Elks rally from 13 down in 4th quarter to beat Alouettes

Down 31-18 in the fourth quarter, the Edmonton Elks scored three late touchdowns to notch a 32-31 comeback win over the Montreal Alouettes at Percival Molson Stadium on Thursday.

The Elks took advantage of two large pass interference calls by Alouettes defensive back Wesley Sutton. Kai Locksley rushed for two touchdowns. In his first start of the year, quarterback Taylor Cornelius threw for 225 yards, one interception and clinched the win with his lone touchdown pass.

Alouettes quarterback Trevor Harris threw for 241 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Dominique Davis rushed for two touchdowns.

Sherman Badie made a five-yard rush for Edmonton’s first touchdown but Castillo missed his conversion, giving the Elks an early 6-0 lead.

WATCH | Elks rally to beat Alouettes:

Elks complete comeback win over Alouettes 56 minutes ago

Duration 0:45

Kenny Lawler’s fourth quarter touchdown completed a 32-31 comeback win for Edmonton over Montreal.

David Cote kicked a 19-yard field goal cutting Montreal’s deficit to three by the end of the first quarter.

The Alouettes scored three consecutive touchdowns in the second quarter.

Harris found Tyson Philpot with a 12-yard pass for his first CFL touchdown. He then threw a 33-yard pass to Eugene Lewis for his first TD of the season.

Marc-Antoine Dequoy made his second career interception and was stopped at the one-yard line. Dominique Davis made the one-yard QB sneak pushing Montreal’s lead to 24-6.

Castillo converted back-to-back field goals late in the second quarter to bring the score to 24-12 at halftime.

Davis added a second one-yard sneak TD in the third quarter, bringing Montreal up 31-12.

Locksley got the Elks back in the game with a two-yard rush for a touchdown to open the fourth quarter but Edmonton failed on their two-point conversion.

Locksley rushed in his second touchdown of the game with 10:55 left on the clock to bring the score to 31-25 for Montreal.

Following a 50-yard pass interference call on Sutton, his second of the fourth quarter, the Elks got to the red zone. Cornelius found Kenny Lawler with a 10-yard touchdown pass and the Elks clinched the win.

The Montreal Alouettes acquired the rights to offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif from the Calgary Stampeders on Thursday in exchange for two conditional picks.

If Duvernay-Tardif signs a deal with the Alouettes or any other CFL team, Montreal would send its next second round pick to Calgary. The Stampeders would then have the option to trade the next first round pick to the Alouettes, if it turns out to be higher than Calgary’s.

Should the Alouettes not have a first round pick the following season, this option would apply the following year.

“Laurent is a football icon in Montreal and Quebec,” Alouettes GM Danny Maciocia said in a release. “We wish him the best success with his football career moving forward, and are satisfied knowing that if he does play in Canada, he will do so in a city and a stadium that he knows very well.”

The 31-year-old Quebecer announced in June that he would be putting his NFL career on hold after being accepted into a residency program at a Montreal-area hospital.

Duvernay-Tardif played 54 games in five NFL seasons, helping the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl in the 2019 season.

He chose not to play in the NFL in 2020 and to focus on his career in medicine, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to help those who needed it most. This decision earned him Sports Illustrated’s annual Sportsman of the Year honours.

He has been an unrestricted NFL free agent since March after finishing last season with the Jets. He said he’s not retiring from football, just taking care of medical requirements needed to become a physician. The guard plans to reassess both his football interest as well as that of NFL clubs in September.

A sixth-round pick (200th overall) in the 2014 NFL Draft, Duvernay-Tardif played in eight games with the New York Jets last season.

The Stampeders claimed him in the third round (19th overall) in the 2014 CFL Draft.