The Canadian Press
EDMONTON — The Hamilton Tiger-Cats came into the second half determined to win their second consecutive game.
The Tabbies went on a run in the third quarter to score 24 unanswered points in the 37-29 win over the Edmonton Elks on Thursday.
A big part of that run was a pick six by Stavros Katsantonis, who scooped up an attempt to throw the ball away by quarterback Taylor Cornelius to score a momentum-affirming touchdown.
Instead of accepting all the praise for himself, the defensive back deferred to teammate Ja’Gared Davis for forcing Cornelius to scramble to avoid being sacked.
“Huge shout out to Ja’Gared,” said Katsantonis to TSN’s Ryan Rishaug. “Rushing the quarterback to throw the ball and he threw right in my hands.”
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Cornelius and the Elks took a 13-10 lead early in the second half before the ‘Cats went on a 24-0 run that included a rushing touchdown by quarterback Matthew Shiltz, a touchdown pass by backup Taylor Powell and a field goal by kicker Marc Liegghio to go along Katsantonis’ score.
It was Powell’s first CFL touchdown after coming into the game in place of Shiltz who left the game with an injury in the third quarter.
The run gave the visitors a chance to control the lead in the fourth quarter, as Edmonton scored a couple of times late with backup quarterback Jarret Doege.
If you watched only the third quarter of Thursday’s game, you wouldn’t say this was a Hamilton team that started the season 0-3. Not that Katsantonis cares.
“We’re not going to back down from anything. We’re not worried if we’re 0-3 or 0-4, we’ve had tough starts to the season that we rallied. We’re just taking everything week by week and building it from there.”
The Ticats are going to try to make it three in a row as they return home in Week 7 to host the Toronto Argonauts on Friday, July 21.
