Jeremiah Masoli will be under centre when the BC Lions (1-1) host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1-0) on Saturday night, head coach Buck Pierce confirmed on Friday.

The veteran quarterback steps up after Nathan Rourke picked up a core injury late in the two teams' meeting last week. The Bombers won the game 34-20.

"Nathan's going to dress, but we're going to play Jeremiah," Pierce. "[Rourke]'s preparing. He's moving around, preparing, just like everybody. He's working hard. If need be, we'll see how he feels tomorrow. But we're going to move forward with Jeremiah."

Masoli, 36, is in his 12th season and first with the Lions. The Oregon and Ole Miss product spent the past three campaigns with the Ottawa Redblacks.

"It's exciting," Masoli said. "We've all been kinda working our tails off since we've played these guys last, so we've had a great week of preparation and we're just excited to go show it off."

The game will be the 60th start of Masoli's CFL career. Born in San Francisco and raised in Honolulu, Masoli was a CFL East All-Star in 2018 as a member of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.