Steve Milton: Ticat kicker Seth Small beats Ottawa on final play of the year at Tim Hortons Field

If you have to leave your fans this early in the fall - which is exactly what the Hamilton Tiger-Cats have to do - the best way to leave them is happy.

On the very last second of CFL football played at Tim Hortons Field in 2022, Seth Small smoothly stroked a 30-yard field goal to keep the Ticats' playoff aspirations firmly in their own hands.

When you put it that way, it gives me a chill," said Small, of his clutch three-pointer into a defiant north wind, which decided the Ticats' comeback 30-27 victory Friday night. It was his fifth field goal of the night.

Small added this, but didn't need to because most of the sellout 24,062 in attendance had already expressed it in various ecstatic forms of oskees, wee-wees and fist pumps: It's really great to win at home in that fashion."

Or, as head coach Orlondo Steinauer paraphrased, in any fashion.

Lugging a weighty 3-9 record through the season's opening two-thirds the Ticats had left themselves almost no room for error in the final third. And while they're still making far too many errors, they're also making big plays at big times and have gone 4-1 with one game to go in the final third; in Ottawa next Saturday with the last-place Redblacks now officially eliminated by Friday's loss.

With the tense win the Ticats can clinch a playoff berth with a victory next week in Ottawa, or maybe even before. They're also into the post-season if the Saskatchewan Roughriders, fourth in the West at 6-10, lose to Calgary Saturday night, which would formally excuse the Riders from crossing over to the East playoffs.

We had to handle our business here," a very upbeat, and very relieved, Steinauer said afterward. We have clawed and scratched to control our own situation down the stretch, and we've earned the right to control it.

There's just a camaraderie, a trust, a belief, we don't know how we're going to win each week. It's not overly-concerning how."

The how', though, is illustrative of the Ticats recently delivering enough, just enough, important moments to overcome the disastrous ones. All the earmarks were there for a blown opportunity against the gutsy, but ultimately outmanned, Redblacks (4-13).

You can't shoot yourself in the foot," Steinauer said of the dangerous tightrope his Ticats walked all night. It's not often you're going to win if you lose the turnover battle but it does show it can be done."

Ticat quarterback Dane Evans fumbled on a sack on the game's second play from scrimmage, Small missed a long field goal, Ottawa defensive back Brandin Dandridge stripped Steve Dunbar of the ball after the Ticat receiver's nice gain and took it 51 yards for a touchdown. That was part of the 21 points Ottawa scored in the second quarter with the big wind at their backs to erase a 10-0 Hamilton lead. The Ticats also turned the ball over on downs on their first possession of the second half (with the wind).

And, already missing starting running back Don Jackson with injury, the Ticats lost Evans with over nine minutes to go when he hurt the thumb of his throwing hand on a drive-extending 11-yard run that eventually led to a field goal that tied the game at 24-24.

Still, Ottawa had that much time with that much wind so it didn't look promising for Hamilton. But the defence held the Redblacks to just one more field goal, forced when Jovan Santos-Knox made a huge knock-down of Nick Arbuckle's second-down pass, and backup quarterback Matt Shiltz went to work from his own 42 yard line with 97 seconds left. He immediately carried the ball 25 yards up the middle himself, and also found Tim White for his seventh reception of the game, covering 20 yards. Two plays later Small came on to win it.

Shiltz who hadn't thrown a pass since Aug. 26 went 3-for-4 in the emergency relief stint.

We don't have to be checking scores," he said. We just have to worry about the Hamilton Tiger-Cats can do to win a football game. We control our own destiny."

If the Ticats make the playoffs, all the games will be on the road. They got their first road win last week in Calgary but won six of their last seven home games to put the post-season within reach.

Small was surprised to hear that he's now kicked 13 field goals in the last three games, all wins.

I think CFL stands for Crazy Fun League," he said. I'm having a blast up here."

Notes: Sean Thomas Erlington was superb at running back with 104 yards rushing on 13 carries ... Cedric Wilcots, obtained only two weeks ago in a trade with Winnipeg, made a critical sack-and-strip late in the third quarter, leading to a go-ahead Ticat touchdown that put the Ticats ... Dane Evans was 16-for-29 for 220 yards with one interception, and scored both Ticat TDs on short runs ... Tim White had 113 yards on seven receptions ... Nick Arbuckle went 19-for-27 for 166 yards and former Ticat Jackson Bennett rushed for 63 yards ... Micah Johnson had two Ticat sacks ... Ottawa short-yardage quarterback Caleb Evans' second touchdown of the game was his 15th of the year, a record for CFL pivots ... there was an enthusiastic ovation for Jeremiah Masoli after the Ticats' video tribute to the now-Redblack during the first quarter.

Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com