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News August 31, 2025

Game Recap | Labour Day Classic – Wpg 30 Sask 34

Nic Demski in action in Sunday's Labour Day Classic; photos by Sam Calvert

@EdTaitWFC

REGINA — It was a slugfest in every sense of the word. A street fight in cleats, a gridiron battle royale that very much put the ‘classic’ in Labour Day Classic.

And in the end the Winnipeg Blue Bombers threw some punches but took one too many in return in a 34-30 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders that not only drops them to 6-5, but also now throws some shade on a potential home playoff game.

The Roughriders victory, coming in front of a capacity crowd of 34,243 that featured a ton of Bomber blue, improves Saskatchewan to 9-2, with the Calgary Stampeders — in action Monday against Edmonton — at 7-3 and in second place in the West Division.

The tasty part of this for fans? The Blue Bombers and Roughriders will do this all over again on Saturday in the Banjo Bowl.

“Great battle. Nobody in here likes the outcome, none of our fans do but if you’re talking about the game itself, it was a helluva game,” said Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea.

“Nobody’s happy. We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to fix our mistakes. I mean, it’s going to be another battle, but we have to be better.”

More from our view in the press box at Mosaic Stadium on the Blue Bombers Labour Day Classic loss…

A GAME OF INCHES… AND MISTAKES

The Blue Bombers trailed 31-17 with just over 10 minutes left in the game but got up off the mat to keep swinging. Zach Collaros — who was brilliant in completing 26-of-37 passes for 326 yards with three touchdowns — rallied the squad with a TD pass to Keric Wheatfall with four minutes remaining and then connected to Dalton Schoen for another score with 30 seconds left to pull the club to within two at 32-20.

Alas, the two-point conversion attempt was intercepted by Tevaughn Campbell and returned for a two-point safety. Even with that, the club looked to have recovered an ensuing onside kick — Sergio Castillo himself was at the bottom of the pile — but the officials awarded the ball to the Riders to seal the deal.

That wacky ending came despite the Blue Bombers surrendering five sacks, despite the ground game being completely shut down with just 25 yards rushing — 24 by Brady Oliveira — and despite eight penalties for 70 yards.

“We’re a resilient group,” said Oliveira. “Even though there were times when it looked like it was out of reach — when the fans thought that, when the outsiders thought that — our group still felt like we were in it. We had total belief in the sidelines and were going to fight to the end, which we did.

“But there are no moral victories. We lost the game, and the standings will show that as an ‘L.’ Hats off to Sask. Good team. Great defence. But we’re excited to have another opportunity against them next week because we’ve got to channel all this frustration that we’re feeling right now and unleash it next week.”

A SNAPSHOT SEQUENCE

Again, backslaps all around for the fourth-quarter rally. But if there was one series that was emblematic of the Blue Bombers frustratingly inconsistent effort it came on the club’s first possession of the fourth quarter.

Facing a second and four from their own 37-yard line, Oliveira rumbled for 14 yards to the Winnipeg 51. Yet, the Blue Bombers were nailed for illegal procedure penalty — no end — and then faced a second-and-nine.

Next play Collaros completed a 16-yard strike to Dillon Mitchell, but an offensive pass interference penalty against Nic Demski wiped out that potential first down. Then, on second-and-19 a time-count penalty made it second-and-24.

It gets worse.

Facing a second-and-24 the Blue Bombers called for a draw just to get some yardage back and after an eight-yard run by Oliveira he fumbled, giving the Riders the ball at Winnipeg’s 35.

Four plays later and the Riders were in the end zone, followed by a two-point conversion, to go up 31-17.

“We had a tough go at the beginning of the fourth where we converted, took a penalty; converted, took a penalty,” said O’Shea. “We’re second and long and then we give the ball up. If we survive that with a punt or we convert without takin the penalties it would be a different ball game.

“But (Saskatchewan) is going to to have things that they say, too, that they would have wanted done differently. It’s a four-point game. We almost get the onside kick — Sergio’s got it and it gets ripped out from under the pile — otherwise we’re in business again with 28 seconds left.

“That’s a great game. Once again, nobody’s satisfied — don’t take it the wrong way, please. They battled right to the very end.”

THE SEQUEL COMES FAST

Nobody was trotting out the ‘moral victory’ thing in the locker room post-game — as Oliveira mentioned above — but there were some signs of fight in this one the club can take into the Banjo Bowl in six days.

“At times we played great today and at times we let things snowball,” said defensive tackle Jake Thomas. “There was one series where the defence just couldn’t get off the field, another series where the penalties piled up.

“There aren’t too many positives after a loss but in that last five minutes we showed a lot of will to make it a game there. We didn’t fold. We’re not happy with the result, but we have an opportunity to redeem ourselves in six days.”

Bingo. The Blue Bombers still have two more against the Roughriders and, based on Sunday’s effort, these teams are closer than a lot of folks across the CFL figured heading into Labour Day.

“This room isn’t lacking belief,” said Thomas. “The biggest thing is we’ve got to put together 60 minutes. This is a hard league to win in, but it’s a really hard league to win in when you shoot yourself in the foot.

“We’ll watch the film, take our lumps, but the beauty of a short week is we get right back at them.”

NOTABLE

  • Collaros moved past both Michael Reilly (34,805) and Dieter Brock (34,830) into 15th place on the CFL’s all-time passing list. Collaros is now at 35,067 in his career with Toronto, Hamilton, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. He also moved past Ken Ploen into third place on the Blue Bombers all-time TD passes list with 122, now behind only Brock (187) and Khari Jones (139).
  • Nic Demski extended his consecutive games streak with at least one catch to 82 and also moved past the 6,000-yard receiving mark for his career.
  • DT and Regina product Tanner Schmekel was injured in the first half and did not return.

KEY MOMENT:

Amazingly, it came late in a game that figured to be over with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter. But the Collaros-led rally was snuffed out when Campbell stepped in front of the pass on the two-point conversion attempt to Schoen

KEY STAT: 38%

Winnipeg’s second-down conversion rate was just eight-of-21, for 38 percent. And on a day when the offence came in spurts, one more first down here or there could have been the difference in a single-score loss.

NEXT:

The Blue Bombers are home after two road trips for the annual Banjo Bowl, next Saturday, September 6th, at 3 p.m. CDT. The game, as per usual, is already sold out.