Rourke still thinking big after playoff setback: ‘You want to be able to go all the way’

REGINA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders won a tense battle against the BC Lions on Saturday evening to set up a 112th Grey Cup matchup with the Montreal Alouettes.

Trailing by four in the final three minutes, the Riders got it done on both sides of the football to find a winning touchdown.

With victory within their grasp, it will be a tough result for the BC Lions to accept, a similar story to Hamilton’s loss in the Eastern Final earlier in the day. Nathan Rourke and his offence had two opportunities to get a score or at least wind down some clock after the three-minute warning but they couldn’t manage to get the better of the Riders’ defence when it mattered most.

Consecutive two-and-outs gave Trevor Harris and the Riders two chances to win the game with a touchdown. Saskatchewan punted it away with their first opportunity, but they didn’t make the same mistake with the second. Harris delivered to Tommy Nield in the end zone as Saskatchewan snatched the win.

“We just didn’t make the plays when we needed to,” Rourke told the media following the game. “We’ll certainly be thinking about those two drives all off-season.”

BC head coach Buck Pierce also shared his concern regarding how his team’s final two possessions played out.

“We’ll go back and look at that scenario,” Pierce said post-game. “That’ll be a major focus for us all to look at. Offensively, we’ve got to find ways to stay on the field there.”

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Appearing in his second Western Final after being defeated by Winnipeg at the same stage in 2022, Rourke is left searching for ways to get over the hump. Despite a season full of positives, Rourke made it clear that his goal is to get BC into the Grey Cup for the first time since 2011.

“I think at the end of the day we want to win and we feel like we came up short,” said Rourke. “I think there’s a lot of good things to take from it but ultimately you don’t start the season hoping to go to the Western Final and lose, you want to be able to go all the way. So we’re going to be thinking about that and try to figure out ways to get to the Grey Cup, where we haven’t been in a while as an organization.”