Romby Bryant had three touchdown receptions on Friday night at McMahon Stadium to lead the Calgary Stampeders to a 55-24 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
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“It was a good victory because our players made the commitment to do everything they could do to win the football game,” said Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel. “We played pretty well in all three phases and got on a roll in that second quarter, built momentum and put some points on the board.”
With the win, the Stampeders improve to 12-5 and conclude the home portion of the regular-season schedule with a 7-2 record. Calgary had already locked up top spot in the West Division.
“It’s always nice to win,” said Hufnagel. “You don’t want to go into the playoffs on a down, so it was a big game for us and we treated it that way.”
It was a milestone evening for the Stampeders as Bryant and Ken-Yon Rambo each surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in receiving for the season. They join Nik Lewis as having achieved that milestone in 2010, making the teammates the first trio of Stamps pass-catchers to surpass 1,000 yards in the same season since 2000.
It also marked the return to active offensive duty for Stamps running back Jesse Lumsden, who had four fourth-quarter rushes and scored on a 13-yard run to close out the scoring. Before Friday, Lumsden had not carried the ball since suffering a serious shoulder injury during the first game of the 2009 season when he was a member of the Edmonton Eskimos.
The Stamps did some early scoring with Rob Maver booting a 30-yard field goal on Calgary’s first possession. Dwight Anderson then picked off a Kevin Glenn pass and returned it 86 yards for a touchdown and a 10-0 Stamps lead.
A punt block set up Hamilton’s first score of the night — a seven-yard TD pass from Glenn to Dave Stala.
The Stamps found the end-zone three times in the second quarter as Drew Tate scored on a one-yard plunge while Henry Burris connected with Bryant for scoring strikes of 68 and six yards.
There was also an exchange of field goals in the second period of Maver connected from 33 yards and Hamilton’s Sandro DeAngelis found the range from 40 yards.
Bryant made it a hat trick of touchdown catches with a 43-yard scoring strike in the third quarter.
The Tiger-Cats got that major back before the end of the period as Marcus Thigpen returned a missed field goal 112 yards for a touchdown.
In the fourth quarter, Calgary’s Joffrey Reynolds recorded his 50th career rushing touchdown on a five-yard run.
The Ticats answered on a 30-yard touchdown run by Thigpen.
The Stamps will close out the regular season next Friday when they travel to Winnipeg to face the Blue Bombers.
More coverage
>> Jesse Lumsden blog
>> Dwight Anderson blog
>> Audio: Coach Huff post-game comments
>> Video: Game balls
>> Video: Player reaction
>> Photo gallery
>> CFL standings
>> Updated Stampeders stats
STATISTICS
PASSING
Cgy: Burris 19-25-292-3-0, Tate 8-10-93-0-0; Ham: Glenn 12-23-88-1-1, Tafralis 6-10-43-0-0, Porter 1-2-7-0-0
RUSHING
Cgy: Lumsden 4-40-1, Reynolds 12-34-1, Cornish 3-17, Tate 5-10, Burris 2-6; Ham: Cobb 5-77, Thigpen 5-56-1, Porter 2-2
RECEIVING
Cgy: Bryant 5-131-3, Rambo 9-120, Lewis 6-74, Thelwell 4-37, Arthur 2-17, Talley 1-6; Ham: McDaniel 5-47, Stala 5-40-1, Fish 3-28, Thigpen 3-14, Mann 2-6, Cobb 1-3
NOTABLES
Cgy: Talley 5-43 PR 4-77 KOR, Anderson 5 TKL 1 INT 1 TD, Jackson 5 TKL 1 SK 1 FF, Simpson 4 TKL 1 STT 1 FR, Johnson 1 TKL 1 SK, Raymond 1 TKL 2 KD; Ham: Johnson 8 TKL, Tisdale 6 TKL, Hinds 6 TKL, Knowlton 3 TKL 1 FR