Edmonton Eskimos win Grey Cup, beating Ottawa 26-20

WINNIPEG, Manitoba – Jordan Lynch scored on a 1-yard sneak with 3:17 left and the Edmonton Eskimos rallied to beat the Ottawa Redblacks 26-20 on Sunday night for their 14th Grey Cup title.

Lynch, the former Northern Illinois star in his rookie season with Eskimos, scored on a third-down play. Starting quarterback Mike Reilly, who played at Central Washington, then threw a 2-point conversion pass to Akeem Shavers.

Reilly was selected the most valuable player of the game.

Former Eastern Washington linebacker JC Sherritt had four tackles for the Eskimos.

The Eskimos won the Canadian Football League title for the first time since 2005.

The Redblacks advanced to the championship game in their second season in the league. The city’s last CFL championship came in 1976 with the former Rough Riders.

Edmonton’s winning five-play, 78-yard drive was aided by Eskimos coach Chris Jones’ successful challenge of an incompletion that was changed to pass interference against Ottawa’s Brandon Sermons. That gave the Eskimos the ball at the Redblacks 10.

Ottawa took a 13-0 lead halfway through the first quarter on Henry Burris’ 3-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Lavoie and a 7-yarder to Earnest Jackson.

The Eskimos cut it to 13-10 late in the quarter on Reilly’s 23-yard pass to Adarius Bowman. Edmonton took a 17-16 lead on Reilly’s 2-yard pass to Shavers with 12 seconds left in the half.

Ottawa regained the lead in the third on Chris Milo’s 33-yard field goal. Edmonton punter Grant Shaw had a 69-yard single in the third, and Milo countered with a 72-yarder in the fourth to make it 20-18.