Stamps win game on last play; take down Eskimos, 23-20
CALGARY — The Calgary Stampeders kept their string of Labour Day wins alive with a 23-20 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos on Monday.
The Stampeders defeated the Eskimos in the annual holiday game a seventh straight year and improved to 9-1 atop the Canadian Football League’s West Division. The Eskimos dropped to 6-5.
With the game deadlocked at 20-20, Stampeder kicker Rene Paredes booted a 43-yard field goal for the win with no time left on the clock.
Paredes contributed three field goals to Calgary’s victory, including a 50-yarder. DaVaris Daniels scored a touchdown for the Stampeders in front of an announced 32,013 at McMahon Stadium
C.J. Gable and Duke Williams scored touchdowns for the Esks with kicker Sean Whyte adding a pair of field goals.
Saturday’s rematch is in Edmonton.
Stampeder quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell completed 16 of 30 passes for 255 yards. Edmonton counterpart Mike Reilly went 19-for-28 for 250 yards.
Mitchell appeared to hyperextend his left knee with 4:25 left in the third quarter and limped to the sidelines.
A Ciante Evans interception sent backup Nick Arbuckle out to run Calgary’s offence. A 21-yard field goal from Paredes deadlocked the game 17-17 heading into the fourth quarter.
Mitchell re-entered the game wearing a knee brace. Whyte answered Paredes’ 42-yard field goal with a 43-yarder to even the score at 20-20 with 2:22 remaining in the game.
Paredes was wide right on a 31-yard field-goal attempt six minutes into the third quarter. Edmonton conceded a single point and the hosts trailed 17-14. Whyte missed a 46-yard try later in the quarter.
The Stampeders led 13-10 on a 19-yard Paredes field goal midway through the second, but a double-teamed Williams hauled in Reilly’s 45-yard pass at the goal-line to score with eight seconds remaining in the half.
Stampeders star receiver Kamar Jorden walked gingerly to the Calgary locker-room with an apparent right leg injury late in the first half and did not return to the game.
Nick Usher’s recovery of a Don Jackson fumble gave Edmonton the ball on Calgary’s 10-yard line early in the second quarter. Gable rushed for eight and then two yards for the touchdown at 8:44.
Eskimo Derel Walker’s was injured early in the second quarter.