Rakeem Cato's 3 touchdowns lead Alouettes past Stampeders

Rakeem Cato's three touchdown passes in his CFL debut led the Montreal Alouettes to a 29-11 victory over the Calgary Stampeders.

With Jonathan Crompton and Dan LeFevour suffering from injuries, Cato became the fourth Alouettes quarterback to play this season. Brandon Bridge came off the bench, contributing six rushing yards on four attempts.

Cato threw a six-yard touchdown pass to Sam Giguere to open the scoring for the Alouettes. The 23-year-old also found Nik Lewis for an identical six-yard score to give the Alouettes a 16-0 halftime lead. Lewis spent the first 11 years of his career with the Stampeders before joining the Alouettes in February.

With 7:15 left in the third quarter, Cato found Cody Hoffman for a 15-yard touchdown, extending the Alouettes' lead to 22-0 before Rene Paredes finally put the Stampeders on the board with a 28-yard field goal. The Alouettes' rookie went 20-of-25 for 241 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions in an excellent first start.

Calgary's Jon Cornish punched in a 1-yard touchdown with 10:35 remaining in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late for the Stampeders.

Both Montreal and Calgary moved to 1-1 for the season.