THE CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER — Buck Pierce was his own worst critic Saturday night.
The B.C. Lions quarterback was not very happy with his effort. But his coach, teammates and fans found little cause for complaint.
Pierce tossed three touchdown passes as the Lions hammered the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 40-10 before a crowd of 31,161 at B.C. Place Stadium.
"I’m still not very satisfied," said Pierce, who completed 19 of 29 passes for 290 yards in just over three quarters of work. "I left a lot of plays out there that we should have converted."
The Lions (8-5) posted their fourth straight win and moved into a tie for second place in the CFL’s West Division with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, pending what happens when the Riders visit Montreal on Sunday.
Hamilton (2-11) suffered its sixth consecutive loss. So Lions coach Wally Buono was not about to complain about Pierce.
"He’s continuing to mature," said Buono. "That’s a good thing. He’s aware of what he needs. Sometimes, if a player doesn’t see it, then it’s hard to explain it to him. But he sees it himself. He’s a pro. He wants to get better. And you know what? He is getting better."
Geroy Simon caught two of Pierce’s TD passes while surpassing 1,000 receiving yards for a team record sixth consecutive season. Simon caught five passes altogether for 151 yards as he moved just shy of 10,000 for his career with B.C.
Receiver Paris Jackson also caught two TD passes, the second from rookie Zac Champion late in the game as he recorded the first passing touchdown of his career. Clarence Coleman also caught a touchdown pass — from Jarious Jackson — as the Lions used all three of their quarterbacks.
Pierce and Simon connected on a 79-yard TD in the first quarter — the longest touchdown pass of the season for the Lions — and a 14-yard strike in the third quarter, to go ahead 26-3 after it looked, albeit briefly, like the Ticats might be in a position to mount a comeback.
While Pierce, Simon and Paris Jackson shone on offence, Cam Wake and the rest of the defence excelled. Wake recorded three sacks to increase his league-leading total to 18. The Lions sacked Hamilton rookie quarterback Quinton Porter, who was making his first CFL start, a whopping 10 times.
"Everybody came out and did their job," said Wake. "The DBs were covering, the linebackers were getting pressure and the D-line was getting to the quarterback."
Porter began the game badly, and never got much better as he struggled to elude the ravenous B.C. defensive line and was intercepted twice by Corey Banks. The Hamilton QB completed 14 of 27 passes for only 144 yards.
Porter actually led the Ticats in rushing with on six carries — most of them unplanned as he attempted elude the rush.
"We got some bad breaks," said Ticats running back Kenton Keith, who recorded a modest 33 yards on nine carries in his first game back in the CFL after a one-season stint in the NFL. "When you’ve got a lot of new guys out there, it’s going to take a little while for us to develop the same page. A lot of our mistakes were because we weren’t on the same page."
After B.C. built a 17-0 first-quarter lead, Hamilton finally got on the scoreboard at 6:31 of the second quarter as Nick Setta booted a 29-yard field goal, reducing the B.C. advantage to 17-3. The lone Ticat touchdown came in the third as Porter connected with Chris Bauman for a 28-yard TD strike four minutes into the third quarter to close the gap to 26-10.
Jarious Jackson replaced Pierce with just over 10 minutes left in the game and promptly marched the Lions on a nine-play, 77-yard touchdown drive, throwing an eight-yard TD strike to Clarence Coleman at 8:16, enabling the Lions to go ahead 33-10.
Buono decided he had seen enough of Jarious Jackson and gave rookie QB Champion his first snaps of the regular season. With just under three minutes left in the game, Champion recorded the first touchdown pass of his career as he threw five yards to Paris Jackson.
"It was exciting," said Champion. "It makes you love the game." The 24-year-old Louisana Tech product completed both of the two passes he attempted, impressing his coach in the process.
"I really believe that you’ve got to give a young guy like that a positive experience," said Buono. "He’s going to go away feeling good about himself — and he has all the reason to. He had good composure, he had good awareness and he managed the game well."
So did Buck Pierce.
Notes: A moment of silence was held before the game for late CFL icon Ron Lancaster. . . . The Lions took only one penalty — a five-yard illegal procedure infraction — while Champion was mopping up. . . . Saturday’s game marked the 75th time the B.C. and Hamilton have faced each other since the CFL began interlocking play in 1961. The Lions hold a 44-27-3 edge over the Ticats since then. . . . The Lions and Hamilton have strong connections. Six Hamilton players, including quarterback Casey Printers and new receiver Josh Boden, have also played for the Lions while general manager Bob O’Billovich has held management and coaching posts and assistant coach Dave Easley played and coached with B.C. Meanwhile, Craig Smith has taken over from O’Billovich as B.C.’s player personnel director after holding the same position with Hamilton from 2005-07. . . . Meanwhile, a total of 42 players from both clubs graduated from the same university or junior teams.
