By Stampeders.com staff

The Calgary Stampeders played a solid defensive game and spread the ball around on offence in a 20-6 CFL pre-season victory over the BC Lions on Friday night at McMahon Stadium.

“I thought we played fast,” said Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel. “We played physical for 60 minutes in all three phases. We made plays with our speed — that’s what I liked.”

Less pleasing to the veteran coach were the number of penalties — the Stamps were flagged 14 times for 106 yards — and the usual rough edges you might expect from a pre-season opener.

“We made our share of mistakes that we need to clean up,” he said. “We have a lot of growth yet to do but it’s the first pre-season game and I really liked the effort our team displayed.”

The Stamps held the Lions to two first-half field goals while four different Calgary quarterbacks connected with 15 different receivers for 25 completions.

The contest’s lone touchdown came through the air as Dominique Davis connected with Greg Wilson on a 24-yard score in the fourth minute of the fourth quarter.

Davis then hit Charlie Power with a pass for the two-point convert that wrapped up the scoring for the night.

The kickers accounted for the rest of the offence as Rene Paredes (28 and 32 yards) and Tyler Crapigna (41 and 28) each converted on a pair of field goals while Richie Leone and Anthony Fera each had one three-pointer for the visitors.

Davis, a first-year CFLer with NFL experience, completed nine of 10 passes for 75 yards and also had three carries for 11 yards. Calgary native and U of C Dinos product Andrew Buckley also had a strong performance as he completed eight of 10 passes for 72 yards.

Bo Levi Mitchell played only the first series of the night and completed three of five passes for 24 yards on a drive that culminated with a Paredes field goal.

Calgary controlled the football for two thirds of the game — 40:08 time of possession compared to 19:52 for BC. The Stamps held BC’s three quarterbacks to 10 completions on 20 throws, with first-year player Ciante Adams picking up an interception in the third quarter.

Deron Mayo had a sack-forced fumble for Calgary while Brandon Boudreaux recovered the fumble and had a sack of his own. The Stamps had five sacks in all as DeQuin Evans, Lin-J Shell and Freddie Bishop III also dropped a BC quarterback.

Calgary will play its second and final pre-season contest next Friday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Regina’s Mosaic Stadium.