The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 20

B4 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN SPORTS SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2002 Renegades receiving corps adds NFL cast-off Hodge's size, tenacity, ability to get open impress as Ottawa prepares for Stampeders "7 5 covered, he is always getting open" Hodge is somewhat of a "tweener" in his own words. He isn't a pure speed or possession type. "Tenacity. I'm aggressive to the ball where some guys wait on it," the 25-year-old said when asked about his best asset. "I'm not a big possession guy or a speed-burner.

I think I'm a well-rounded guy." Hodge will be part of the chess match going on today when the Renegades confront the Calgary Stampeders for the second time in eight days. Ottawa emerged with a 14-point victory last week in Cowtown, snapping a six-game slide and sending the Grey Cup champs to the brink of playoff extinction. The rematch is expected to be a battle of adjustments. Calgary no doubt worked on stopping Renegades plays like weak-side runs by tailback Josh Ranek that proved troublesome last week. Ottawa expects different looks from the Stamps' defence, but presumes that Calgary won't make radical changes.

"We're playing the same bodies and same characteristics on the other side," said Clements, who is playing in the first home-and-home series of his career. "You can't really have the mindset that it is a totally different team They are going to make adjustments, and some of them will be unknown." By Matthew Sekeres Many National Football League cast-offs come to the Canadian Football League with the primary goal of a quick return. Not Damon Hodge. The newest Renegades receiver, despite a full season of NFL duty, has another mission in mind. "Win.

At any level of football, if you're a competitor, you want to win," Hodge said yesterday, 24 hours before his Renegades debut. "Some NFL guys come into the CFL with the misconception that they are better. I just want to win." Hodge played all 16 games in 2000 with the Dallas Cowboys. He was a receiver and a special-teams player and continued the dual role into 2001. After two games, the Alabama State product was released and Hodge was cut again by the Seattle Seahawks at training camp this year.

That brought him to Ottawa, and the Renegades practice roster, two weeks ago. Like fellow slotbacks Nigel Williams and Malcolm Johnson, Hodge is a big target. He stands 6-foot-2, some two inches shorter than Johnson and Williams, and weighs 208 pounds. Hodge's size, plus a knack for getting open, widened quarterback Chuck Clements' eyes yesterday. "He's practised really well and has very good speed like Reggie Jones," Clements said.

"He never runs to get 7 RENEGADES GAME DAY CALGARY AT OTTAWA, 1 P.M. Site: Frank Clair Stadium Radio: Team 1200 AM CJRC 1150-AM Weather: Cloudy, high 22 RENEGADES STAMPEDERS BRUCE EDWARDS, EDMONTON JOURNAL Eskimos middle linebacker A.J. Gass tackles Roughriders ballcarrier Corey Holmes during CFL action at Commonwealth Stadium yesterday. Edmonton held Holmes to six yards on two carries in the game. Eskimos chill Eiders 39 Gerald Vaughn HB 50 Steve Glenn LS 51 Cari Coulter 53 David Oe La PerralleTG 55 Chris Burns 64 Seth Dittman 67 Mike Abou-Mechtek 80 Malcolm Johnson SB 83 Damon Hodge SB 85 Jimmy Oliver WR 86 Nigel Williams SB 87 Reggie Jones WR 90 Clinton Wayne DT 91 John Frank DL 92 Michael Boireau DE 94 Tray Asbell MLB 98 Mike Moten DT 99 Jerome Haywood DT denotes Jay McNeil 51 Alondra Johnson MLB 54 David Heasman 0L 56 David Hoople LBOB 62 Bobby Singh 64 Jeff Piton 67 Jamie Crysdale 68 Freddie Childress! 74 Metvin Bradley DT 80 Rob Johnson SB 81 Kamil Loud SB 82 Don Blair WRKR 85 Brian Nugent SB 91 Duncan OiMahonyP 94 Jeff Traversy DT 95 James Cotton DE 96 Tyrone Rodgers DT 98 Antwone Young DE 99 James Burgess LB denotes 1 Kelly Wiltshire LB 2 Donnavan Carter "3 Donald Ruiz DB 5 Aubrey Cummings SB 6 Jason Kralt LB 7 John Grace LB 8 Grayson ShillingfortJ WR 9 Dan Crowley QB 10 Chuck Clements QB 16 O.T.

