Blue Bombers rookie Alexis Serna continued to turn his season around with four field goals as his team closed the CFL regular season with a 44-30 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Saturday afternoon.
Winnipeg finishes with an 8-10 record and hosts the Edmonton Eskimos next Saturday in the East Division semifinal.
Hamilton ends another futile season at 3-15, matching last year's record.
Serna, who entered the game with a league-low 63.8 per cent field-goal percentage, hit field goals from nine, 27, 43 and 51 yards, his longest of the season. He's been good on 11 of his last 12 attempts.
Winnipeg receiver Romby Bryant hauled in his eighth and nine touchdowns of the season off passes of five and 85 yards from Kevin Glenn, who started the game and was replaced by Bryan Randall late in the second quarter.
Glenn completed 11-of-14 passes for 166 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. The pair of TD passes gave him 104 in his career, tying him with Jack Jacobs for fourth place on the Bombers' career passing TD list.
Winnipeg also got a TD from defensive back Jovon Johnson, who intercepted a Casey Printers pass and ran 50 yards into the end zone in front of 24,595 fans at Canad Inns Stadium.
Bombers kick returner Casey McGahee, who struggled all game, took a punt return back 57 yards for a TD with under three minutes left in the game. Ticats kicker Nick Setta conceded two safeties to round out Winnipeg's points total.
Setta was good on field goals from 22 and 53 yards, but hit the upright on a 57-yard attempt. He also had a 62-yard punt single.
The Bombers led 19-0 in the first quarter until Printers connected with receiver Eddie Cohen for a 67-yard catch-and-run TD as time expired in the opening frame.
Cohen had a second TD called back after he was flagged for pass interference in the third quarter.
Bryant's second TD and field goals by Serna and Setta gave Winnipeg a 29-10 halftime lead.
Printers was hurt early in the third quarter from a hit and didn't return. He was 6-of-16 for 131 yards, one TD and one interception.
Rookie Ticats pivot Adam Tafralis recorded his first two CFL touchdown passes with a six-yarder to running back Kenton Keith in the third quarter and a 24-yard strike to receiver Chris Davis late in the fourth.
Tafralis was 15-of-29 for 197 yards, two TDs and one interception.
With Winnipeg up 32-21, the teams exchanged turnovers early in the fourth.
McGahee fumbled a punt return that the Ticats recovered at Winnipeg's 43-yard line, but on the next play Tafralis was intercepted by Stanford Samuels.
After runs of 45 yards by Reid and 17 yards by Randall, Serna's nine-yard field goal for a 35-23 lead.
Former Ticat pivot Timmy Chang replaced Randall with two minutes left, getting in a few throws in his first game this season.
Randall was 6-of-12 for 61 yards.
CFL all-time TD and receiving yardage king Milt Stegall had one catch for 10 yards for the Bombers. If this is the 14-year veteran's final CFL campaign, he finishes with 147 TDs and 15,153 yards receiving in 199 regular-season games.
Notes: Hamilton rookie receiver Prechae Rodriguez went over 1,000 yards receiving, the first for a Ticat since 2005. Bombers receiver Derick Armstrong caught two passes for 20 yards, giving him 1,010 yards.
