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Toronto Argonauts slotback Chad Owens celebrated after defeating the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League Eastern final action in Nov. 2012 in Montreal. (AP Photo/THE CANADIAN PRESS,Ryan Remiorz)
• VIDEO: Watch Chad Owens’ one-handed grab
There are reasons that slotback Chad Owens has practiced one-handed catches since he played football at the University of Hawaii.
And catches like the highlight reel, game-winner Tuesday night in Ottawa are one of them.
Owens made a leaping one-handed, lay-out end zone grab of a ball that had appeared to be overthrown — with 25 seconds remaining — to give the Toronto Argonauts a 38-35 Canadian Football League victory over the Ottawa RedBlacks and a share of first place in the East Division.
"Unbelieveable!" Toronto head coach Scott Milanovich told the Toronto Sun. "I was watching it the whole way and I thought there was no way he could get to that. Just an amazing play by a great player and that’s why you count on."
Owens said, "You never know when the work you put in, when that moment it is going to pay off and it did for me right there."
He told Yahoo Sports Canada, "That’s what I told the guys, everything you do, that if you prepare like a champion, you can expect to make champion-like plays … I think (New York Giants star) Odell Beckham Jr. has really lit a fire for many receivers — if you practise something, you can make it happen, Every receiver must believe in his hands; it just so happened that I only needed one."
Owens said, "I told myself to dig, dig, dig, dig and, at the very last second (to) give it a shot."
Fans on the Canadian Football League website have voted it the play of the year in the CFL.
Owens, a 5-foot-8-inch, 180-pound Roosevelt High graduate in his seventh season in the CFL, has 39 catches for 431 yards and two touchdowns.
