The B.C. Lions celebrated a decisive 26-9 win over the visiting Edmonton Elks, in pre-season play, Friday night.
B.C. fielded the more veteran lineup and dominated the game both on the ground and in the air, amassing 315 passing yards to Edmonton’s 153 and 113 rushing yards compared to 44 for the visitors.
The Elks also struggled with discipline, taking 11 penalties for 107 yards.
“It’s meant to be an evaluation. It’s a pre-season game,” Edmonton head coach and general manager Chris Jones said ahead of Friday’s game.
“We’ve got some very talented guys here and guys that we feel do have some traits that are necessary to be a pro-football player. Now it’s a matter of putting them out there against a good B.C. team.”
B.C. turned to three quarterbacks Friday, including starter Vernon Adams Jr., who connected on 7 of 9 attempts for 116 passing yards and a touchdown.
Jarret Doege made good on 8 of 10 passing attempts for the Elks, contributing 66 yards and a touchdown before Edmonton turned to Malik Henry. The rookie QB hit 7 of his 15 attempts for 87 yards.
Edmonton made its way deep into B.C. territory midway through the third quarter, setting up for a first down on the one-yard line, only to see their offence smothered.
“It was a lot of new guys on that goal-line stand. We lined up offside the first time, so we ended up stopping them four times, which is pretty hard to do from the one-yard line,” Lions head coach Rick Campbell said after the game.
The Elks responded minutes later, picking off Dolegala’s pass and returning it for 18 yards. Kicker Dean Faithful then made a 43-yard field goal to cut the Lions’ lead to 23-9.
Friday’s result gave B.C. a 1-1 split in their pre-season games, while Edmonton fell to 0-2 after dropping a one-point decision to the Saskatchewan Roughriders last week.
UP NEXT
The Elks open their regular season on June 8 when they host the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Lions kick off their campaign with a visit to the Toronto Argonauts on June 9.
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