Mitchell Gale and the leg of Tyler Crapigna were enough to push the Saskatchewan Roughriders to their first win of the season on Friday night.

Crapigna nailed a 53-yard field goal with 1:03 to go in the game to give the Riders a 30-29 lead on the Ottawa Redblacks and the defence did the rest to seal the first win of 2016 for the Green and White

“I had a little bit of wind at my back, I knew I just need to get it up there, I didn’t need to put a lot of power and that’s all I did, get it up there, hit it smooth and hit it straight,” said Crapigna, who finished the game 5-for-5 on the field goals.

“The ultimate goal for the kicker is wanting your teammates to know that when it comes down to the moments that they need that you’re going to come through for them.”

Friday night’s game was the battle of two back-up quarterbacks after Redblacks starter — who was starting in place of Henry Burris — Trevor Harris was knocked out of the game with a lower body injury on Ottawa’s first series of the game.

Gale was able to out perform his counterpart in Brock Jensen, finishing the game 21-for-36 for 354 yards and an 88-yard touchdown bomb to receiver Naaman Roosevelt on the final play of the third quarter.

That touchdown cut the Redblacks’ lead to 26-24 and gave the Riders, and Rider Nation, some life after another slow first quarter for Saskatchewan.

“What an example of a team win,” said Gale after the game.  “Special teams picked up there late, defence picked us up, offence we made big plays.  I think the reason why you hear so much noise in that room is number one it’s our first win, but we won as a team.

“We were winless, we knew that, we had chances to win those first three games and we did do it, so we felt the pressure from ourselves because at this level every single person in that locker room is a competitor and when you lose the first three games the way that we did and when you start hearing the things that you hear, as a competitor, you want to go out and put your best foot forward.”

Outside of a third quarter that included three straight two-and-outs before the Roosevelt touchdown, the Riders’ offence looked strong, moving the ball and just missing on finishing drives.

Roosevelt put together another big game to help Gale, who was making his first career CFL start at quarterback.  The second-year receiver finished with eight catches for 182 yards, his third 100-yard game this season.

“This win is amazing, we needed this,” said Roosevelt.  “We’ve fought hard, not even this week, but all season, we’ve fought hard and we knew we needed to come get a victory this weekend.”

Roosevelt said he liked what he saw from Gale under centre during the win.

“He did awesome, he did a good job with calming us all down and having the confidence and we just see the confidence that he has and he just brings us more confidence and excitement and we just want to go out and make plays for him,” said Roosevelt.

The Riders’ special teams had a big bounce back performance from a week ago as Crapigna was perfect on field goals and Josh Bartel averaged 47.4 yards on punts.

Tevaughn Campbell provided a big spark for the Riders in the second quarter as he returned Otha Foster’s blocked punt for a touchdown that put Saskatchewan in front 17-9 at that point.

It was redemption for the special teams after last week, and for Campbell, who was beat for a couple of touchdowns in the loss to BC.

“We were leading and we needed more plays, we needed something to happen and that’s exactly what happened,” said the University of Regina product.

“I put last week in the past and didn’t think about it, and it was a good feeling to get that touchdown and benefit the team.”

The Redblacks came into Saskatchewan with the top offence in the CFL, but they faced some adversity when Harris went down early.  Jensen showed well, going 20-of-29 for 271 yards and two touchdowns in his first CFL action.

Brad Sinopoli was his top target as he beat the Riders for two big touchdowns, finishing with five catches for 156 yards, including 113 yards after the catch.

Ottawa’s big duo of Chris Williams and Greg Ellingson, who entered the game 1-2 in the league in receiving were held in check with one catch for 14 yards and three catches for 21 yards, respectively.

“(Chris Williams) came to the boundary side and number one Buddy Jackson was over there,” joked Jackson.  “At the end of the day, our coach put us in position to make plays so I just played ball.

“I loved going up against Williams.  At the end of the day, they work hard, we work hard, we all bleed red and it’s all about going out there and competing.”

As the Riders’ offence stalled out in the third quarter, the defence was able to hold to just two field goals and keep the team within striking distance.

“We did a good job of not panicking, we knew we had the wind in the fourth and it proved to be very important for us,” said head coach Chris Jones.  “We were able to go down and do what we needed to do to win a football game.”

The win is the first of the Chris Jones era for the Riders.  They will return to the field on Monday to start preparing to face the Montreal Alouettes next Friday.