Larry Taylor’s seven-yard touchdown with 1:19 to play was the difference as the Calgary Stampeders defeated the Edmonton Eskimos in the Labour Day Classic at McMahon Stadium on Monday.
The victory allows the Stamps to pull even with the Eskimos for second place in the West Division. Both teams are 5-4 midway through the season, with the foes meeting again Friday in Edmonton in the second half of the home-and-home series. It’s the first time this season Calgary has recorded back-to-back wins.
“Any time you win the game that way, especially the Labour Day Classic against a very good opponnent, it has to be positive for that locker-room,” said Stamps head coach and general manager John Hufnagel. “One way or another, I think a lot of good things occurred in the game, but we still nedd to clean up a lot of things to become the team we want to become.”
The Eskimos had a last-gasp chance to win the contest when Grant Shaw attempted a 48-yard field goal but the kick went wide and Taylor was able to get the ball out of the end-zone to avoid conceding the tying point.
>> Locker-Room Blog: Larry Taylor
A pair of third-quarter touchdowns allowed the Stampeders to turn a seven-point halftime deficit into a five-point lead.
A nifty cutback move by Jon Cornish allowed the Stamps running back to score a 10-yard receiving touchdown.
Late in the third quarter, Matt Walter ran the ball 11 yards into the end-zone for his first professional major.
“I was very thrilled for him,” said Hufnagel. “It was a play we had a lot of confidence in . . . I knew it would get positive yards. But getitng it in the end-zone was sweet.”
The only Edmonton scoring in the third period was provided by a pair of Shaw rouges on punts.
In the fourth quarter, Rene Paredes booted a 43-yard field goal and Rob Maver added an 85-yard single to extend Calgary’s lead to 25-16 before Edmonton answered with a scoring drive capped by quarterback Kerry Joseph’s one-yard run.
On Calgary’s next possession, Joe Burnett made an interception and returned it 34 yards for a touchdown that gave Edmonton a 30-25 lead.
Kevin Glenn rebounded from the setback to lead the Stamps on the game-winning drive.
“He kept his composure,” said Hufnagel. “The interception wasn’t entirely on Kevin’s shoulders. Yeah, he’s still responsible — he’s the guy who threw it. Those are the types of things we need to clean up.”
Calgary opened the scoring for the afternoon on a one-yard run by short-yardage quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell. The touchdown was set up by a botched Eskimos punt and a 13-yard Cornish run that set up a first-and-goal situation at the one-yard line.
The Stampeders were in a position to add to their lead in the second quarter until Rod Williams picked off a Kevin Glenn pass deep in Edmonton territory. The Eskimos then put together a scoring drive that was capped by a 35-yard touchdown pass to Fred Stamps.
Edmonton took its first lead of the game on a 73-yard catch-and-run by Hugh Charles. The extra point was botched, but the Eskimos wound up getting a single point on the subsequent kickoff.
Stamps slotback Nik Lewis had three first-half catches for 53 yards and moved up another rank in the CFL’s all-time receiving yardage leaders, passing Tony Gabriel and into 17th place. Lewis had seven receptions for 101 yards and now leads the CFL with 58 catches.
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>> Locker-Room Blog: Kenny Pettway
>> Video: Locker-room reaction
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>> Video: Message from Nik