OTTAWA – The red-hot Edmonton Elks kept rolling on Friday night, beating the host Ottawa RedBlacks by a score of 30-20 at TD Place Stadium.
Cody Fajardo quarterbacked the Elks to their third straight win, completing 22 of 28 passes for 270 yards, while adding 57 yards on the ground and scoring a rushing touchdown.
Edmonton’s Justin Rankin ran for a touchdown, and Vincent Blanchard booted three field goals for the Green and Gold.
Special teams proved pivotal for the Elks, who had a partially blocked punt from Noah Taylor and a punt return TD from Javon Leake. The Elks recorded a season-high three sacks, led by Taylor with two.
Kurleigh Gittens Jr. was Edmonton’s top pass-catcher, with six receptions for 71 yards, including a pivotal catch to get a first down for Edmonton late in the fourth quarter.
The Green and Gold never trailed in the game, building a 17-0 lead in second quarter before holding off an Ottawa rally in the second half.
“I’m just really proud of the guys, they hung in there,” Elks coach Mark Kilam said on 880 CHED. “We jumped out early, and give Ottawa credit, they battled back. In the third quarter we were taking some punches, we had a couple second and shorts we couldn’t convert, they were going down the field on the defence and then what we did is we found a way, and you’ve got to give the guys credit for that, because they came together and found a way later.”
The visitors opened the scoring with 5:01 remaining in the first quarter, as Blanchard kicked a 33-yard field goal to put the EE ahead 3-0. Edmonton extended its lead to 10-0, after Fajardo scored a touchdown on a one-yard rush in the opening moments of the second quarter.
JAVON LEAKE 80 YARDS TO THE HOUSE! 😱@GoElks vs. REDBLACKS LIVE NOW
🇨🇦: TSN, RDS
🌎: CFL+ pic.twitter.com/icJDnUDo2l— CFL (@CFL) August 23, 2025
Leake then fielded a Richard Leone punt at the Edmonton 30 yard and turned on the jets, taking it 80 yards to the house for his second punt return touchdown of the season, and the Elks were suddenly ahead 17-0 less than four minutes in the second quarter. Leake becomes the first Elks player in 17 years with two return TDs in a season.
The RedBlacks responded, finally getting on the board late in the second quarter with a Dustin Crum one-yard rushing touchdown, but Blanchard booted a 31-yard field goal at the end of the half and Edmonton took a 20-7 advantage into the break.
Ottawa took the opening possession of the second half and drove 93 yards in seven plays, culminating with a 19-yard pass from Crum to Andre Miller for a touchdown, and Edmonton’s lead was cut to 20-14. The RedBlacks crept even closer, pulling within 20-17 on a 20-yard field goal from Lewis Ward with over 12 minutes to play in the game.
Crucially Edmonton answered, putting a halt to Ottawa’s momentum and going ahead 27-17 midway through the fourth quarter, after driving 70 yards in seven plays, capped off by Justin Rankin carrying the ball six yards for a touchdown.
Ward knocked home a 26-yard field goal with 2:51 remaining, making the score 27-20 in favour of Edmonton, but the Elks were able to run clock, getting a huge catch from Gittens Jr. on second-and-seven, before putting the game away on a field goal from 35 yards by Blanchard with 42 seconds left.
After a 1-6 start to the season, the Elks have now won three straight games, tying for their longest winning streak since 2017. Fajardo is the first Elks quarterback to win three consecutive starts since Mike Reilly in 2018.
The Elks are back in action on Sept. 1 when they visit the Calgary Stampeders for the Labour Day Classic. Edmonton’s next home game is Sept. 6, when the Green and Gold host the Stampeders at Play Alberta Field at Commonwealth Stadium at 5 p.m. Tickets are available now.
THEY SAID
Kilam on Leake’s punt return TD:
“Leake is as dangerous as anybody in the CFL, our guys know that. If we can get him into the second level he can go every time, so I’m just really happy he’s on our football team.”
Kilam on the Elks rallying from tough start to season:
“We just take it one week at a time, as cliche as that sounds. We try to build on the things that we do well and we correct the things that we don’t, and we’ve taken that approach every single week, and I’m happy now for the guys that their efforts are being rewarded”
Fajardo on the Elks’ momentum:
“This team’s got some great momentum right now, and we got a great opportunity ahead of us, we fought ourselves back into position to battle, and now with the back-to-back (against) Calgary, we’ve got the whole thing in front of us. So I think these guys are excited, I think the momentum is tremendous, the locker room is awesome. There’s no better feeling than a winning locker room no matter how ugly it feels on the field, you can hear those guys hooting and hollering, we’ve got two big games ahead of us and we’re going to have to heal up and great ready for that.”