Oh so close, but what was within reach fell just out of their grasp as the Ticats suffered a 30-27 overtime loss to the Montréal Alouettes in an entertaining but ultimately heartbreaking CFL season opener Thursday night.
“I felt like it was one that got away from us, quite honestly,” said Ticat head coach Scott Milanovich, who does not pull his punches and perfectly encapsulated a game the Cats could have, and most of them felt should have, won.
“You have to give them credit. When they needed to make the plays they did, they had a third-and-10 and got it (on a long drive in the final two minutes that led to a game-tying field goal).
“And they won the turnover battle, which leads to this outcome.”
The Cats had firmly taken the wheel with a classic Bo Levi Mitchell 98-second, 65-yard TD drive into the wind to end the first half, then another time-eating 70-yarder into the same strong wind to grab a 24-10 lead halfway through the third quarter.
But they loosened their grip when an interception on a perfectly timed route-jump by Montreal cornerback Robert Kennedy III—who spent some time on the Ticats’ practice roster a couple of years ago—went for 54-yard touchdown and gave the Als new life with five minutes left in the third quarter.
The Als tied it at 24-24 early in the fourth, the Ticats went ahead with a field goal, and had a chance to seal it but the Als converted three third-down attempts on their final drive to force overtime on a 29-yard Jose Maltos Diaz field goal.
And on the second play of overtime, speedy Ticat receiver Keric Wheatfall, who’d had an excellent game to that point, was stripped of the ball near the sideline—by Kennedy again—and the Als recovered for a turnover. Three plays later Maltos Diaz’s 19-yard chip shot ended it.
“It comes down to the wire and those ones are deep, those ones hurt,” Ticat fullback Ante Litre, who’d scored an earlier touchdown, said in the sombre Ticat locker room. “Going toe-to-toe with them, they got the last punch in. But this will continue, there’s 17 more games to go.”
The Alouettes worked themselves into deep penalty trouble throughout the night, costing them points, but Alexander went deep to Tyler Snead a couple of times, once for a TD and another for 70 yards right on the seam that set up a second-quarter field goal.
“On that one they just had a good play drawn up on me,” said safety Stavros Katsantonis. “You have to stay as deep as the deepest; that was a call that kind of schemed us up. Coach (Brent) Monson made an adjustment to it and we covered it well the rest of the game.
“We just didn’t finish when we had the chance. We have to be better on that end; being able to close out a game, because they’ve got a really good football team over there that knows how to win as well.
“We were fired up coming out of the first half and knew what we needed to do; get our offence back on the field and we did that in the fourth quarter. It was a tough way to end but we can be better as a defence and hold them; we can’t let them have a 90-yard drive. We had a chance to stop them.”
It was a big night for both quarterbacks, as Mitchell went 34-for-39 for 307 yards, and Alexander, despite a ragged third quarter, rebounded to go 26-for-38, 336 yards and two TDs.
But there were a couple of miscues on the Ticat offence—the pick-six, and the overtime fumble—which proved just too costly.
“Probably 10 or 12, honestly,” Mitchell said of Ticat offensive mistakes. “There were plays out there we have to be better on. You’re never going to be perfect but you have to find a way to win. Scott mentioned it before, that last year we had to learn how to win and we improved, and we have to learn how to win again.
“I’m never going to be happy, I thought we were efficient at times and stalled on offence at times, left the defence out there for longer.
“I thought we did a good job coming out and scoring on the first drive, scoring on the last drive of the first half, scoring on the first drive of the third quarter. That’s big, coming out of the half.
“But we need to be more consistent for the whole game. Obviously, I made a huge mistake (on the pick-six), putting the ball where it was even available to be touched, up 14 points. Can’t do that. It was a good play (by Kennedy).”
Wheatfall, a major free agency acquisition, had been enjoying a terrific game, with six receptions for 46 yards, the majority of them after the catch, and showing a nose for the end zone with a power touchdown run concluding with an athletic leap to reach the goal line pylon.
He was crestfallen afterwards: “I’ve got to play better. I made a move and it got away from me, I’ve gotta play better closing out the game.”
But his teammates and his head coach had supportive words for him.
“I just told him he’s young, and I know he’s hurting, and I thought he played a good game until that last play,” Milanovich said. “And he’s got to learn from it. I assume he’ll never make that mistake again. I thought that other than that last play he had a very good first game as a Ticat.”
Those Ticats were encouraged by numerous portions of the game including collective discipline—they had only two penalties all night—but in the end were blunt about the result.
“You look at the score and it’s not enough,” said all-CFL guard Brandon Revenberg. “Game 1 there’s going to be some mistakes, there’s going to be some stuff that you’re going to have to clean up. But ultimately we’ve got to win that game.”
The Ticats follow up with another Thursday night encounter next week, this one on the edge of the prairies as they visit Zach Collaros and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before returning to Hamilton Stadium and the B.C. Lions on Friday, June 19.
The Als open their home season next Friday against the Toronto Argonauts, who have a bye this weekend.
CATS CLAUSES
Early in the second quarter, Ticat legend Speedy Banks—who’d signed a one-day contract the previous day so he could retire as a Ticat—was informed right on the field by TSN that he was the first member to be elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026 which will be formally inducted later this year. He had no idea that was going to happen and you can read Ticats.ca’s column, with a personal take on his career.
Both place-kickers who set franchise records for successful field goals last season were perfect: Ticats’ Marc Liegghio was 2-for-2, the Als’ Jose Maltos Diaz 3-for-3 …Ticat short-yardage quarterback Jake Dolegala scored the CFL’s first 2026 TD on a 1-yard run …Hamilton MLB Ryan Baker was credited with only one defensive tackle but had a strong game and was around the ball all night … Kiondré Smith caught all six balls thrown his way, most of them tough grabs, especially on scoring drives, and led Cats receivers with 75 yards … Kurleigh Gittens Jr. caught all 7 balls thrown to him (50 yards) and Myron Mitchell had a 31-yard reception … Kenny Lawler had four catches for 58 yards, one of them accounting for 25 yards after an exceptional fake move and inside cut … Mario Kendrick Jr. had the Ticats’ only sack, and Tyson Middlemost had two special teams tackles in his first game for his hometown Cats … for the Als, Tyrice Beverette had the only sack, Geoffrey Cantin-Arku had 8 tackles, Tyler Snead had nine receptions for 163 yards and a TD, Tyson Philpot caught 7 including a TD against almost-perfect coverage … the Als took 11 penalties for 118 yards … the Als rushed 14 times for 80 yards; the Ticats 16 times for 35 yards … the Als didn’t have a turnover, the Ticats had 2, the pick-six and the OT fumble … Montréal converted 10 of 24 second downs, Hamilton 14 of 23 … attendance was 18,577.
