as Michael Clemons failed time and again to establish any sort of run, and this drive was no exception to that. However, thanks to a defensive holding penalty on what would have been a stalled drive, the Boatmen were pulling together to try to get a touchdown. Then, with 40 seconds left in the game, The Argos break the Miner's blockade. “Pinball” ran it in for a touchdown! 19-13 with precious little time remaining. The Miners tried, but couldn't connect on any of their final three plays, with Rodney Harding putting an exclamation point on the final play of the game. The Argos wade out of a waterlogged Hornet Field with a 19-13 victory.

The Argos return home for their next match against the Baltimore Stallions. The Gold Miners travel to Commonwealth Stadium to dance with the 1981 version of Double E FC.



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