The Calgary Stampeders made it four wins in a row and Nik Lewis and Kevin Glenn reached major milestones as the Red and White defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 44-3 at McMahon Stadium.
Lewis hauled in a 17-yard pass midway through the second quarter to record his 700th career reception and exceed 10,000 career yards. He passed two former Stamps on the night — Travis Moore and Jeremaine Copeland — to move into 15th place on the CFL’s all-time list with 10,054 yards. Lewis finished with seven receptions for 131 yards.
“Tremendous game,” said Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel about Lewis’ performance. “I’m really glad he was able to do it in front of the home fans. He had an outstanding game catching the football and the yards afther the catch were outstanding.”
Meanwhile, Glenn reached 35,000 career passing yards and passed Dieter Brock for 12th place all-time in the CFL.
“He was in complete control,” said Hufnagel. “He saw the ball very well and threw the ball very accurately. And the receivers made some plays after the catch. It was a good team effort in all three phases.
“Our defence was outstanding in the first half. I don’t know how many two-and-outs I wrote down on my scorecard but they just kept giving the ball to the offence and, most of the time, it was in decent field position.”
The Stampeders (7-4) were dominant throughout the game, accumulating 495 net yards of offence and holding Winnipeg (2-9) to 167.
On the Stamps’ first series, a little trickery resulted in a 26-yard fake field goal score. A shuffle pass from the holder, Bo Levi Mitchell, went to Rob Cote, who sprinted for the touchdown.
The rest of the Stampeders’ scoring in the half consisted of a punt single, a safety, a 35-yard Rene Paredes field goal and two touchdown runs by Jon Cornish as the home side built a 27-0 lead.
The second half was more of the same script.
Winnipeg got on the board with their first possession, an 11-yard field goal by Justin Palardy, but would not score again the rest of the way.
Calgary immediately got back to work. The offence rattled out a 12-play, 68-yard drive that resulted in a 14-yard Rene Paredes field goal and Calgary entered the fourth quarter up 30-3.
The Stampeders added two more scores on a pair of big plays to seal the game as a 37-yard pass to Johnny Forzani was followed by a 52-yard run by LaMarcus Coker.
Two players made their CFL debuts for the Stamps on Friday. Receiver Maurice Price had four catches for 42 yards while defensive lineman Donavan Robinson had three defensive tackles and a special-teams tackle.
The Stamps have now defeated the Blue Bombers 10 straight times at home. Calgary will return to action on Sunday, Sept. 23 as the Stamps travel to Regina to face the Roughriders. Kickoff is at 2 p.m.
More coverage
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>> Locker-Room Blog by Kevin Glenn
>> Nik Lewis reaches milestone
>> Video: Nik’s big night
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>> Video: Player comments
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