With just over one-third of their 2025 season complete, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are currently in first place in the Eastern Division with a 5-2 record and a five-game win streak.
The Ticats beat the B.C. Lions on the road at Save-on-Foods Field in B.C. Place on Sunday by a score of 37-33, despite never having the lead in the game until the very end.
By winning the game on Sunday, the Ticats won their fifth game in a row for the first time since November 2019 – nearly six years ago.
This is also only the third time in the past 27 years that the Ticats have had a five-game win streak.
That streak comes despite the team losing its first two games of the season and despite being down by 10 points to B.C. with under four minutes left to play.
The Ticats rallied from that point, scoring two straight touchdowns thanks to a 44-yard pass from quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell to Brendan O’Leary-Orange and a pass from the one-yard line through the field goal posts to receiver Kiondré Smith.
The Ticats trailed at the end of every single quarter except the end, with a score of 14-3 after one, 20-13 at the half, and 23-20 after the third.
Star Ticats’ receiver Kenny Lawler, who is second in the league for receiving yards and first in the league for receiving touchdowns, was somewhat limited by the Lions, who double-teamed him for most of the game.
However, that freed up other Ticats receivers, including Smith, who had 14 catches for 138 yards and two touchdowns and Tim White, who had six catches for 86 yards.
Mitchell went 34 for 41 and threw 389 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. He added 23 yards on the ground.
Mitchell leads the league in both yards thrown and passing touchdowns.
Ticat kicker Marc Liegghio converted three field goals in the game and has now made 33 in a row, which is the fourth-longest streak of all-time in the Canadian Football League (CFL).
The Ticats managed to beat the star-studded B.C. team, which includes Canadian quarterback Nathan Rourke, the league’s leading receiver Keon Hatcher, and the league’s leading running back James Butler.
The Lions’ three touchdowns were ironically all scored by former Ticat players.
Former Ticat running back Butler scored two rushing touchdowns in the first quarter before former Ticat quarterback Jeremiah Masoli scored a rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter.
The Ticats’ win against B.C. comes after they completed a four-game sweep of the Eastern Division in hugely important matches against Ottawa (twice), Toronto, and Montreal, which currently gives them the edge in the standings due to tiebreaking rules.
In Week 4 of the season, Mitchell also became the tenth quarterback in CFL history to reach 100 career wins and the fastest to accomplish the feat, doing so in only 143 games.
The Ticats play Edmonton on the road at 3 p.m. this Saturday before returning home to Hamilton on Thursday, Aug. 7, at 7:30 p.m. to face B.C. once again.
The next home match features special festivities as part of Shai Rally Day in honour of hometown NBA champion and MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
