Lirim Hajrullahu’s game-winning rouge with time expiring on the clock pushed the Toronto Argonauts past the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a narrow 20-19 victory on Thursday night. at BMO Field. 

After Janarion Grant produced a 12-yard punt return off Saskatchewan’s Aaron Korsak’s attempt, Ka’Deem Carey rushed for four yards, leaving the Argonauts at the 33. The stage was set for Hajrullahu for the 40-yard field goal attempt.

The fifth year veteran sent the ball sailing just inches left of the uprights with zeros on the clock, but the miss traveled through the back of the end zone and off the bleachers for a single-point rouge. That broke the 19-19 deadlock and handed Toronto its sixth win of the Canadian Football League campaign. 

It wasn’t quite the vision the kicker had in mind for the victory, but he was happy with the result.

“I wish I would’ve made it, it would have been a little more exciting”, said Hajrullahu, in the locker room. “To have that walk off, like a couple of the games we’ve had here at home … but a win is a win, and we’ll take that right now.”

Hajrullahu was perfect in four attempts prior to the game-winning possession, tying his season-high from back on June 28 against the Montreal Alouettes. 

The St. Catharines native also drilled his longest field goal of the campaign a minute prior to his the rouge, making a 50-yarder to tie the game at 19 late in the fourth quarter, which gave him a surge of energy.

“The 50 felt so good, I was filled with confidence and had a really great day.”

Chad Kelly, the 2023 league’s Most Outstanding Player, started for Toronto (6-4-0) tonight following his serving of a nine-game suspension for violating the CFL’s gender based violence policy. He finished 24-for-39 with an interception, along with 11 yards on the ground. 

The second-year pivot’s 322 yards in the air was the most by an Argonauts quarterback this season. Despite his first game jitters, he was happy to be out on the field and contribute to the victory.

“I’m just thankful to be back out here with my boys, for only two days of practice I thought we had some decent chemistry.

“It’s always good to play in front of the home crowd, obviously I was excited to be here,” said Kelly in his post-game press conference. “First game back I had a lot of nervousness in me.

Head coach Ryan Dinwiddie praised his starter on his return to action with such little rehearsal time.

“Chad’s a special player. Tough guy, great leader, you can see how the guys gravitate towards him,” said Dinwiddie in his post-game presser. “I thought he played well, he’s seeing the field well. He did a good job managing the football game.”

Cameron Dukes, who started the first eight games of the season for the Double Blue, factored into this game on the ground. He had two red zone rushing attempts converting his first for a one yard touchdown, the lone six-point score for Toronto. 

Damonte Coxie finished with five catches for 112 yards, including hauling in one for 53 for his longest reception of the season. His performance marks him as the Argonauts first receiver with a 100-yard game this season. 

Mark Milton led the Argos defence with nine total tackles in his third game with the team after being signed on Canada Day, while Dashaun Amos caught his second interception in as many games, returning the ball 25 yards to set up the Dukes score.

Saskatchewan (5-5-1) starter Trevor Harris finished the game with 190 yards and a touchdown and two interceptions. He added one rush for 11 yards. 

The 38-year-old started in his second contest since returning from an MCL sprain that kept him out of six games. He won his first three matchups before dropping his first start after injury to the Alouettes in Week 11.

Samuel Emilus hauled in a game-high eight catches and led the Riders with 66 yards, while KeeSean Johnson scored the Roughriders lone touchdown late in the first quarter. Frankie Hickson added 79 yards rushing on 16 carries.

C.J. Reavis had a game-high 10 defensive tackles, while Brett Lauther was perfect in his four field goal attempts.

Lauther opened the scoring on the Riders first drive after Harris marched his team 47 yards down the field four minutes into the first quarter, making his first field goal of the night, giving Saskatchewan 3-0 lead. 

Harris continued to heat up in Saskatchewan’s next possession, going 5-for-5 and leading a 69-yard drive. He entered the game with the second highest completion percentage in the league, going 74.3%. 

Harris rolled one out left to Johnson for the 13-yard touchdown at the 10:40 mark for the receivers second score of the season, putting the Riders up 10-0. Lauther added his second field goal of the game to extend the lead with under nine minutes in the second quarter.

Toronto’s offensive efforts ironically came alive from the defensive side of the ball midway through the second quarter, as Amos’ leapt up high to intercept Harris’ pass, his 25-yard return set Dukes up for his one-yard score. 

It marks the defensive backs fourth interception of the campaign. Hajrullahu’s extra point cut the deficit to 13-7. 

The Argos got another chance to flip the score two drives later, as cornerback Benjie Franklin intercepted Harris on the first play, dropping at the 24-yard line. Kelly looked for his first touchdown pass of the season, tossing it to Coxie in the deep left corner of the endzone. T

he wideout brought the ball in, but the play was reviewed and determined incomplete by the CFL’s command center. 

The Argos settled for a 36-yard Hajrullahu field goal to bring the Argos within three, 13-10 to close the first half.

In the second half, Toronto’s defence stepped up, holding Harris and the Riders out of the red zone for the remainder of the game and allowing only one drive over 20 yards. 

Saskatchewan extended their lead midway through the 3rd quarter on their second drive of the half, as Lauther sent the ball through the uprights for a 40-yard conversion to put the Roughriders up 16-10. 

Toronto responded with two made field goals to tie the game at 16 in the final quarter. The two teams would trade field goals with under three minutes in the game to bring the score to 19-19, setting up a moment of Canadian glory for the Argos kicker. 

Toronto’s red zone offence struggled mightily throughout the contest, with their only touchdown off Dukes one-yard gain after Amos’ interception. The team failed to reach the end zone in all nine attempts with first-and-goal following that score, racking up only 12 yards on all three drives.

The Argos offence didn’t fare too well outside of the red zone either, committing four total penalties for 20 yards, including three general procedure violations, forcing the team to punt in two of those three situations. 

Kelly acknowledged that a combination of correcting the mistakes and changing things up needs to be incorporated in order to continue putting together wins.

“We’ve got to put in a lot more work, it’s all about the details,” said the Argos starter. “We got a lot of penalties, I think there was five touchdowns out there where we were on the one-yard line and we’ve got to get it in.

“We’ve got to be more aggressive, and we’ve got to do some different things.”

Kelly’s coach echoed the sentiments of cleaning up the offence and being prepared moving forward.

“We get stopped on the goal line twice, one the one-yard line and can’t get a yard. Offensively we’ve got to get better, maybe it’s too much volume”, said Dinwiddie.

“I’ve got to sit down with those guys and find a way to get better.”

Toronto now improves to 5-0 at home against West opponents this season, tying a record dating back to 2004 when the team hosted games at the Rogers Centre. The victory improves their wins off a bye streak to seven games, dating back to 2022.

The 19,327 fans in the stands at BMO Field marks a regular-season attendance record for the club since the season opener in 2016.

Toronto takes on Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Tim Hortons Field for their its next matchup on Labour Day Monday, while the Roughriders head back home to host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers next Sunday.