In a battle of the two teams with the best records this season in the Canadian Football League, the Calgary Stampeders defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders 42-27 on Friday night at McMahon Stadium.

In front of a boisterous crowd of 36, 637, the Stamps extended their winning streak to four games in improving to 5-1 and handing the Roughriders their first loss of the season.

“There was a lot of hype (going into the contest) because it was a game played by two good football teams,” noted Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel, “and that’s exactly what happened. It was very emotional and there were a lot of ebbs (and flows) to the game.”

The Stamps built a 26-7 halftime lead, weathered a Roughriders comeback attempt as Saskatchewan outscored Calgary 13-0 in the third quarter, and then finished strong to improve to 3-0 on the season at McMahon.

“We were able to seize momentum back,” said Hufnagel. “The defence came up with a big safety (by Demonte’ Bolden in the fourth quarter) and then we took the ensuing kickoff and marched it down for a touchdown. That was a big nine points in that football game.”

Jon Cornish had a monster performance for the Stampeders as he rushed for 175 yards and four touchdowns. It’s the first time in Stampeders history a player has scored exactly four rushing touchdowns. Earl Lunsford had a five-touchdown game in 1962.

“Outstanding game,” said Hufnagel of Cornish’s effort. “He had a tremendous first half (115 yards and three majors). In the third quarter, we really didn’t give him a lot of opportunities. Then he made a big play late in the game (a 54-yard run that set up Cornish’s fourth touchdown of the night) to really seal the deal.”

Kevin Glenn completed 21 of 28 passes for the Stamps for 218 yards and a touchdown — a 25-yard strike to Nik Lewis in the fourth quarter.

Darian Durant had three passing touchdowns for the Roughriders — two to Chris Getzlaf and one to Jock Sanders.

Calgary’s Rene Paredes extended his streak of consecutive successful field goals to 36 with a pair of three-pointers. Chris Milo also had two field goals for the Roughriders.

Friday’s result avenged the Stamps’ only loss so far in 2013 — 36-21 setback in Regina in Week 2.

“It’s 1-1,” said Hufnagel. “We have one more game with them and it’s at McMahon Stadium (on Oct. 26). We accomplished what we needed to do tonight. It was a big game because it was the next game . . . and our next game is pretty big also.”

That would be next Saturday’s contest in Vancouver against the 4-2 BC Lions.

With 96 receiving yards on the night, Lewis moved past Tom Scott (10,837) for 12th place on the CFL’s all-time list.

“It’s a record of consistency,” says Lewis. “I train a lot of kids and I tell them the only thing between any player is consistency. So if you can go out and consistently be good then you’ll get results. So I’m glad I could go out and show them and not just tell them.”