STALLIONS CLINCH ON
HUERTA'S FIELD GOAL
21-yarder with :05 left
secures division title ; Pringle gets 179 yards
By Gary Lambrecht
Baltimore Sun, Oct. 8, 1995
After getting shut down by the
Saskatchewan Roughriders last week, Baltimore Stallions
running back Mike Pringle promised to deliver in
yesterday’s rematch at Memorial Stadium. Pringle,
the Canadian Football League's premier runner, meant what
he said. He rushed for 179 yards, including 161 in the
second half. And he ripped off sizable chunks of yardage
on Baltimore's final drive to put kicker Carlos Huerta in
position to kick a 21-yard field goal with five seconds
left, giving the Stallions a wild, 29-27 victory before
31,421, the largest crowd here this year.
The fans got their money's worth. They
witnesses a contest that featured five lead changes in
the final 17 minutes, including four in the fourth
quarter. They saw the Stallions open by playing their
worst half of the season. Baltimore, which committed
turnovers on its first two possessions - including a lost
fumble by Pringle - spotted the Roughriders a 17-0 lead
before rookie kick returner Chris Wright provided a spark
with an 89-yard punt return for a second-quarter
touchdown. All told, the Stallions overcame three
turnovers and 14 penalties while surviving a battle of
big plays with Saskatchewan, which gave Baltimore all it
could handle for the second week in a row.
In the final drive, the Roughriders could
not handle Pringle or the Stallions' massive offensive
line. And the Roughriders (5-10), whose playoff hopes are
fading, could not stop Baltimore (13-3) from winning its
eighth straight game to clinch the Southern Division
championship and home field advantage through the first
two rounds of the playoffs.
The Stallions head into a bye week on an
exhilarating note. Beginning tomorrow, the players will
get six days off. "I'm certainly looking forward to
it. Six days off is unheard of," quarterback Tracy
Ham said. "by no means have we wrapped anything up.
That's why you don't see any champagne in the locker
room. We understand we haven't done anything
yet."
"I'm mentally tired of the game right now,"
slotback Chris Armstrong said. "Hopefully, with the
time off, everybody will get away from the game. The good
thing is we've clinched already, and we showed our fans
we can come from behind. I'm exhausted." It was that
kind of game, especially in the second half.
The Stallions, frustrated by miscues and the
passing combination of quarterback Warren Jones
(29-for-40, 274 yards, three touchdowns) and wide
receiver Don Narcisse (13 catches, 127 yards, two
scores), needed nearly three quarters to make up its
early deficit. Wright, who had his biggest day as a pro,
started the comeback with his 89-yard punt return late in
the first half that cut the Roughriders' lead to 17-7 and
stirred the home crowd. The Stallions kept that momentum
going in the second half by scoring on their first four
possessions. The first three ended with Huerta field
goals, including a 28-yarder that pulled Baltimore to
within 17-16 with 4:09 left in the third quarter.
Baltimore then gained its first lead of the day, after
rush end Elfrid Payton sacked Jones from his blind side
and forced a fumble, which Matt Goodwin recovered at the
Saskatchewan 32. An 11-yard run by Pringle set up Ham's
on-the-run 26-yard touchdown pass to Gerald Alphin. One
play earlier, Ham had found Alphin in the end zone, but
had the play called back by an illegal procedure penalty.
On the second try, Baltimore took a 23-17 lead with 2:06
left in the quarter. That was merely a prelude for a wild
fourth quarter in which the Roughriders drew first blood
by regaining the lead, 24-23, on Jones' nine-yard
touchdown pass to Dan Farthing. That score was set up by
an unusual, 60-yard punt return by Terryl Ulmer. As Ulmer
fielded the punt, a host of Baltimore defenders stopped
to give him a mandatory, 5-yard cushion. Ulmer, from a
dead stop, bolted through a gap and down the left
sideline. Later, Wright set up a 32-yard field goal by
Huerta by returning Dan Ridgway's missed 45-yard field
goal attempt a team-record 100 yards down the right
sideline. Then, with two minutes left, Ridgway's 11-yard
field goal gave Saskatchewan a 27-26 lead. That set the
stage for the Stallions' game-winning drive.
"When I looked in the huddle, there
were no doubts in anybody's eyes and that's what I like
to see," said Ham. Starting at the Baltimore 35, Ham
hit wide receiver Shannon Culver on a slant-in route for
25 yards. Then it was time for Pringle, who had pounded
the Roughriders throughout the third quarter, to take
over. "Once we get on a roll, we're a dangerous
team," said Pringle, who carried 18 times in the
second half. Pringle carried five times for 56 yards on
the final drive, when even a holding penalty couldn't
stop the Stallions. His 18-yard sweep around the right
side moved the ball to the Roughriders' 3. Two plays
later, Ham took a knee and a 12-yard loss to set up
Huerta, who booted his fifth field goal to clinch the
divisional title.
"We may need the bye, because we were
not sharp at all in the first half," Baltimore coach
Don Matthews said. They'll come back refreshed mentally,
as well as physically. But that was entertaining
football. That's what the Canadian Football League
offers."
