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By Stampeders.com staff
The Calgary Stampeders are the best in the West.
The Stamps earned a trip to the 102nd Grey Cup next week in Vancouver with a 43-18 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos in the Western Final on Sunday at McMahon Stadium.
Calgary soared to a 29-4 lead at halftime, weathered an Edmonton comeback attempt in the third quarter and sealed the deal by shutting out the Eskimos for the final 21 minutes of the game.
“I thought we played a good football game,” said Stamps head coach and general manager John Hufnagel. “We were able to score early and our defence played really good football in the first half.
“We went into the locker room at the half with a nice lead (but) Edmonton is a good team, they have fight in them and they made it interesting in the third quarter, obviously.”
This is the Stamps’ 14th trip to the Grey Cup and they are seeking their seventh championship as they face the East Division-champion Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Jon Cornish had a relatively quiet game on the ground by his standards as he was held to 54 yards on 14 carries but he was spectacular as a receiver out of the backfield as he had four catches for 120 yards and a touchdown.
The receiving major was a thing of beauty as he caught the ball and rumbled into the end-zone for a 78-yard score that made the score 22-1.
“First of all, I was hoping he would get the first down,” said Hufnagel. “He got some great help from his teammates and he just kept running and running and running. It was a tremendous play.”
It was one of three touchdowns in the second quarter for the Red and White as Bo Levi Mitchell scored on a two-yard keeper and threw a 19-yard touchdown pass in the final minute of the opening half.
The Stamps opened the scoring 3:33 into the game when Mitchell hooked up with Marquay McDaniel for a 46-yard touchdown throw.
Edmonton’s first-half scoring consisted of a punt single and a 42-yard field goal by Hugh O’Neill.
Rogers added his second touchdown of the game in the fifth minute of the third quarter to make the score 36-4.
The Eskimos tried to get back into the contest as they scored consecutive touchdowns on Mike Reilly throws three minutes apart — a three-yard receiving catch by Paris Jackson and a 16-yarder to Adarius Bowman — but that’s as close as the visitors would get.
Calgary put a bow on the victory when Cornish scored on a two-yard run with 2:18 remaining on the clock.
The Stamps did get some bad news as defensive lineman DeQuin Evans and Charleston Hughes were injured. Evans was ihurt in pre-game warm-up while Hughes, who was returning from a foot injury, suffered damage to his other foot.