Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 43

The Edmonton Journal, Monday, September 14, 1 098 D3 Football Winnipeg 36 Saskatchewan 35 Hamilton 30 Montreal 9 Tiger-Cats undisputed beasts of the East The Canadian Press Montreal A goal-line stand helped move the Hamilton Tiger-Cats into sole possession of first place in the CFL and sink the Montreal Alouettes into a hole. The Tiger-Cats stopped Tracy Ham cold on the one-yard line and then marched 109 yards to score for a 30-9 victory on Sunday afternoon in a battle between the East division's top two contenders. Hamilton, 23-21 winners at Molson Stadium on July 23, improved to 9-2, best in the CFL, while the Alouettes, now 8-3, ended a five-game winning streak. 'Any time you stop them on the one, it's a big play," said Ticats coach Ron Lancaster. "And then we went all the way down and got a touchdown." A rematch is set for next Sunday in Hamilton that could determine which club gets home-field advantage in the playoffs.

Danny McManus, Darren Flutie and Archie Amerson scored touchdowns and Paul Osbaldiston added three field goals, but the story of this game was the Hamilton defence. A standing room only crowd of 18,262 saw Ham, on third and goal from the Hamilton one late in the second quarter, opt not to pitch the ball to Mike Pringle and then fail to find a hole in theTicatlina McManus then took the Tiger-Cats 109 yards on seven plays, including a 30-yard run on a faked punt by Jarrett Smith, that culminated in a 20-yard touchdown pass to Flutie. A two-point conversion attempt failed and Hamilton, instead of being down 15-6, took a 12-8 lead into the intermission. "It was third down and that was a momentum swing," said Ham. Ham completed only six of 17 passes for 125 yards and was replaced in the fourth quarter by back-up Anthony Calvillo, whose first pass was picked off by Orlando Steinauer to set up Amerson's 13-yard TD run.

Kopp was arresting in CFL debut The Canadian Press Winnipeg With Winnipeg trailing by 18 points, backup quarterback Troy Kopp led his club to four touchdowns in the fourth quarter in his CFL debut and the Blue Bombers finally hit the win column with a remarkable 36-35 triumph over Saskatchewan Roughriders on Sunday Eric Blount's 75-yard punt return set up the go-ahead touchdown a five- yard touchdown pass from Kopp to i Dimitrious Stanley with just 21 sec-! onds left in the game and Troy West-; wood's convert put the hosts ahead. "I've never been part of a win like this in my life," said Kopp, a two-sport star at the University of the Pacific who was drafted twice by baseball's Montreal Expos. Released from the NFL San Diego Chargers' training camp, Kopp arrived in Winnipeg in mid-August and was third on the depth chart behind T. J. Rubley and Kevin Mason.

The Bombers now are 1-10 in CFL play this season, while the Roughriders fell to 3-8. "I'm ecstatic about this win," said Kopp. "I'm really happy for the guys who've been here all year who've lived through this (winless season)." Reggie Slack threw three touchdown passes and ran for two more for the Roughriders. Slack connected with Don Narcisse for a trio of TDs, coming on tosses of five, 16 and 20 yards. Slack also scored majors on runs of one and three yards.

Saskatchewan led 21-9 at the half. Kopp replaced Rubley late in the third quarter and orchestrated a 13-play, 105-yard drive for a touchdown early in the fourth. Running back Deland McCullough put on the finishing touch with a one-yard run as Winnipeg pulled within 12 points. Bob Cameron mishandled the snap on Westwood's convert try Three plays later, linebacker David y-7i fa Darren Joseph of the Roughriders fumbles in the end zone after being hit by Sunday in Winnipeg The Canadian Press Nick Ferguson of the Bombers on The Bomber defence then did its job, forcing the Roughriders to punt. Blount, the league's runaway all-purpose-yards leader, did the rest, returned the punt to the 10.

McCullough ran for five yards on first down, and then Kopp threw to Stanley for the decisive touchdown. "This is incredible," said Winnipeg safety Brad Elberg. "I've been following this league since the early 70s and I've never seen a rookie import quarterback come in and make an impact like that" Kopp completed 11 of 15 passes for 171 yards and a pair of TDs. "The kid came in and moved the ball he really gave Winnipeg the momen tum," said Saskatchewan head coach Jim Daley Narcisse "Kopp gave them a spark," said Narcisse, who led Saskatchewan with eight catches for 107 yards. "Winnipeg just kept fighting all the way to the end." Slack completed 20 of 31 passes for 281 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

Saskatchewan had 519 yards total offence, compared with 366 by Winnipeg. "I really don't have a lot to say about this one," said Winnipeg head coach Jeff Reinebold. "I want the players to do the talking. They're the ones who deserve all the creditfor this." Denver 42 Dallas 23 1 Broncos throw Cowboys 1 if 8 3 I na V-r- Maeva recovered a fumble on the Saskatchewan 35. Kopp's 20-yard run highlighted a short drive, and McCul-lough's one-yard plunge capped it Westwood added the convert and the Bombers' offence left the field to perhaps their first standing ovation of the season.

But Slack responded on the next series, racing for 44 yards on a quarterback keep and then hooking up with Narcisse from 20 yards out for the veteran receiver's third touchdown of the game to give the Roughriders a 35-23 lead. Kopp hit Kotto Cotton with a 37-yard pass with just 1:26 left, but the two-point convert didn't work. injured Brad Johnson and threw the winning touchdown pass, a 19-yarder to Cris Carter with two minutes, nine seconds remaining, in the Vikings' win over St Louis. For Carter the catch was the 765th of his career as he passed James Lofton for sixth place on the NFL's all-time list Home sweet home? After two years as the nomads of the NFL, the Houston er, Tennessee Oilers finally settled Sunday in Nashville, their hometown. The grand opening featured a sellout crowd, a fly-over by jets and Lee Greenwood singing the national anthem In fact, it had everything but a victory San Diego defeated the Oilers at Vanderbilt Stadium, where Tennessee will play until its new stadium has been completed.

