On a night when 13 former Blue Bomber greats including quarterbacks Kenny Ploen, Don Jonas and Dieter Brock were honoured at half-time as part of the football clubs 80th anniversary celebrations, Winnipeg’s newest signal caller was impressive in his debut.

Buck Pierce ran for 89 yards and a touchdown and combined with Terrence Edwards on a 90 yard catch and run for a second quarter major and a 27 yard touchdown in the third quarter as the Blue Bombers beat Hamilton 49-29.

The game took a huge turn at the end of the second quarter as Hamilton’s Justin Palardy had his punt blocked by Brady Browne and Pierre-Luc Labbe recovered the ball in the end zone for a 24-9 Winnipeg lead at the half.

The Tiger-Cats first touchdown came just 12 seconds into the game as Marcus Thigpen returned Alexis Serna’s opening kick-off 93 yards for a touchdown. Serna was good on three of six field goal attempts. His third miss, from 49 yards out early in the fourth quarter was returned 118 yards by Thigpen for a touchdown which got the Tiger-Cats within eight points.

Fred Reid got the momentum back on Winnipeg’s next possession thanks to a great 50 yard run. A face mask penalty on the play brought the ball down to the Hamilton 13. A pass interference call then put the ball on the one and backup quarterback Steven Jyles ran it in for Winnipeg’s fourth touchdown of the evening.

The Bombers defence gave up their only touchdown with seven minutes remaining as Kevin Glenn found Marquay McDaniel with an eight yard pass. The two point convert failed and that was as close as the Ti-Cats got.

Philip Hunt, who had two sacks, forced a Glenn fumble with 4:37 left and Winnipeg recovered the ball at the Hamilton 19. Pierce then ran in from 13 yards out to put the game away.

Winnipeg’s next game is Friday, July 9th at home against the Toronto Argonauts.

 

photo courtesy www.bluebombers.com

 

Clayton Dreger spoke with Terrence Edwards (#82) after the game about their tough spot.

 

 

Coaches Bud Grant, Mike Riley & Cal Murphy and players Leo Lewis, Buddy Tinsley, Ken Ploen, Don Jonas, Dieter Brock, Chris Walby, Joe Poplawski, James Murphy, Milt Stegall and Bob Cameron were saluted at half-time as part of the Winnipeg Football Club’s 80th anniversary celebration.