Sampson QB 17 Lawrence Tynes 18 Glenn Harper 20 Mark Hohra RB 22 Shawn Gallant DB 23 Alphonso Roundtree HBKR 24 Darren Joseph FB 25 Ricky Bell CB 27 Marcellous Turner RBKR 30 Josh Ranek RB 31 Vernon Mitchell CB 32 Frantz Clarkson DB I Marcus CtanMQB 2 Ibrahim Tounkara SB 3 Kelry Malveaun HB Scott Deibert FB 6 Antonio Warren RBKR 8Kamau Peterson WR 9 Aldi Henry DB II Jason Bray HB 12 GregFnjrsS 13 Marh McLoughlin 16 Darnell Kennedy QB 17 Ben SankeyQB 21 Scott Regtmbald FB 23 Raponn Adams RB 26 Anthony Malbrough DB 29 Willie Fields CB 32 Kelvin Anderson RBKR 33 DaShann Austin CBKR 35 Otis Floyd LB 36 Lawrence Deck DB 45 Michel Dupuis MLBLS Vaughn tops 1,000 yards receiving eighth season in succession (knee, nine weeks), QB Kevin Feterik (back, nine weeks). Renegades: DE Derrick Ford (ankle), HBKR George McCullough (hamstring), DBKR Donte Gamble (ribs), George Hudson (groin), FB Mike Maurer (ankle), Dan Giancola (groin), DT Pene Talamaivao (thumb), MLB Dave Thomas (knee, nine weeks), RB Darren Davis (neck, nine weeks), WR Andre Kirwan (knee, nine weeks). Odds: Stampeders by 5 (line courtesy of the Stardust Casino, Las Vegas). Next Renegades game: at Saskatchewan Roughriders, Saturday, Sept. 28, 3:00 p.m.

TV: CBC. Radio: Team 1200 AM, CJRC 1150 AM Storyline: Revenge-minded Calgary tries to prevent the expansion Rene-" gades' first two-game winning streak. Stampeders hits and misses: RB Kelvin Anderson is second in the league with 878 yards rushing. Calgary surrenders more yards per game (400.8) than any team in the league. Renegades hits and misses: RB Josh Ranek ripped the Calgary defence for 183 total yards last week.

The Renegades allow more points per game (28) than any team in the league. Who's out: Stampeders: SB Travis Moore (knee), DL Steve Anderson (knee), OL Andrew Carter (thumb) OL Lester Pope (wrist), LB Willie Fells Edmonton took its first lead of the game, 21-15. Paul McCallum added a 30-yard field goal for Saskatchewan early in the fourth before Greene found Quin-cy Jackson for an 11-yard score to bring the Roughriders to within 28-25. Greene had the ball on the Edmonton 30 with time winding down in the fourth quarter but he was sacked by Albert Reese and the Roughriders turned the ball over on downs. "I'm disappointed me ended the game on a sack.

That shouldn't happen in peewee ball," said Saskatchewan coach Danny Barrett. Greene finished 17 of 26 for 167 yards. "There is going to be games like this," said Greene, who was sacked six times. "I tried to do a little bit with my legs and they got to me." Ray, who fumbled three times in an Edmonton loss to B.C. last week, was 16 of 28 for 233 yards and two scores.

The Eskimos are 7-0 at home this season while the Roughriders fell to 1-5 on the road. Elfrid Payton had two sacks for Edmonton in the same series of the third quarter, and finished with three in the game, moved into sole possession of second place on the CFL's all-time sack list with 145. "That is the measure of success, when you can be consistent at what you are doing," said Payton. Fleming kicked field goals of 15 and 18 yards and had four singles for Edmonton. The Canadian Press CFL summary, standing: Scoreboard, B6 one of his patented flips to the delight of the crowd.

Edmonton (10-3-0-0) stopped Saskatchewan's (6-6-0-0) two-game win streak and moved seven points ahead of the second-place Roughriders in the CFL West "I just pick a hole and hit it. That's all I do," said Avery, a former first-round NFL draft pick. "We knew if we got our running game going, that would be a way to hurt them." And how. Edmonton finished with 403 yards total offence to Saskatchewan's 253. After shocking the crowd by building a 15-1 lead in the first quarter, the Roughriders didn't score in the second and third quarters and failed to maintain their momentum.

Quarterback Nealon Greene got under the skin of his former team by connecting with Derick Armstrong on a 38-yard pass to set up Chris Szarka's six-yard touchdown run, and K.D. Williams picked up a Ricky Ray fumble and rambled 19 yards for a score. But Greene, in his first game in Edmonton since being traded by the Eskimos last season, couldn't keep the offence going. On the first play of the second quarter, Avery collected a Ray pass and darted in from 31 yards and Sean Fleming added a field goal and two singles as the Eskimos closed the gap to 15-13 by halftime. An Avery dash of 32 yards in the third quarter set up Ray's one-yard score as Eskimos 31, Roughriders 25 EDMONTON Terry Vaughn says individual records are nice, but the thing he wants most is the Grey Cup.

