Field Goal Gives B.C. Grey Cup : CFL: Passaglia, a 19-year veteran, atones for earlier miss as Lions defeat Baltimore, 26-23, for title.

Lui Passaglia kicked a 38-yard field goal on the last play of the Grey Cup on Sunday, giving the British Columbia Lions a 26-23 victory over Baltimore for the Canadian Football League championship.

In what might have been the last game of his brilliant 19-year career in the CFL, Passaglia kicked four field goals. His winning kick atoned for a missed 37-yarder a minute earlier, and the Lions had their first Grey Cup title in nine years.

“After I missed the first one, I went straight to the (kicking) net on the sidelines because I knew we might get another shot,” Passaglia said. “I put the miss out of my mind and worked on my technique against the net. I had to make the second one. I don’t think I would have got a third one.”

Baltimore, an expansion team playing with all U.S. players, made a critical blunder in the fourth quarter when quarterback Tracy Ham fumbled at the B.C. one-yard line and Tony Collier recovered for the Lions.

“There’s a lot of heartache in this dressing room,” Baltimore Coach Don Matthews said.

Ham insisted he should have had a touchdown on the play.

“The ball went over the goal line before I fumbled,” he said. “It was a touchdown, a bad call.”

The victory by the Lions means the Grey Cup stays in Canada. Baltimore was the first American team to reach the championship game. The Lions are the first team to win the championship at home since Montreal in 1977.

B.C. used the strong running of Cory Philpot and Sean Millington in a second-half comeback, erasing a seven-point halftime deficit before a raucous crowd of 55,097 at B.C. Place.

Passaglia, 40, is the career leading scorer in the CFL, and the Vancouver-born kicker says he will decide in the spring if he will retire.