A five-yard touchdown catch by Clark Barnes at 6:14 of the fourth quarter proved to be the game-winning score for the Calgary Stampeders.
On the previous play, Barnes caught a screen pass from quarterback Jake Maier and ran for a 40-yard gain to set up the play that propelled the Stampeders (3-3) to a tight 25-24 win over the B.C. Lions (5-2) in front of 20,057 fans at McMahon Stadium on Sunday.
“I think the screen where he (Barnes) made two guys miss and took us down to the five-yard line, was really the separator,” said Maier. “It’s hard to score touchdowns in this league. It’s hard to score touchdowns against B.C., so for him to just catch the ball a yard down the field and make two guys miss and take it down to the five-yard line, that’s your ball game right there.
“That turns into seven points. I thought that was the play of the night for him.”
Maier, who also threw touchdown passes to Reggie Begelton and Jalen Philpot earlier in the game, completed 25-of-32 passes for 307 yards.
Barnes, who finished the game with three catches for 63 yards, was just happy to hear his number called at such a clutch point in a close game.
“They got a little screen play for me,” Barnes said. “I just tried to catch the ball, have fun out there and make a play, so it felt great for sure to make a play at the end of the game.”
The TD by Barnes put the Stamps up 25-20 with still plenty of time for the Lions to rally back.
B.C.’s Sean Whyte extended his club record by kicking his 42nd consecutive field goal — from 52 yards out — before Stefan Flintoft booted an 84-yard punt single with 1:53 left on the clock to pull the Lions within a point, but that’s as close the visitors could get.
“It was a battle,” said Calgary coach Dave Dickenson. “I have to admit that never did I once feel like it was in the bag. Never once did I feel like we were out of it. Back and forth — good football game, glad we won at home.”
Rene Paredes also kicked a field goal for the Stamps, who snapped a two-game losing streak. Calgary also scored two points on a safety.
Stanley Berryhill III and Justin McInnis caught TD passes from B.C. quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., while Whyte kicked three field goals for the Lions, whose five-game winning streak came to an end.
“We’ve been on the other side of this where we’re the team making the plays at the end to win the game and we didn’t do that,” said B.C. coach Rick Campbell.
“I’ll give them credit. They’ve got good coaches, good players and they made the plays necessary to win the game, but man we had multiple chances to get the ball back and try to kick a game-winning field goal, but it didn’t happen.”
Adams completed 17-of-32 passes for 192 yards to go with his two TD tosses and a pair of interceptions.
“It was tough battle,” Adams said. “Ultimately, I felt like the defence did enough for us to win. I need to take care of the ball. I had some overthrows. It was a tough one. I just have to be better.”
After the Lions failed to get anything going on their first two drives of the game, Adams engineered a seven-play, 83-yard drive that he finished by tossing a 14-yard touchdown pass to Berryhill.
On the drive, Lions running back William Stanback had three carries for 33 yards, while Stampeders defensive back Tyler Richardson took a costly pass interference penalty that moved B.C. up to the Calgary 20-yard line.
Calgary’s Peyton Logan returned a punt 50 yards to the B.C. 30-yard line to start the second quarter. Three plays later, Maier threw a nine-yard TD pass to Begelton.
Later in the second quarter, Logan has another great runback of 31 yards to give the Stamps great field position, this time at the B.C. 34-yard line. Once again, it took Calgary just three plays to score as Philpot did a great job to haul in a 23-yard TD pass from Maier.
Whyte then booted an 18-yard field goal with 1:25 remaining in the first half to pull the Lions within four points.
Richardson atoned for his earlier penalty by picking off an errant pass by Adams to end a B.C. scoring threat with 24 seconds left before the intermission.
After Paredes kicked a 43-yard field goal early in the third quarter, Adams responded by putting together an impressive eight-play, 70-yard drive that McInnis finished off by hauling in a nine-yard TD pass.
Maier responded by leading the Stamps on an impressive drive of their own that came up short when B.C.’s T.J. Lee tackled Calgary receiver Marken Michel just short of the goal line for a turnover on downs as time expired in the third quarter.
On the first play of the fourth, Adams dropped back into his own end zone and attempted a pass to McInnis, but offensive lineman Tyler Packer was assessed a holding penalty which resulted in a safety for Calgary to give the Stamps a 19-17 lead.
Following a 23-yard field goal by Whyte to give the Lions their first lead of the game at 20-19, Barnes scored his clutch TD. Calgary attempted a two-point convert, but Maier’s pass to Philpot in the end zone was incomplete.
Late in the game, Calgary’s Kobe Williams intercepted a pass thrown by Adams to end another B.C. scoring drive.
UP NEXT
Lions: Have a bye week, then visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2-5) on Thursday, Aug. 1.
Stampeders: Visit the Ottawa Redblacks (4-2) on Friday.