EDMONTON - Winnipeg kicker Alexis Serna felt like a guy getting ready for that big company golf tournament. Perfect on the practice range and then slice one into the woods off the first tee.

On the game's final play, with the Blue Bombers trailing the Edmonton Eskimos 19-16, Serna's game-tying field goal flew through the uprights. It would have forced overtime. But Eskimos head coach Richie Hall, in his first game as head coach in Edmonton, had called time-out. So the Bombers had to tee it up all over again.

On his second attempt, Serna's kick sailed wide left. Game over.

"I made the first one," he said afterwards, "so I just told myself to hit [the second attempt] like the first one.

"You just lose focus sometimes. You make some, you miss some."

The Eskimos gave up the single point and notched a 19-17 win on a rainy season-opener for both clubs.

This was no classic, but it may forever be remembered here in Edmonton as the day former Eskimo Neil Lumsden's son Jesse made a triumphant return to carry the pigskin for the green and gold - but failed to make it through the first quarter.

At the tail end of a decent first quarter in which Lumsden had five touches for 25 all-purpose yards, Lumsden took a dump pass from quarterback Ricky Ray and turned upfield. Winnipeg linebacker Siddeeq Shabazz met Lumsden's left shoulder with his helmet, and Lumsden fell abruptly.

"It was just a little check-down," said QB Ricky Ray, who wasn't great but won with a workmanlike performance. "He just took the hit. I don't know what happened."

Lumsden rose awkwardly, made his way to the bench, and eventually to the dressing room. The free agent acquisition with a history of injuries is hurt again. He was sent to hospital for X-rays.

"We don't know the extent of his injury," said Hall. "I know he is real disappointed. I saw him at halftime, He was very disappointed, very down."

It was a greasy game played on a sloppy night, scoreless after one quarter and led 9-2 at the half by Edmonton. "How come it's always ugly if it's a defensive battle?" asked Hall, a nine-year defensive back in his playing days with Calgary and Saskatchewan.

"By hook or by crook, we were able to come up with a victory."

It's been 19 years since the Blue Bombers sipped from the Grey Cup, and this was also Mike Kelly's debut as Winnipeg head coach. This one slipped through the Bombers' fingers, just a timeout call away from forcing overtime at Commonwealth Stadium.