HAMILTON — It was Jonathon Jennings' first game ever playing in front of a hostile Hamilton crowd, let alone a sold-out stadium.

But the sophomore quarterback for the B.C. Lions calmly recovered from a frustrating and unproductive first half against the Tiger-Cats to lead his team to a 28-3 Canada Day victory in front of 24,123 angry fans at Tim Hortons Field.

"You always love to play in a packed environment. To have those fans rooting against you, it's kind of motivating," said the 23-year-old, who was starting his ninth straight game for the Lions since taking over last September. "It was fun."

Jennings threw his first touchdown pass of the season to Emmanuel Arceneaux and running back Shaq Murray-Lawrence ran in another as the Lions improved to 2-0. Lions kicker Richie Leone made three of his five field-goal attempts, hitting from 44, 31 and 21 yards while missing shots from 36 and 35 yards out on a trademark blustery day in Hamilton.

Ticats kicker Brett Maher missed all three field-goal attempts, from 36, 48 and 42 yards.

Ryan Phillips and Loucheiz Purifoy each had an interception off Ticat pivot Jeremiah Masoli and Hamilton defensive end John Chick recovered two fumbles. The B.C. defence sacked Masoli four times while Hamilton got to Jennings only once.

Masoli, starting for Hamilton while Zach Collaros recovers from knee surgery, struggled to complete 26-of-39 pass attempts for 248 yards, zero TDs and two interceptions.

Jennings finished 16-of-27 passing for 228 yards and one TD.

The score was only 7-2 for the Lions heading into halftime. They led 4-2 in the opening quarter on missed field goals by each team, a successful 44-yarder by Leone and an 89-yard punt single by Maher.

The Lions controlled the ball for 6:09 ending the first and heading into the second quarter, but after 13 plays had to settle for a single point when Leone missed a 35-yard field-goal attempt.

B.C. had to settle again on its next possession. Jennings hit Sean Gore for a 60-yard gain down the right sideline. Gore was horse-tackled by Geoff Tisdale and the penalty put the ball at the Hamilton four-yard-line. Jennings fumbled on the next play, and Chick recovered the ball on the five-yard-line. B.C. ended up scoring a safety.

"I thought we did a decent job in the first half, we just didn't finish drives," said Jennings. "We just focused on continuing to execute and in the second half things turned around."

Meanwhile, the Lions defence held Hamilton(1-1) to its worst offensive performance at home in 10 years. The Tiger-Cats scored their fewest points at home since a 20-2 loss against Toronto on Aug. 12, 2006.

"You have to tip your hats to them," said Masoli. "Their defence played hard. We just got beat."

Solomon Elimimian led B.C. with six tackles and a forced fumble.

"(Coach) Wally (Buono) stressed intensity and physicality and that's something we showed early on," he said. "They're a physical team so we've got to come prepared and we've got to master the intensity and take the crowd out of it because they get such a huge boost from that crowd."

Buono called the win a full-team effort.

"It was a combination of all three facets of our team," he said. "To come on the road and win. To come to Hamilton and win is always very impressive."

Discipline was a factor in the outcome. Hamilton had 13 penalties for 105 yards to B.C.'s seven for 40 yards.

"I told the team afterwards I'll take responsibility for this," said Hamilton coach Kent Austin. "We've got to get more disciplined and make fewer mistakes."

Hamilton hosts Winnipeg in Week 3 while B.C. welcomes Toronto.