BCLions.com
VANCOUVER — The BC Lions earned just their third shutout in franchise history on Saturday night in a 22-0 win over the visiting Edmonton Elks.
The Lions’ defence was on point in this game, earning the franchise’s first shutout since 1977, holding the Elks to just 149 net yards for the whole game.
“Feels good. I didn’t think it could happen in the CFL with so many ways you can score,” said Lions cornerback Garry Peters in a sideline interview with TSN’s Farhan Lalji. Peters contributed two tackles and an interception.
“For us to do that, it’s a testament of the work we put in all week. I’m proud of the defence,” he said.
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Peters almost did even more damage in this game after coming away with an interception on the first drive of the game that was called back after a pass interference penalty.
The defence also kept Edmonton quarterback Taylor Cornelius to just 98 yards passing on 22 attempts. His longest completion of the game totalled just 16 yards.
Mathieu Betts recorded his first sack of the season in the fourth quarter and Josh Banks also added a sack to his stat sheet.
Boseko Lokombo lead the Lions with seven tackles on the night, followed by Betts who contributed four.
Four Lions players recorded forced fumbles in the game, with one of the highlights being Nathan Cherry knocking the ball loose on what would have been a first down run for Edmonton’s Kevin Brown. David Menard recovered the ball on the play, allowing the Lions’ offence to march down the field far enough to let Sean Whyte do his thing.
Whyte did just that in this game, accounting for 15 of BC’s 22 points, completing five of six field goal attempts, his longest for 51 yards.
Vernon Adams, Jr. added 319 yards passing and a touchdown to round out the Lions’ scoring.
“We know the type of team we have,” Peters told Lalji about the performance of the defence. “We’re just trying to go out there and dominate on our side of the ball.
“It’s a good feeling.”
The Lions will put their 2-0 record on the line next week against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — also 2-0 — on Thursday at IG Field to kickoff Week 3 action.
