Roughriders win, add to Elks' home misery

EDMONTON — The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ recent dominance over the Edmonton Elks continued on Saturday.

Mitchell Picton’s fourth quarter touchdown catch proved to be the difference as the Roughriders remained perfect on the young Canadian Football League season with a 26-16 victory over the Elks, their sixth straight win over Edmonton.

“It was a scrappy game, we knew it's gonna be tough,” said Saskatchewan quarterback Cody Fajardo, who passed for 247 yards.

“We knew that they were gonna be ready to play in their home opener, but we will never apologize for how we found a way to win. We found a way to score in the fourth quarter to win the football game and I feel like that's what we've been doing the past couple of years.”

The Roughriders are 2-0, after also defeating Hamilton in their opening game.

The Elks dropped to 0-2 after losing 59-15 in their first game to the B.C. Lions, and have now gone nine games without a win at home. Edmonton went 0-7 last season at Commonwealth Stadium.

“We didn't play good enough defensively to win the football game, and we had enough mistakes both in the kicking game and on offence to not allow us to win the football game," said Elks head coach and defensive coordinator Chris Jones. "When you play like we played, you don't deserve to win.

"We've got to play more acute football. We're making some strides, we've got a good locker room."

Saskatchewan struck for a 50-yard field goal from Brett Lauther on its opening drive.

Edmonton was minus-one yard in offence in the first quarter.

There was no further scoring until midway through the second, when Lauther connected for an 18-yard field goal.

After Edmonton’s Matt Thomas recovered a fumble off a missed field goal return at the Saskatchewan