Als will host Grey Cup game after beating Eskimos

Larry Taylor was hardly the name on everyone's lips as the CFL's "East" final got underway on Saturday afternoon.

This was billed as a showdown between Montreal quarterback Anthony Calvillo and Edmonton's Ricky Ray — the league's best pivots — with a trip to next Sunday's Grey Cup on the line.

But sport regularly brings unknown heroes to the fore and Taylor fit that bill perfectly at the Stade Olympique, running back two punts for touchdowns and providing the winning margin in a 36-26 win by the host Alouettes over the Eskimos.

Montreal awaits the winner of the Western Conference final later Saturday between the hometown Calgary Stampeders and the B.C. Lions.

"It's a great feeling in the eastern championship game to make it happen," said Taylor. "Hats off to my teammates for springing me on both returns."

Taylor already had a first half score in the bag when he struck again early in the fourth quarter.

The Als were leading 29-13 with Edmonton punting from their own zone when Noel Prefontaine's boot found Taylor at his own 13. The rookie receiver immediately saw four perfect, almost simultaneous blocks open a huge hole up the middle.

That was all the University of Connecticut grad needed and he took it to the end zone for a 36-13 lead.

Late comeback falls short

Edmonton, in the game after winning a crossover semifinal against Winnipeg last week (they had a better record as the West's last-place team than the East's third-place club, Toronto), tried to come back.

First, the club put together a 55-yard passing play for a touchdown from Ray to Kelly Campbell, and then a long punt return by Tristan Jackson to bring the gap to 10 points.

But a missed two-point conversion sealed the deal, despite the Eskimos recovering an on-side kick, setting up a last gasp that quickly ran out of steam.

Calvillo finished the day 20-for-32, 295 yards and a touchdown as the Eskimos' defence did a good job of keeping him under control. Montreal, though, also received a superb 140 yards in total offence from running back Avon Cobourne, working off a sore ankle, including 52 on the ground.

Ray, meanwhile, tossed the ball an astonishing 49 times (26 receptions for 339 yards and a touchdown) as part of an offensive game plan that simply ignored running completely.

Already boasting the league's worst ground attack, Edmonton's coaching staff put Ray in a tactical straightjacket by running just three times all game (for three yards).

Long drives in the third

Montreal had increased its lead to 10 points in the third quarter, first on a long, strange drive that included two drops of perfect passes from Calvillo and seemed to end with a touchdown run by backup quarterback Adrian McPherson.

That was called back due to an inadvertent whistle and Cobourne finally ran it in for a 26-13 lead with the convert.

One other key moment in that drive was an injury to Edmonton defensive back Jason Goss that forced the Eskimos to make a couple of changes in their setup and the Alouettes took advantage.

A field goal by Duval off another long drive made it 29-13 into the fourth.

Als hit quickly late in half

"Offensively we couldn't generate any momentum, and ultimately that cost us this football game," said Eskimos head coach Danny Maciocia.

"We didn't make the plays we were supposed to make, we didn't make the catches we were supposed to make, and we couldn't capitalize when we got down there (into the red zone). Our defence held us in there for a while, then there was an exchange of majors on special teams, but offensively we couldn't get it done."

Anyway you broke it down, the first half had to be a disappointment for the Eskimos who outplayed the hosts for about 21 of the 24 minutes only to see that good work wrecked.

Trailing 13-5 after Edmonton surrendered a safety, the Alouettes finally got their offence untracked as Calvillo began to get the protection he's used to from the line.

That led to a nine-play, 75-yard drive ending in an eight-yard toss off a post pattern to Jamal Richardson, the CFL's regular season reception leader who would finish this one with 91 yards.

Holding Ray to a two and out, the Als forced a punt that settled in the hands of Taylor who got a couple of key blocks and made a nice cut back to run the ball all the way in from 62 yards, giving Montreal its second major in 1:07 of play.

Just that quickly an eight-point lead for Edmonton was a 19-13 Montreal advantage into the dressing room.

Eskimos dominated early

Relying on a strong defensive rush that left Calvillo running around for one of the few times this season, Edmonton was in control for much of the first half.

And they put the opening points on the board using a play that had nothing to do with either quarterback.

As Montreal lined up to punt on their own 24, lineman Justin Cooper blew right through a hole opened when the snapper and right guard blocked opposite directions and there was no one in the backfield to pick up the rush.

Cooper almost caught Duval's kick right off the foot, and the deflected ball bounced into the end zone where the lineman fell on it for a 7-0 Eskimos lead.

After a David Duval field goal made it 7-3, Ray came back with his own drive that led to a Prefontaine 45-yarder and the Eskimos added another from 22 yards out five minutes into the second quarter for a 13-3 lead.

"We weren't good enough to win a Grey Cup today," said Montreal receiver Ben Cahoon. "Next week, we'll be a different team.

"I'm confident we'll address our mistakes, but we were barely good enough to win today. We had a lot of dropped balls, and lots of special teams issues. The dropped balls weren't just on offence. We had balls in our hands on defence as well."