Win adds hope to Esks' playoff dreams

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Toronto’s Andre Duriem, top, tackles Ed­monton’s Tristan Jackson Friday night. (JIMMY JEONG / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

EDMONTON -- They held up their end. Now, the Edmonton Eskimos will wait and see how the remainder of the Canadian Football League weekend shakes out.

Their playoff lives rely on it.

Jumping out to a 17-0 lead, the Eskimos easily carved out a 36-10 victory over the hapless Toronto Argonauts on a soggy Commonwealth Stadium field Friday night.

A Saskatchewan win over Hamilton today, combined with a Montreal victory over Winnipeg on Sunday, will guarantee the Eskimos of at least a crossover berth into the post-season.

Edmonton, 8-9, also sits tied for the third and final playoff spot in the West Division with B.C., which entertains Calgary tonight.

The Eskimos and Lions round out the 2009 regular season next Friday in Vancouver.

Arkee Whitlock, on an eight-yard touchdown run on the final play of the opening quarter, and an eight-yard TD pass from Ricky Ray to Jason Barnes midway through the second quarter helped build the 17-0 lead.

Derek Schiavone -- replacing usual kicker Noel Prefontaine, who was out with a bruised ankle -- opened the scoring with a 14-yard field goal midway through the first quarter. Schiavone added a 12-yarder late in the opening half.

Justin Medlock connected on a 26-yard field goal for Toronto at 10:50 of the second quarter to make it 17-3. That score came two series after Stephen Reaves took over for Argos starting quarterback Kerry Joseph.

Reaves engineered an eight-play, 65-yard drive to cut it to 20-10, capped by a one-yard TD pass to Chad Lucas at the end of the second quarter.

T.J. Hill recorded his second interception return for a touchdown this campaign just 33 seconds into the second half as he picked off a Reaves pass and rambled 58 yards untouched to make it 27-10.

On the next Toronto series, former Argonauts defensive back Byron Parker made his second pick in three weeks against his old squad.

That brought yet another quarterbacking change as Joseph returned to the soft and beaten-down field. He didn't fare much better as the Toronto offence struggled for most of the evening before an announced crowd of 30,012.

Schiavone added field goals of 28, 22 and 33 yards in the fourth quarter.

The Eskimos had lost six of their last eight coming into this must-win situation.

"We've run out of time. We've used up more mulligans than we were entitled to," Eskimos head coach Richie Hall said Thursday.

"Our window (of opportunity) is like this," he added, holding his hands six inches apart.

The Argos, 3-14, were simply terrible, especially under Joseph's offensive direction. The loss was their seventh straight and 12th in 13 outings.

-- Canwest News Service

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 31, 2009 D3