Vaughn reached 1,000 yards-receiving for a CFL-record eighth consecutive season yesterday as the Edmonton Eskimos avenged an early-season loss to Saskatchewan with a 31-25 win at Commonwealth Stadium. Vaughn caught eight passes for 113 yards, surpassing the 1,000 mark with a 17-yard catch in the fourth quarter. Moments later, he caught an 11-yard touchdown. "Normally I don't call for the ball, but they had a few young guys out there on me and I knew I could take advantage of them," Vaughn said. "Maybe when I'm done playing it will mean a whole lot more, but right now I am focused on the Grey Cup.

"I want to win that, and that's my focus." John Avery ran for 157 yards to break the plateau and added a touchdown catch as the Eskimos both set and honoured records before a crowd of 44,480. At halftime, Henry (Gizmo) Williams became the 22nd player inducted into the Eskimos Wall of Fame. Over 11 seasons with Edmonton, the seven-time all-star totalled 23,927 combined yards. One of the greatest kick returners in league history, Williams, now 39, ran the ball into the end zone yesterday and performed Argonauts vs. Tiger-Cats Goodbye Gary, hello Pinball.

The Argonauts have finally pulled the trigger and fired head coach Gary Etcheverry as Toronto's readies for a return engagement against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Mike (Pinball) demons is back as Toronto head coach, returning to the sidelines after Gary Etcheverry was fired Tuesday. Etcheverry had dodged the bullet once already this season, reportedly receiving a stay of execution two weeks ago, following the Argonauts' victory at Ottawa. The Argos have played musical quarterbacks all season. Look for them to start Jim Ballard, released late in training camp only to be re-signed in late August.

Ballard got off to a good start in the second half last Sunday at Saskatchewan and completed his first 10 passes. Toronto's defence allowed 172 rushing yards against the Roughriders. Its special teams surrendered a staggering 248 return yards. As well, Toronto committed five turnovers. The Tiger-Cats have yet to win a road game this season, but this might be the perfect spot to end that futility streak.

Veteran quarterback Danny McManus has been inconsistent, but had a strong game last Sunday against the Alouettes, passing for 403 yards and two touchdowns, including a 35 yarder to Archie Amerson for the winning points on the first play of overtime. The Ticats' offence should be bolstered by the return of slotback Darren Flutie, who has missed the past two Hamilton games with a bruised back. Herb Zurkowsky, Montreal Gazette Gee-Gees rumble past Gryphons GentleLase Philippe Bergeron scored one touchdown on a fake field goal-attempt, Brett Robinson added another on a punt return and Kris Lajeunesse returned an interception for a TD. Daniel Mann, Chad Watson and David Azzi also scored TDs and kicker Andre Chouinard added a field goal and four converts. "Guelph was playing good on defence and we made some adjustments," said Piche.

"I'm happy with the way the guys played." Ottawa plays its next two games at home, with the York Yeomen visiting Frank Clair Stadium next Saturday and the McMaster Marauders in town Oct 5. In other games yesterday, McMaster held off the hard-charging Western Mustangs 38-37, building an early 14-0 lead only to watch it disappear in a seesaw game at London. Running back Kyle Pyear had three touchdowns and 90 yards as McMaster (4-0) took over sole possession of first in the OUA. Quarterback Jon Behie and defen sive back Kwame Aidoo also had TDs for Mac while Michel Ray kicked a field goal and five singles. Rookie Andy Fantuz, the CIS' leading receiver, made eight catches for 154 yards and three TDs for the Mustangs (3-1), who are tied with the No.

8 Gee-Gees and No. 10 Queen's for second in Ontario. Christian Heffernan made three catches, two of them for touchdowns, for 147 yards and Michael Bonk ran for 59 yards and a major for Western. Nick Spasic added a field goal and four converts. At Toronto, Tom Denison was 23 of 34 passing for 385 yards and connected on touchdowns with Brad Smith, Craig Spear and Sheldon Weekes as Queen's routed the York Yeomen 35-17.

Denison also had a touchdown run as did Bryan Crawford. J.P. Marchello was 14 of 36 passing for 283 yards in his first OUA start for York. He threw TD passes of 15 and 52 yards to Ian De Coteau. With files from The Canadian Press By Darren Desaulniers The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees improved their Canadian Interuniver-sity Sport football record to 3-1 yesterday with an impressive 43-17 road victory over the University of Guelph Gryphons.

The only blemish on Ottawa's Ontario University Athletics record is a 29-28 setback to the Queen's Golden Gaels in its second game. Knowing that he had a young team, Gee-Gees coach Denis Piche limited his expectations to the players working hard and improving from week to week. "Queen's has a really good football team and our goal was not really to beat them, but to get better every week," said Piche after yesterday's win. "We're improving every week and that's what makes me happy, not necessarily the score." Piche got a total team effort at Guelph, with the special teams, offence and defence all having a hand in the scoring..