The Oilers played before their first sellout crowd since November 1994 in the Astrodome. Last year, playing in Memphis, they had the NFL's lowest attendance. Green Bay's Reggie White recorded three sacks against Tampa Bay to give him for his career, extending his lead over Bruce Smith of Buffalo. Kevin Greene's two sacks against the Saints gave the Carolina star 138 for his career and moved him past RicharaTJentrntothirdplaoa I Shaughn Butts, The Journal INCOMPLETE Alan Grueber, a receiver with the Edmonton Huskies of the Prairie Junior Football Conference, just fails to get his hands on a pass after beating Regina Rams defender Corrie McKee on the play on Sunday at Clarke Stadium. Regina won the game 32-8.

Worst of a bad lot? vote goes to the Rams Aikman injured, likely sidelined several weeks The Associated Press Denver The Denver Broncos broke the Dallas Cowboys' spirit with an almost unstoppable offence. After two long scoring runs by Terrell Davis and big pass plays from John Elway, the Broncos broke the Cowboys physically, sending quarterback Troy Aikman to the sidelines for 4-8 weeks with a broken left collarbone. Davis ran for 191 yards and three touchdowns as the Broncos beat the Cowboys 42-23 Sunday Elway threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another, helping Denver (2-0) generate 515 yards of total offence Elway left the game in the fourth quarter with an injury, apparently minor, to his right hamstring. Denver scored touchdowns on its first five possessions, taking a 35-17 leadathalftima "I don't know if I've ever seen a team go five series and get five touchdowns in the first half," said Broncos coach Mike Shanahan. "It doesn't get much better than that." Added Elway, "That's the best half I've ever been involved with." As for his injury, Elway said, "The hamstring popped on ma I'll just have to wait and see.

I've always been a fast healer" Dallas first-year head coach Chan Gailey said the Broncos "did a great job of spreading us out and creating a lot of one-on-one matchups. We allowed them to break two long runs. Long runs are what will get you." After Dallas (1-1) closed to 35-23 on two field goals by itichie Cunningham, the Broncos fashioned their fifth scoring drive of at least 80 yards, capped by Davis's third touchdown, a three-yard run, with 733 left Elway departed after straining his hamstring on a handoff during the drive, and backup Bubby Brister passed 38 yards to Ed McCaffrey to set up the score. Jason Garrett also played well in Aikman's place, but on all three of his scoring drives, the Cowboys had to settle for field goals. The Cowboys lost Aikman midway through the second quarter when he scrambled for a six-yard gain, was hit by two defenders and left the field holding his left shoulder Davis had touchdown runs of 63 and 59 yards on back-to-back carries in the first half He ran for 138 yards on six The Associated Press Troy Aikman grimaces as a trainer touches his shoulder after he was injured during game against the Broncos in Denver on Sunday.

Aikman's collarbone was broken. He is likely to be out of the Cowboys' lineup for several weeks i Oakland (1-1) got an 80-yard touchdown run from Napoleon Kaufman on the first play from scrimmage, but like New York (1-1), played in fits and spurts. Both teams were plagued by one penalty after another, with Oakland flagged 16 times for 113 yards while New York had 15 penalties for 90 yards. That's major trouble," Gruden said. "We've got to take a good look at that Thafs enough for a whole season as far as Tm concerned." The Raiders and Jeff George, who was 25-of-44 for 303 yards and a touchdown, finally overcame the slew of penalties with a mistake-free, 10-play, 43-yard drive that led to Davis's winning field goal "It was a big win for us.

Those were the games in the past where we didn't come out on top," said George, who was with the Raiders for last season's 4-12finish. Kaufman said the Raiders made it harder on themselves with all the penalties. 9 (f Joe Juliano Knight Ridder Newspapers Philadelphia Wondering which team leads the race for worst in the NFL? Week two might have brought some answers. There are plenty of 0-2 teams, the Eagles among them, but our choice for now goes to the St Louis Rams. This couldn't have been what Dick Vermeil had in mind when he decided to return to coaching after 15 years.

The Rams are 0-2 and going nowhere fast Worse yet both ESPN and Fox reported during the weekend that his players are fed up with Vermeil, the former Eagles coach, and his methods. Fox host James Brown said that Rams players were "near mutiny over the NFL's longest practices, questionable play-calling and highly criticized personnel moves." But, Brown added, "Rams management is 100 per cent behind Vermeil for the entire 1998 season." The Rams almost found a ray of hope on Sunday against the Vikings. Driving to the potential game-tying touchdown, quarterback Tony Banks was tackled less than a yard from the end zone as time expired. Ex-Eagle Randall Cunningham is feeling better about himself this morning. Cunningham came on for the carries in the first quarter and had 154 yards at the half Emmitt Smith rushed for 93 yards on 20 carries for Dallas and increased his career total to 11,451 yards, moving past Buffalo's Thurman Thomas into eighth place in NFL history Raiders 20, Giants 17 Raiders coach Jon Gruden took the victory warts and all Greg Davis kicked a 26-yard field goal with 1:59 remaining, and the Raiders beat the New York Giants 20-17 in Oakland on Sunday, giving Gruden his first win in his home debut "If like having your first kid," Gruden said "It's a great feeling." On consecutive plays, the Raiders' Eric Turner sacked Danny Kanell for an 11-yard loss and then intercepted his fourth-down pass to end the final possession for the Giants.

There were too many penalties and mental mistakes killed us," Kanell said. "You can't expect to win when you tshoot yourself in the foot".