The Montreal Alouettes will have to wait until their match-up against the Calgary Stampeders next Sunday in Montreal to get into the win column against a Western Division team, as they were outlasted 33-16 by an Edmonton Eskimo squad Friday, which benefited from a late surge to win.

In spite of their 3-8 record, the Als remain in the thick of the hunt in the East, as the Argos lead the division with a 3-7 record, with seven games remaining. 

Mike Reilly scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns in his return as quarterback to help the hometown Eskimos end a two-game skid.

"It was a game where we just couldn't get the offence that we would have liked to have had, but that's what happens when you play against a pretty good defence," said Montreal head coach Tom Higgins. "We hung in there defensively, and all of a sudden it started to break and it opened up out there. Edmonton ends up winning and we have to re-evaluate. We faded a bit in the fourth quarter and couldn't finish."

Jonathan Crompton made his third consecutive start, but admitted he had trouble getting going in the early running on Friday.

"It was a hard-fought game. It was two hard-nosed teams coming out there and battling," he said. "Obviously we would have like to have made a couple of more plays than we did. I have to take ownership and make sure we execute better early in the game. That's on me. If I had made a couple of more plays early and we move the ball early, things would probably be different."

Montreal has failed to capture a road win this season in five attempts.

"Wins are getting tough to come by, and winning against the West is tough to come by," Higgins said. "All of our wins are at home and thank goodness we will be playing at home again real soon."

The game started slowly, with Edmonton taking a 2-0 lead midway through the opening quarter on a safety. The Eskimos added a 39-yard Hugh O'Neill field goal to lead 5-0 at the end of the first.

Montreal responded with a 39-yard field goal of its own from Sean Whyte early in the second quarter.

Edmonton took a 6-3 lead with five minutes left after a missed O'Neill field goal attempt.

The game's first big play came with four minutes remaining as Kendial Lawrence returned a punt 51 yards in Montreal territory, however it wasn't long before Tyler Thomas fumbled the ball away on a rushing play, with Winston Venable scooping it up for the Alouettes.

Low-scoring half

A 46-yard field goal by Whyte with 15 seconds remaining in the second quarter made it 6-6 at halftime. Montreal only had four first downs in the first half.

Edmonton surged back to a 9-6 lead three minutes into the third quarter on a 16-yard O'Neill field goal. The field goal was a disappointing result after Reilly made a 54-yard passing play to Fred Stamps to get the Eskimos into the red zone.

Whyte kicked a 42-yard three-pointer to tie it 9-9 with five minutes in the third quarter left.

The third quarter ended with yet another field goal as Edmonton went back up by three on a 31-yarder by O'Neill.

The pace picked up in the fourth quarter, however.

Montreal finally became the first team to find the end zone 30 seconds into the fourth as Crompton passed to a wide-open Duron Carter for a long 64-yard touchdown strike.

"The touchdown really seemed to be a bit of a wake-up call for us," said coach Jones. "We blew a coverage and gave up a big play and ended up being behind for the first time and it seemed to light a fire under us."

Edmonton came roaring back to regain the lead two minutes later as a 48-yard passing play to Adarius Bowman eventually set up a one-yard TD plunge by Reilly to put Edmonton up 19-16.

The Eskimos stayed in the higher gear and put together a competent drive that was capped of when Thomas found a hole and scampered 20-yards across the goal line with seven minutes remaining in the final frame.

Edmonton continued to look like an entirely different team in the final quarter as they made it 33-16 on a seven-yard Reilly TD run with 1:37 remaining.

-With a file from The Canadian Press