By Stampeders.com Staff
The Stampeders kept their first-place hopes alive with a 42-19 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday afternoon at McMahon Stadium.
An Edmonton loss to the Montreal Alouettes on Sunday and a Stamps win in the regular-season finale next Saturday in Vancouver would allow the Red and White to clinch a third consecutive first-place finish in the West Division.
Calgary completed their home schedule with an 8-1 mark with a well-balanced offensive attack against the Roughriders. Bo Levi Mitchell had 247 passing yards and three touchdowns, including two to Eric Rogers, while ex-Rider Jerome Messam ran for 121 yards in his Stamps debut.
“I thought we played pretty good football for 60 minutes,” said Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel, who concludes his regular-season coaching career at McMahon with a 55-16-1 record. “I thought all three phases were good.
“Obviously, coming out with a couple of scores early in the first quarter helped us and it gave us a spark. The defence, I thought, played well all day long. Our special-teams coverage was good and the return game got us field position. I enjoyed the way our football team played.”
The Stamps scored a touchdown on their first possession — a 15-yard Rogers TD followed by a Messam two-point convert — and never looked back en route to improving to 13-4.
After Tyler Crapigna kicked a 43-yard field goal which got Saskatchewan on the scoreboard, Mitchell and Rogers hooked up for another touchdown, this time from 24 yards out.
Marquay McDaniel caught the pass for the ensuing two-point convert. It was McDaniel’s fifth two-pointer of the season, a CFL single-season record.
In the second quarter, Rene Paredes booted a 13-yard field goal and Mitchell connected with Joe West for a 15-yard touchdown pass to extend the Stamps’ lead to 26-3.
Anthony Allen’s nine-yard run gave the Riders their first touchdown of the game but Paredes’ second field goal of the afternoon — a 39-yarder — made the score 29-10 at halftime.
Bryant Moniz scored on a one-yard quarterback sneak in the third quarter to extend the Stamps’ lead to 36-10.
In the final quarter, the Stamps received field goals of 32 and 37 yards while the Riders had a 39-yard field goal by Crapigna and a 16-yard touchdown pass from Keith Price to Naaman Roosevelt.
