Calgary Stampeders' Joffrey Reynolds celebrates the winning touchdown by teammate Jeremaine Copeland, centre, on Friday. (Jimmy Jeong/Canadian Press)After the Edmonton Eskimos' offence built an early 11-point lead that slipped away, their defence picked up the slack in the second half to build a 14-point cushion.
It still wasn't enough.
A final minute charge by the Stampeders was capped off by Jeremaine Copeland's second touchdown catch of the game to give his team a 35-34 win in Edmonton on Friday.
Edmonton had put up 24 points on turnovers against the Stampeders, including three interceptions and a punt recovery touchdown.
With the win, the Stampeders take sole possession of the Western Division lead.
"It was a very sloppy game that we played and we can't hide that fact," said Stamps coach John Hufnagel. "What I do like is that it was the Monday-Friday game. It could have been very easy for our football club to say at the 58-minute mark, well we just didn't get it done tonight.
"But their will to win was very strong tonight. They made some exceptional plays at the end to win it."
Burris erases early deficit
The Eskimos headed into halftime down by a field goal and shaking their heads after squandering a 14-3 lead, which they built on two Ricky Ray touchdown passes.
Shortly after Ray connected with slotback Fred Stamps in the second quarter to push their lead to 11, Henry Burris and the Calgary offence turned the tables on their provincial rivals.
The Stamps' QB, in a span of eight minutes, hooked up with Copeland and Ryan Thelwell for TD strikes in the Eskimos' red zone to post a 17-14 Calgary lead at the break.
Burris finished with 393 yards passing with three touchdowns and three interceptions.
"We just didn't get it done in the fourth quarter," said Eskimos head coach Richie Hall. "We had a two-score lead and we couldn't close it out. It's disappointing."
The second half would not be as kind to Burris — or rather, the Edmonton defence would not be so kind. The Eskimos tied the game with a Noel Prefontaine field goal three minutes into the third quarter after Kelly Malveaux picked off a Burris pass and ran the ball to the Calgary 30-yard line.
On the next Calgary possession, Burress was picked off for the third time on the night, this time by T.J. Hill, leading to a Mathieu Bertrand one-yard punch-in for a 24-17 Edmonton lead.
The teams traded field goals to put the game at 27-20 before the final play of the third quarter put the Eskimos squarely in the driver's seat.
With one second remaining on the clock, Prefontaine's punt was fumbled by Calgary's Titus Ryan and artfully snagged out of the air by Kai Ellis. The Eskimos defensive end scampered 40 yards to put his team up by 14 with 15 minutes to go.
Cue Calgary comeback
A missed Sandro DeAngelis field goal cut Calgary's deficit to 13 and Burris shaved that to six when he called his own number for a four-yard rushing touchdown with less than eight minutes remaining.
That set the stage for a four-play, 84-yard drive that concluded with a pass to Copeland in the end zone to draw even. DeAngelis added a convert to put his team over the top and hand the Stampeders their second straight win over the Eskimos.
With files from The Canadian Press
