“I don’t think one guy in that locker room believes, until the clock hits zero and we’re not in the lead, that we can’t win a ball game.”
“When we got into this locker room at halftime, we knew we had a big momentum switch,” he said. “We got the three points and knew we were getting the ball to start the second half. There was a lot of belief in this locker room. This team’s at its best when the chips are stacked against us and everybody wants to point fingers at us. We don’t point fingers at each other and were never negative.”
Maltos, one of the Als’ global players, came off the practice roster and was a late replacement for David Côté, who suffered a lower-body injury during pregame warm-up. Long-snapper L-P Bourassa also was scratched following the warm-up and replaced by Alexandre Gagné.
Trailing 23-9 in the second quarter, Montreal engineered an impressive drive before halftime. Fajardo completed six consecutive passes, moving the ball from his own 32 to the Calgary five before time became an issue. With four seconds remaining, rather than attempting to run a play into the end zone, Maltos kicked a 12-yard field goal to pull the Als within 11 points.
That deficit was stretched to 14 points when the Stampeders’ Rene Paredes kicked a 31-yard field goal at 8:37 of the third quarter. But those were the last points Calgary scored.
Maltos kicked a 22-yard field goal to close out the quarter, before the Als marched 77 yards on five plays early in the fourth, capped by Fajardo’s 15-yard touchdown pass deep in the end zone to Cole Spieker, who held onto the ball despite a heavy hit from safety Bentlee Sanders.
Then, following a 30-yard Maltos field goal with five minutes remaining in regulation time, pulling Montreal to within two points, the Als required only five plays to go 90 yards. Just when it appeared Maltos would be called upon to be the hero and kick the go-ahead field goal, Walter Fletcher scored on a 31-yard run with 63 seconds remaining.
The Als then surprisingly went for a two-point convert, and almost were burned when Fajardo’s pass was intercepted by Tre Roberson. Had Roberson returned the ball to the end zone — and he threatened — Calgary would have scored a two-point safety and required only a field goal to win.
“It’s something we decided to do,” head coach Jason Maas said. “Obviously it could have bitten us in the butt, but it didn’t. There was no rhyme or reason. We didn’t execute it, so it doesn’t matter. We felt like that would be a better situation to do it.”
A six-point lead would have required a Stamps touchdown and convert. The Als’ Mustafa Johnson already had blocked one convert try in the game. The ball was recovered by Kabion Ento, who returned it 78 yards for a second-quarter safety.
“That was a tough, hard-fought, physical game,” he said. “Until you have to do that for 60 minutes — you can believe it all you want. You’ve got to show it when it matters. Our guys showed it. Any time you’re forced to do it, or put in those situations and come through, it just adds to the confidence.
“I don’t think one guy in that locker room believes, until the clock hits zero and we’re not in the lead, that we can’t win a ball game. Our guys have ultimate belief in each other. They know how to win and do it. It’s just a matter of time.”