By Stampeders.com Staff

The Stampeders reclaimed a share of top spot in the West Division after trouncing the Ottawa RedBlacks 48-3 on Saturday night at McMahon Stadium.

The result allows Calgary (5-2) to pull even with the Edmonton Eskimos for first place in the division while Ottawa falls to 4-3.

The Stamps dominated in all three phases, putting a season high in points, limiting Ottawa to just 200 yards of offence including 21 rushing yards and forcing three turnovers on special teams.

“It was a good effort,” noted Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel. “I thought our team played a good 60 minutes of football. We were opportunistic and took advantage of some turnovers and put points on the board.

“I thought our defence did an excellent job all night long, especially against the run.”

The comfortable margin of victory — the 45-point difference was the sixth-largest in franchise history — was in sharp contrast to the Stamps’ first four wins, which were by a combined 10 points.

Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell scored two rushing touchdowns and threw for two more scores as he led the Stamps to their biggest point total since a 55-24 victory over Hamilton on Oct. 29, 2010.

The Stamps got on the scoreboard a little more than five minutes into the game when Mitchell scored on an 11-yard run. The play was set up by Randy Chevrier’s recovery of an unforced fumble by Ottawa punt returner Brandon McDonald.

Mitchell connected with Tory Harrison for the two-point convert as the home side took an 8-0 lead.

The RedBlacks replied with a 31-yard Chris Milo field goal on their next drive, but that would prove to be all their scoring for the night.

Calgary put up 23 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 31-3 lead into the locker room.

A 37-yard pass completion to Joe West set up Mitchell’s second touchdown of the night, this time a one-yard plunge.

West then found the end-zone himself as he was on the receiving end of a 17-yard pass.

A 22-yard field goal by Rene Paredes and a 23-yard touchdown pass to Eric Rogers completed the scoring before the halftime break. Rogers’ score was his sixth of the season and extended his streak of consecutive games with a major to five.

The kickers helped the Stamps tack three points onto their lead early in the third quarter as Paredes’ second half-opening kickoff resulted in a single and a perfectly placed Rob Maver punt that rolled out of the Ottawa one-yard line eventually forced the RedBlacks to concede a safety.

Maver later had another punt that skipped out inside the one-yard line.

The final touchdown of the night came courtesy of six-yard run by Matt Walter, with the scoring drive being set up by Joe Burnett’s recovery of a Jovon Johnson fumble on an Ottawa punt return.

Adam Berger also had a fumble recovery on special teams for Calgary.

“I thought our coverage team was excellent regardless of whether (Ottawa) fumbled the ball or not,” said Hufnagel. “We really did a great job of running down the field fast both on kickoff coverage and punt coverage.”

Calgary added seven points in the fourth quarter on a pair of Paredes field goals — from 34 and 36 yards — and a punt single.

The Stamps travel to Regina next Saturday to take on the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a 5 p.m. MDT kickoff.