Courtesy Edmonton Journal:

That’s the Ricky Ray the fans have come to know and, just as importantly, it was the defence the paying customers have come to expect from a Richie Hall-coached team.

In the end, it amounted to a well-balanced 33-19 Edmonton Eskimos win over the previously undefeated Montreal Alouettes before 33,206 delighted fans at Commonwealth Stadium on Thursday night.

It was the second straight victory for the Esks, who improve to 3-2 and sit alone, for now, in first place in the CFL’s West Division.

The Alouettes fall to 4-1 in top spot in the East as one streak ended and a modest one seems to have begun.

Ray, making his 100th regular-season start, came alive from the second quarter on, throwing for three touchdowns and running for another from one yard out.

“I don’t know what the stats are and I really don’t care about the stats, but Ricky Ray was what we are accustomed to seeing the last few years,” Hall said of his quarterback, who completed a solid 23 of 27 passes for 363 yards and the three majors.

“I’m very happy for him, very happy for the offence. The receivers talk about their playmakers, they stepped up and made plays; our offensive line did a solid job. Who didn’t play well?” said a delighted Hall.

It was a complete effort as the Esks defence held its ground in a perfect bend-but-don’t-break scenario early on.

The Alouettes managed to open a 6-0 lead during a first quarter in which the visitors ran 21 plays to just eight for the Eskimos, who started slowly offensively yet again.

Defensively, the Esks held time and time again as Edmonton managed to grab a 12-9 lead at the break, scoring 12 unanswered points before Damon Duval kicked his third of four total field goals with 21 seconds left in the first half.

“You have to give them credit defensively, they did a great job of staying back and letting us catch the ball underneath and making the tackle, forcing us to go mistake-free,” said Anthony Calvillo, who was 28 of 34 for 236 yards, but no touchdowns.

“When our defence holds them to field goals, gets sacks and gives us good field position; it’s just everybody working together,” said Ray, who found Calvin McCarty for his fifth TD of the season on a five-yard screen play at 12:05 of the second quarter when they caught the Alouettes blitzing.

Ray also connected with Fred Stamps with a perfectly thrown ball over his left shoulder for a 28-yard touchdown strike just 3:26 into the second half to give the Esks a 19-9 lead. Four plays earlier, Ray had hit Andrew Nowacki with a similar pass, only over his right shoulder, for a 29-yard gain as the starting quarterback displayed that fine touch that was missing in the first four outings.

“It was a total team effort and that’s how you win football games, all three phases working together and we did that tonight,” said Ray, who capped the night with a second TD strike to Stamps, this time a 48-yarder with 2:38 to go in the game.

That came after the Als cut the Esks’ lead to 26-19 on a one-yard TD run by Avon Cobourne midway through the fourth quarter. The major was set up by Larry Taylor’s 39-yard punt return, which gave Montreal the ball at the Edmonton 34.

Duval then hit his fourth field goal of the game with 3:29 to go after an interception deep in Montreal territory by Jerald Brown after John Bowman hit Ray’s arm in motion. Brown took the ball to the Montreal 51.

But that’s as close as the Als got. The Esks defence was the story of

the game early as it held strong in the opening half. It was no different in the second half and included two second-half sacks by Dario Romero, just the second and third allowed by the Alouettes this season–all to Edmonton.

It came against the No. 1 offence and team in the league. Edmonton allowed 331 yards of total offence, most of it late in the game.

“That’s the key thing, that’s the difference between last week and this week and earlier in the season,” added Hall. “Today we were pretty sound from start to finish.”

GAME NOTES: The Esks’ other scoring came off a second-quarter safety touch and a 33-yard field goal by Noel Prefontaine late in the first quarter. Edmonton still hasn’t scored a TD in the opening 15 minutes of a game this season.

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