The Calgary Stampeders claimed the West Division championship and earned a Grey Cup date with the Toronto Argonauts by defeating the BC Lions 34-29 at BC Place on Sunday afternoon.
“We played good football,” said Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel. “We needed to play good football to beat BC because they’re such a good team. We knew needed three phases of good football to beat that team.”
Kevin Glenn threw for 303 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Stamps to victory as Calgary heads to the Grey Cup game for the 13th time in franchise history.
The game started with a bang as Marquay McDaniel scored on Calgary’s first possession a mere 59 seconds into the game. It was the second fastest offensive touchdown in CFL playoff history as a wide-open McDaniel caught a Glenn pass and raced into the end-zone untouched for a 68-yard score.
BC pulled even when Korey Banks picked off a Glenn pass and ran it back 77 yards for a touchdown. Unfazed, Glenn took the ball after the ensuing kikcoff and marched the Stamps 75 yards for a touchdown that would give the visitors the lead for good. Glenn completed the march with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Maurice Price.
Other than the interception returned for a touchdown, the Stampeders largely kept the Lions in check, limiting Travis Lulay and the BC offence to three Paul McCallum field goals in the half as Calgary took a 17-16 lead into the locker-room. McCallum’s field goals were from 35, 18 and 41 yards while Calgary’s Rene Paredes replied with a 16-yarder.
Glenn found a third different target for a touchdown pass as he hooked up with Romby Bryant for a 57-yarder. Then, Bo Levi Mitchell converted a third-and-short by making a downfield pass to Price, who got Calgary to the BC one-yard line. Mitchell eventually capped the drive with a one-yard touchdown plunge. That gave the Red and White a 31-16 lead after three quarters.
In the fourth quarter, BC’s McCallum kicked his fourth and fifth field goals of the game while Paredes hit a 20-yarder for Calgary.
It wasn’t until there was less than a minute to play that BC got its first touchdown of the game as Lulay hit Nick Moore for a two-yard scoring pass.
Nik Lewis recovered the subsequent onside kick and Jon Cornish capped a 112-yard rushing performance with a key first down as the Stampeders ran out the clock.
The Stampeders turned the ball over just once and committed only two penalties in the entire game.
“Our discipline with the penalty situation for the last part of the season has been very good,” said Hufnagel. “In the three previous playoff games (before this year) it was turnovers and penalties that killed us and the team made a commitment to fix that.”
Calgary will face the Toronto Argonauts in Sunday’s 100th Grey Cup. Kickoff at Rogers Centre is 4 p.m. MST.