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June 19, 2025

GAME RECAP: Alouettes 38, Elks 28

EDMONTON – The Edmonton Elks hosted their 2025 season home-opener on Thursday at Play Alberta Field at Commonwealth Stadium, falling by a score of 38-28 to the visiting Montreal Alouettes.

Edmonton quarterback Tre Ford completed 27 of 36 passes for 308 yards, with touchdown tosses to Kaion Julien-Grant and Kurleigh Gittens Jr. The speedy pivot also ran for 31 yards and scored a touchdown on an 18-yard rush. Elks kicker Vincent Blanchard was two-for-two on field goal attempts.

Steven Dunbar Jr. led the Elks with 97 receiving yards from seven catches, and Edmonton running back Justin Rankin led all players with 76 rushing yards on 12 carries.

After scoring 14 points against the BC Lions at BC Place in Week 1, the Elks doubled that total in their second game of the season.

“I thought our offense took a step,” said head coach Mark Kilam. “We ran the ball a little bit better tonight. We pushed the ball down the field in the second half, definitely took a step on that side. Are we anywhere near we want to be? No. But trying to find the positives, that would definitely be one of them.”

Edmonton trailed 28-6 through three quarters before launching a furious comeback attempt, scoring 22 points in the final 15 minutes.

“That’s one of the realities of the CFL, is that it’s never over, so for us to have the mentality of never giving up is a positive, but we’ve got a lot of negatives we have to fix,” said Edmonton linebacker Nick Anderson, who had a game-high nine tackles.

David Dallaire, Sean Thomas Erlington, Tyson Philpott and Taylor Snead all scored majors for Montreal. Alouettes quarterback Davis Alexander completed 20 of 24 passes for 254 yards with three touchdowns before exiting the game in the third quarter with an injury and being replaced by McLeod Bethel-Thompson.

Edmonton jumped in front 3-0 when Blanchard hit a 42-yard field goal just 3:31 into the game. Montreal responded with receiving touchdowns from Dallaire and Philpott to take a 14-3 lead in the second quarter.

Blanchard and Alouettes kicker Jose Maltos traded field goals in the second quarter. Alexander then connected with Snead on a deep 38-yard yard touchdown toss with 2:19 remaining in the half, giving Montreal at 24-6 at the break.

Montreal accounted for all the scoring in the third quarter. Punter Joseph Zema booted a 59-yard single before Maltos hit a 26-yard field goal, extending the visitor’s lead to 28-6 after 45 minutes.

After a relatively quiet third quarter, the fourth brought fireworks. Edmonton struck early, with Ford scrambling for a touchdown at 13:12. A successful two-point conversion then cut Montreal’s lead to 28-14.

The Alouettes answered with a field-goal from Maltos and a 23-yard touchdown run by Thomas Erlington, going ahead 38-14. Ford marched Edmonton back down field and connected with Gittens Jr. for a 33-yard touchdown at 6:17.

On Edmonton’s ensuing possession, Ford found Julien-Grant for a 51-yard touchdown, cutting Montreal’s lead to 38-28, but despite recovering an onside kick the Elks could get no closer.

Montreal improves its record to a CFL-best 3-0, while the Green and Gold drop to 0-2.  The Elks will now visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on June 26. Their next home game is against the Ottawa Redblacks at 5 p.m. on July 6. Tickets are available now.

THEY SAID

Ford on the where Edmonton made progress from its first game:

“I would definitely say (Number) One is the run game, I thought the run game was a lot better. And then (Number) Two, I thought I did a lot better throwing from the pocket today, especially in the second half. And then our defense, we started a little bit slow, but I thought they did a good job bouncing back in the second half and played some good defence.”

Anderson on Edmonton’s defensive play:

“Overall, I feel like the effort’s there. I feel like on certain plays when we got dialed in to where the execution is there, but (it’s about) just being consistent. Overall you’ve got to have consistency, being a pro football player. You can’t blink and miss, you gotta always (think) ‘next play, next play, next play.’ Whether you have a good play or bad play, (think) ‘next play’. I just feel like the lack of execution on every play is one of those things that we’ve got to really dial in on this next week.”