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Bridge rallies Roughriders to exciting 27-24 road victory over Argonauts

Oct 7, 2017 | 6:09 PM

TORONTO — Tyler Crapigna’s 18-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining earned the Saskatchewan Roughriders a hard-fought 27-24 win over the Toronto Argonauts on Saturday night.

Toronto tied it 24-24 on Ricky Ray’s 19-yard touchdown pass to S.J. Green at 11;19 to cap an 85-yard, 10-play drive. The Argos finished the march without stalwart running back James Wilder Jr., who left following a 12-yard completion after taking an incidental helmet-to-helmet hit from Saskatchewan’s Henoc Muamba.

But Canadian Brandon Bridge responded by marching Saskatchewan 64 yards on 11 plays to set up Crapigna’s game-winning kick. The Riders were helped by an illegal contact penalty on Toronto’s Alden Darby following a second-down incompletion.

Bridge was a major factor for Saskatchewan, completing 20-of-28 passes for 292 yards and the two TDs in relief of starter Kevin Glenn. Bridge relieved Glenn in the first half after the veteran completed just three-of-eight passes for 29 yards.

Bridge came in with Saskatchewan trailing 16-3. The 25-year-old native of Mississauga, Ont., capped a smart nine-play, 75-yard drive with an eight-yard TD pass to Namaan Roosevelt to cut Toronto’s half-time lead to 16-10.

Then after Lirim Hajrullahu’s 74-yard single put Toronto ahead 17-16, Bridge found Caleb Holley on a 75-yard scoring strike on the final play of the third. He followed that up by hitting Bakari Grant for the two-point convert to give the Riders a 24-17 advantage before a BMO Field gathering of 15,102 that featured plenty of green jerseys.