Fajardo bounces back as Roughriders roll past Rourke-less Lions

The Saskatchewan Roughriders closed out their CFL season series with a 23-16 road win over the injury-stricken B.C. Lions on Friday night at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.

Kian Schaffer-Baker and Tevin Jones had touchdowns for Saskatchewan, while Brett Lauther connected on all three of his field-goal attempts and added a convert. Jacob Scarfone caught a touchdown pass for B.C., while Sean Whyte went 3-for-3 on field-goal attempts.

In his first CFL start following last week's injury to B.C.'s Nathan Rourke, Michael O'Connor went 6-for-15 for 94 yards. He was replaced by Antonio Pipkin with 8:21 left to play in the second quarter. Pipkin went 9-for-17 in the air for 112 yards, and also ran for 26 yards.

Rourke had surgery on Friday to repair the Lisfranc sprain in his right foot.

On the Lions' opening drive, O'Connor moved the ball efficiently into scoring position. Following a 17-yard kickoff return by Loucheiz Purifoy, the 26-year-old connected with Bryan Burnham and Lucky Whitehead as part of a 46-yard drive that led to a Whyte field goal, just 2:29 into the game.

There was no further scoring in the first quarter.

Saskatchewan posted its first points of the game with 8:35 left to play in the first half, when Brett Lauther connected on a 20-yard field goal after Fajardo hit Schaffer-Baker with a 49-yard dart that took the Riders down to the B.C. 13-yard line.

On the Lions' next possession, Antonio Pipkin took over at quarterback, after O'Connor suffered a reported groin injury on a hard hit from Saskatchewan's Darnell Sankey on the previous drive, which resulted in a 15-yard penalty for roughing the passer.

The Riders quickly got the ball back, then scored the first major of the game with 3:57 left before halftime, when