Joseph, Charles run for touchdowns to lead Eskimos past Argonauts

TORONTO – Kerry Joseph and Hugh Charles ran for touchdowns to lead the Edmonton Eskimos to a 26-17 win over the Toronto Argonauts on Monday night.

Joseph replaced injured starter Steven Jyles in the first half and had a one-yard TD run to end the first quarter for Edmonton (5-3) before Charles essentially cemented the Eskimos’ fifth straight win over the Argos with a 10-yard scamper 2:31 into the fourth.

Charles’ TD came after Toronto (4-4) made a game of it in the third.

After an embarrassingly lethargic opening half, the Argos’ offence opened the quarter with a three-play, 55-yard scoring drive capped by Ricky Ray’s 16-yard TD strike to Dontrelle Inman. Then on the final play of the quarter tailback Chad Kackert took a third-and-one handoff 25 yards for a TD to pull the Argos to within 19-17 before 22,912 spectators with the Rogers Centre roof closed.

Kackert’s TD was set up by Pacino Horne’s interception of Joseph at the Eskimos’ 34-yard line, Joseph’s second pick of the contest.

Ray drove Toronto to the Edmonton 27-yard line with over eight minutes remaining but was sacked on successive plays before Swayze Waters’ 50-yard field goal try sailed wide to keep it a two-possession game for the Argos. The home team got as far as the Eskimos’ 35-yard line with 1:20 remaining before turning the ball over on downs.

Jyles was making his first appearance in Toronto since being dealt to Edmonton with kicker Grant Shaw and a 2012 draft pick for Ray last December. Eskimos tailback Cory Boyd also participated in his first game against the Argos two weeks after surprisingly being released by the club.

Shaw had four field goals and two converts for Edmonton.

Waters booted a field goal and two converts for Toronto.

Edmonton converted two Ray interceptions into 10 points en route to a 16-3 half-time advantage.

Linebacker J.C. Sherritt’s interception at the Edmonton 16-yard line set up Joseph’s one-yard TD run on the final play of the first to stake the Eskimos to a 10-3 advantage. Safety Donovan Alexander picked off Ray again later in the quarter, setting up Shaw’s 12-yard field goal at 12:43.

Jyles left the game with 45 seconds remaining in the first with a right leg injury.

Toronto’s lone points of the half, Waters’ 17-yard field goal early in the second, was set up by an Ahmad Carroll interception after Carroll was flagged for a 49-yard pass interference call that put Edmonton at the Argos’ four-yard line and set up Joseph’s TD run.

Edmonton dominated the opening half, holding the ball for more than 19 minutes and outgaining Toronto 233-69 yards overall and registering 15 first downs, compared to just five for the Argos. And the Rogers Centre faithful let the home team know of their displeasure, booing the offence off the field after a two-yard completion to Inman on a second-and-nine situation.

Ray finished the first half 9-of-15 passing for just 49 yards.

NOTES — Trampolinist Rosie MacLennan, Canada’s only gold medallist in London, was among the group of Olympic athletes honoured prior to the opening kickoff . . . Ray is on pace to surpass 5,000 yards passing for the fourth time in his 10-year CFL career. He accomplished the feat three times with Edmonton. Also, Argos special-teams dynamo Chad Owens came into the game on pace for 4,274 all-purpose yards, which would obliterate the league record of 3,840 held by Mike (Pinball) Clemons . . .Sherritt came into weekend action with a league-high 58 tackles, a pace that would give him a league-record 149. He also had an interception in the first, his third straight game with a pick . . . Monday night’s game was broadcast south of the border on the NBC Sports Network.