Sean Whyte booted four field goals and Jamel Richardson caught a pair of touchdown passes as the Montreal Alouettes halted a two-game losing skid with a 36-26 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Friday night.
The win takes Montreal to 3-3, while Winnipeg fell to 1-5.
Whyte made field goals from 17, 32, 19 and 27 yards and added three punt singles. Richardson hauled in TD passes of 11 and 60 yards from Anthony Calvillo and Victor Anderson ran in a late two-yard TD.
Winnipeg's points came off an 11-yard TD catch by receiver Cory Watson, a one-yard plunge by quarterback Alex Brink and a 13-yard reception by Clarence Denmark.
Brink was good on twopoint converts for his and Denmark's TDs, completing passes to Chris Matthews and Cory Watson, respectively. Both TDs were late in the fourth quarter.
Justin Palardy connected on his lone field-goal attempt from 33 yards.
It was the second of four games between the teams this season. Montreal won the first game 41-30.
The Alouettes opened the scoring at 2: 27 of the first quarter with Whyte's 60-yard single.
Calvillo then methodically put together his team's first TD drive.
The 19-year veteran used running back Brandon Whitaker and receivers S.J. Green and Richardson to move 81 yards on six plays that ended with Richardson's 11-yard TD catch at 6: 37.
Calvillo's experience showed again late in the first quarter.
After getting sacked by Bomber defensive end Alex Hall for a 14-yard loss, Calvillo was at his own 50-yard line facing second down and 24 yards to go when he tossed a 28-yard pass to Patrick Lavoie.
That was followed by a 23-yard run by Whitaker, but the Als were halted at Winnipeg's 10-yard line and had to settle for Whyte's 17yard field goal eight seconds into the second quarter for an 11-0 lead.
Winnipeg finally got on the board at 5: 12 of the second with Palardy's 33-yarder.
The first half ended with Montreal up 15-3 after Whyte recorded another single and a 32-yard field goal.
Calvillo completed 11of16 passes in the first half for 162 yards and finished 17-of-29 for 368 yards with no interceptions. Whitaker rushed 11 times for 86 yards and had 18 carries for 115 yards and six catches for 64 yards.
Making his third straight start in place of injured Buck Pierce (ankle), Brink was 25-of-39 for 311 yards and no picks.
Montreal's offence got stuck in the red zone again in the third quarter, settling for a 19-yard Whyte field goal.
The Alouettes then got a break, but couldn't take advantage.
Whyte's kickoff was fumbled by Denmark and recovered by Als receiver Brandon London at Winnipeg's 35-yard line. But drops by Whitaker (in the end zone) and Richardson made Whyte boot a 27-yard field goal with a minute left in the third to go ahead 21-3.
Watson gave Winnipeg its first TD on an 11-catch from Brink at 3: 43 of the fourth quarter, a drive helped by a 14-yard catch by Terrence Edwards and a 35-yard catch-and-run by running back Chad Simpson.
Whyte tallied another single and then Calvillo hit Richardson for a 59-yard TD catch at 7: 45 to stretch the lead to 29-10.
Anderson's TD run at 13: 45 of the fourth was set up by a 71-yard catch by receiver Eric Deslauriers, while Denmark's TD came as time expired.
The game had a sellout crowd of 29,533 fans at Canad Inn Stadium, a clubrecord ninth straight regular-season sellout.
