The Calgary Stampeders extended their home winning streak to five games, Nik Lewis reached a major milestone and Anwar Stewart tied a club record as the Red and White defeated the BC Lions 41-21 on Friday at McMahon Stadium.
The victory was the Stamps’ first in three tries against BC this season and Calgary hopes to meet the Lions again in the West Division final on Nov. 18 in Vancouver. Meanwhile, Lewis caught five balls — inlcuding a 44-yard touchdown — to reach 100 receptions for the season and Stewart tied a franchise record with four sacks.
Calgary surged to a 34-0 lead in the game’s first 24 minutes and never looked back as the Stamps handed the Lions their fifth loss of the season.
“It was a good start,” said Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel. “All three phases contributed to put points on the board.”
Rene Paredes opened the scoring with a 46-yard field goal and Malik Jackson recorded the first touchdown when he sacked BC quarterback Mike Reilly, forced the fumble and then fell on the ball in the end-zone. A 53-yard touchdown connection between Kevin Glenn and Maurice Price was followed by the 44-yarder to Lewis — from Drew Tate, who was seeing his first action since Week 2 — to make the score 24-0 after one quarter.
A one-yard touchdown pass from Bo Levi Mitchell to defensive lineman Corey Mace, who was in for the jumbo alignment, and a 22-yard Paredes field goal made it 34-0.
The Lions then scored 21 consecutive points on touchdown catches by Geroy Simon and Akeem Foster and a punt-return score by Tim Brown to try and get back in the game but the Calgary defence pitched a shutout in the fourth quarter while adding two more Paredes field goals — from 35 and 46 yards — and a punt single by Rob Maver.
“(The Lions) fought back,” said Hufnagel. “They’re a good football team and they tried to get back in the game but, defensively, we tightened things up later in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter. And our offence chipped away and got some field goals to ice the game.”
Jon Cornish ran for 86 yards for the Stamps and now needs 50 more to break Normie Kwong’s 56-year-old record for most rushing yards by a Canadian.
Tate completed five of seven passes for 68 yards while Glenn was 10 of 17 for 173 yards. Glenn surpassed the 4,000-mark on the season during the game.
The defence recorded a total of eight sacks including the four by Stewart and one each by Jackson, Cordarro Law, Charleston Hughes and Brandon Smith.
The Stampeders travel to Edmonton to face the Eskimos on Friday, Nov. 2 for their final regular-season game of 2012. The Red and White will be back home on Nov. 11 to host the West Division semifinal against either Saskatchewan or Edmonton.