Castillo’s 23-yard field goal lifts Blue Bombers to 14-13 victory over Tiger-Cats

HAMILTON — Rookie Taylor Elgersma and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the battle of attrition Sunday night.

Sergio Castillo’s 23-yard field goal with 21 seconds remaining lifted Winnipeg to a 14-13 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in a game that saw both starting quarterbacks knocked out with injuries.

That resulted in Elgersma and Hamilton’s Tre Ford both seeing action, marking the first time since 1969 that two U Sports quarterbacks both attempted a pass in a CFL game. Ford won the ’21 Hec Crighton Trophy at Waterloo while Elgersma earned the 2024 honour at Laurier.

“Two premier starting quarterbacks going down in the same game is not good for the league,” said Winnipeg head coach Mike O’Shea. “Hopefully both guys make a speedy recovery, I don’t know anything about either one right now.

“Bo was on a heater and the league needs that and obviously we believe Zach is the best quarterback in the league. When you lose that, the game ends up probably the lowest-scoring game this season I’d imagine.”

The 27 combined points is the lowest so far this season, supplanting Edmonton’s 23-18 victory over Winnipeg last month.

Collaros suffered an upper-body injury after being sacked by Hamilton’s Reggie Stubblefield early in the second quarter. Mitchell left the field in an ambulance early in the third after being sacked by Winnipeg’s Jake Ceresna, who landed hard on Mitchell’s left leg.

Elgersma finished 11-of-15 passing for 86 yards with a touchdown in his first action this season with Winnipeg (2-2).

But the six-foot-five, 240-pound London, Ont., native got a huge helping hand from running back Brady Oliveira. The CFL’s top player and Canadian ran for 84 yards on 17 carries, with 40 coming on seven straight carries to set up Castillo’s winning boot and cap a 12-play, 54-yard march took 2:46 off the clock.

“Everyone knew we were going to run it and we were still churning out positive yards and positive plays to give Sergio a chance at the end,” Elgersma said. “That’s all you want, especially as a young quarterback going in there for the first time, having an O-line and back to trust, it’s something that’s super important.”

Neither Winnipeg nor Hamilton provided updates on their injured starters after the contest.

Stubblefield hit Collaros’s shoulder first and Stubblefield’s arm appeared to then contact the quarterback’s head. Collaros, 37, who has a history of concussions, walked off the field but never returned after completing five-of-seven passes for 41 yards with an interception.

But O’Shea was pleased with what he saw from Elgersma.

“I thought he took care of the football very well, I thought he made good decisions,” he said. “I thought he handled himself very well.

“I thought there were some conditions that happened in the game that can make it even tougher and I thought he battled through it.”

Mitchell’s situation look far worse.

Hamilton lost Mitchell just 3:24 into the third. He remained on the field for at least 10 minutes and his left leg was stabilized before Mitchell went on a stretcher and into an ambulance that had come on to the field.

Mitchell, 36, the East Division’s top player the last two seasons, gave the crowd the thumbs up before going into the ambulance. Mitchell was limited to six games in 2023, his first season with Hamilton, with a lower leg fracture.

Mitchell was 18-of-29 passing for 228 yards and a touchdown. Ford (three-of-seven passing, 12 yards) and Jake Dolegala (0-for-two) shared starters reps afterwards.

“I told both after Bo went down that they were going to go,” Hamilton head coach Scott Milanovich said. “There were some plays one of the guys was more familiar with and one wasn’t.

“That was pretty much the function of what was going on there.”

Mitchell was enjoying a stellar ’26 season. He entered Sunday’s game having completed 68-of-81 passes (CFL-best 84 per cent) for 879 yards with eight TDs and one interception.

And over his previous two starts, Mitchell was a combined 34-of-42 passing (80.9 per cent) for 572 yards with eight TDs and no interceptions. He’d also earned a perfect quarterback efficiency rating of 158.3 in each game, becoming just the eighth quarterback (with at least 15 pass attempts) to do so and first since Toronto’s Ricky Ray in 2013.

Now, there’s no shortage of uncertainty surrounding the Ticats’ season, not to mention who’ll start Sunday when Hamilton (2-2) visits the defending-champion Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-1).

“If he’s out for a while, I’ll feel for Bo the person,” Milanovich said. “I told you guys in training camp he’s been on a tear.

“It’s the best I’ve ever seen him play and I think he is/was depending on the situation, poised to have just a monster year. Hopefully he’ll be back but if he’s not then we’re going to have to pick up the pieces.”

Following an 18-minute delay, play resumed and Winnipeg responded. Trey Vaval’s 46-yard punt return set up Elgersma’s 31-yard TD pass to Ontaria Wilson at 4:10, cutting Hamilton’s lead to 13-11.

Ford appeared to hit Kenny Lawler with a 51-yard TD pass 22 seconds into the fourth but upon review it was ruled incomplete.

Lawler had Hamilton’s touchdown. Marc Liegghio added two field goals and a convert.

Castillo kicked two field goals, a single and convert for Winnipeg.

Castillo’s missed 56-yard field goal attempt went for the single at 14:23 of the second, cutting Hamilton’s halftime lead to 13-4. Liegghio put Hamilton ahead 13-3 with a 20-yard field goal at 12:17.

Castillo’s 46-yard field goal at 12:33 pulled Winnipeg to within 7-3. Liegghio restored the seven-point advantage at 6:27 with a 10-yard field goal.

Lawler opened the scoring with a 19-yard TD grab two minutes into the first. It was set up by Destin Talbert’s interception on Winnipeg’s first play from scrimmage.

UP NEXT

Blue Bombers: Host the Toronto Argonauts (2-2) on Friday.

Tiger-Cats: Visit the Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-1) on Sunday, July 12.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2026.

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press