LITTLE CHRIS WRIGHT
COMES UP BIG AGAIN
His two long returns
help spark Stallions
By Kevin Eck
Baltimore Sun, Oct. 8, 1995
It's not often that the word big
is associated with Stallions running back Chris Wright.
That is, unless the topic is big plays, a term used by
Stallions coach Don Matthews for plays of 25 yards or
more. In that regard, there is no one bigger than the
5-foot-8, 175-pound Wright, who entered yesterday's game
against the Saskatchewan Roughriders with a team-high 26
big plays. He added two long gainers - an 89-yard punt
return for a touchdown on a bizarre play and a 100-yard
return of a missed field-goal try - in the Stallions'
29-27 victory yesterday that clinched the Southern
Division and home-field advantage throughout the
playoffs.
Wright, a rookie out of Georgia Southern,
finished with a career-high 253 return yards to increase
his all-purpose yardage for the season to 2,161. His
100-yard return was the longest play in the franchise's
two-year history. Yesterday, Wright's returns were not
only big plays, they were key ones as well. The
Stallions' offense was sputtering in the first half, as
Saskatchewan built a 17-0 lead before Wright provided a
spark before half-time.
In a play destined for the highlight reels,
Saskatchewan punter Brent Matich's kick was blocked by
Alvin Walton. After the ball bounced several yards behind
Matich, the punter retrieved the ball and managed to get
off a short kick. All the breaks had gone in the
Roughriders' favor, and this play seemed to continue the
trend. The ball took a big Saskatchewan bounce and rolled
to the Stallions' 21-yard line. But Wright picked up the
ball and headed toward the right sidelines. He nearly
stepped out of bounds while eluding two tacklers before
following his blockers down the sidelines for an 89-yard
touchdown return.
Wright's touchdown sent the Stallions into
the locker room on a positive note. The momentum carried
over into the third quarter, when the Stallions outscored
Saskatchewan 16-0 to take a 23-17 lead into the fourth
quarter. "We needed the big play; we made the big
play," Wright said. "That gave us that spark.
That's what special teams are all about."
"But I don't want to be singled out. My
teammates give me the opportunity to make plays like
that. That's why I show them my appreciation. Sometimes I
just want to pitch it to them because they get excited,
too." It didn't seem possible, but Wright went on to
top himself in the second half after again taking
advantage of a miscue by another Saskatchewan kicker.
This time it was a missed 45-yard field-goal try by Dave
Ridgway with the Roughriders leading 24-23 midway through
the fourth quarter. Wright caught the ball deep in the
Stallions' end zone. He burst through a wide gap up the
middle following the blocks of Courtney Griffin and Matt
Goodwin and hurtled Ridgway before being pulled down at
Saskatchewan's 20. That set up a 32-yard field goal by
Carlos Huerta that gave the Stallions a 26-24 lead with
6:24 remaining.
"When you're doing it, it's
instinct," Wright said of the return. "When I
look back, I'll be amazed myself."
AFTER THREE-WEEK
DROUGHT, PAYTON IS SACKING AGAIN
By Gary Lambrecht
Baltimore Sun, Oct. 8, 1995
Baltimore rush end Elfrid Payton
had been getting close, but three weeks had passed since
he sacked a quarterback, one of the things Payton lives
for. Yesterday, his two sacks of Saskatchewan's Warren
Jones during Baltimore's 29-27 victory gave Payton a
league-leading 18 for the season. On his second sack,
Payton knocked the ball loose. Matt Goodwin recovered to
set up the third-quarter touchdown that gave the
Stallions their first lead. "I had been beating my
man all day. It's just that he [Jones] was throwing it
just as I was getting there. I was hoping our coverage
would make him hold the ball for that one extra second.
It felt good to get there again....Yesterday's
outstanding performance was nothing new for Saskatchewan
receiver Donald Narcisse. It merely reinforced his
standing as one of the top wide-outs in the CFL. Narcisse
caught 13 passes, the most completions ever allowed one
receiver by Baltimore. He went over the 1,000-yard
receiving mark for the seventh consecutive season. He
also wasted no time extending his streak to 141 games in
which he has caught at least one pass. On the game's
first play from scrimmage, Narcisse caught a 4-yard
completion....Carlos Huerta, the CFL's leading scorer,
needed only one point to become Baltimore's all-time
leader. Huerta accomplished that with his convert in the
second quarter, following Chris Wright's 89-yard punt
return. Huerta then went on to make five of six field
goals. On the season, Huerta has 201 points and has
connected 50 of 63 field goal attempts (79.4 percent). On
his game-winner, Huerta said, "I was basically
trying not to get so pumped up I'd make a dumb mistake. I
just tried to relax." Huerta also credited rookie
Dan Crowley, the team's third quarterback and holder.
"He puts me at ease. He has good hands and he stays
calm," said Huerta. He hasn't held like a
rookie."...The Stallions' bye week comes at an
opportune time for cornerback Irv Smith. He dislocated
his shoulder late in the fourth quarter and could be out
for two weeks, meaning he might return for the October 21
game against British Columbia....Coach Don Matthews moved
into fourth place on the all-time CFL victory list with
his 123rd win....Gerald Alphin's touchdown was the 50th
of his career and his first of the 1995
season....Stallions nose tackle Jearld Baylis presented
owner Jim Speros with the game ball in the locker room.
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