On a night when the BC Lions had the chance to treat their fans by earning a playoff berth, the Calgary Stampeders instead played a cruel trick, stealing the victory 28-26 as time expired with a last-second field goal by Sandro DeAngelis, dropping the Lions to 8-9 and into a third-place tie with the Edmonton Eskimos. The Esks come to BC Place on Friday to close out the regular season.

Again it was run defence which would plague the Lions, who yielded over a hundred yards rushing to Calgary’s Joffrey Reynolds, most critically a twenty-nine yard gallop to set up the DeAngelis game-winner.

With a minute and thirty-five seconds remaining on the clock, it looked good for the Lions, taking a 26-25 lead on a huge, 46-yard toss from Casey Printers to a wide open Paris Jackson.

Unfortunately for the Lions, that was about a dozen seconds too many to have left Henry Burris and the Stampeders. Even so, with a different bounce, it might have been enough for the win, as Anton McKenzie took Burris to the turf and knocked the ball away from the Stamps’ QB. Burris was able to recover, though, and on the following play connected with Jermaine Copeland to sustain the drive and set the stage for the Reynolds run and DeAngelis field goal.

The Lions would come out roaring, holding the Stampeders to a two-and-out on the first series of the game and then moving down the field powered by a pair to Printers-to Emmanuel Arceneaux passes- for seven and then sixty yards- to set up the A.J. Harris one yard run for the major.

After the ensuing kickoff, Calgary was again held to two-and-out, and the Lions would move the ball courtesy of another deep throw from Casey Printers, this time to Paris Jackson for thirty-five yards, down to the Calgary 36. The drive would stall there, though, and the Lions would settle for the first of four Paul McCallum field goals to take the early 10-0 edge.

The quarter would close with Calgary getting on the scoreboard, with two completions from Burris to Rob Cote for twenty-eight yards apiece setting the stage for Burris to take the ball in from the one.

With Burris having seemingly found his stride, it was the Lions’ turn for the offense to stagnate. going two-and-out to kick the ball back to the Stampeders. This time, Burris spread the ball around, completing passes to Copeland, Cote,and finally a fifty-three yarder to Romby Bryant to take the ball down to the BC 8. Two plays later, Burris found Nik Lewis in the end zone to make it 14-10, Calgary.

Ryan Grice-Mullen would take the ensuing kickoff seventy-three yards to give the Lions excellent field position, but they’d end up settling for McCallum’s second of the evening, this one from twenty-six yards out.

The Lions would yield a single before closing out the half with another McCallum field goal to take a 16-15 lead to the locker room at the half.

The first twelve minutes of the third quarter would pass without scoring, until McCallum capitalized from twenty-six yards to stretch the lead to four, where it would remain going into the final frame. After Burke Dales found the coffin corner, pinning the Lions at their own seven. After a Printers scramble got the Lions out of the shadow of their own goal posts, a sack would put them right back in them, and McCallum yielded the safety touch.

Burris would go deep again, completing a fifty-three yarder to Bryant before he fumbled, losing the ball to Tad Crawford after Darren Toney knocked it out. The offense was unable to capitalize, though, moving the ball twenty-one yards before kicking it back to Calgary.

Burris moved the Stampeders again, finding Lewis for twenty-three before scrambling for five. Reynolds would carry the ball twice for a combined thirty yards setting up Burris’ second rushing TD from a yard out to put the visitors up by six. with just over six minutes to play. Neither team would mount much of a threat until the three-minute warning.

Then it was Printers’ turn to answer Burris’ fireworks, driving the Lions eighty-six yards for the go-ahead touchdown, capped with the toss to Jackson for the score.

The offense definitely suffers from the absence of Martell Mallett, running for only 67 yards on thirteen attempts, four of those Printers scrambles for a net of 41. Printers’ passing numbers were a respectable 22 of 35 for 337 yards and a touchdown- eight to Geroy Simon for 103 yards, five to Arceneaux for 110 and three for 91 to Jackson. He also threw one interception.

The Lions defence held Burris to 17-of-31, but yielded 306 yards through the air and 140 on the ground. McKenzie, Ricky Foley and Korey Banks all notched sacks for the Lions.

Well, anyone who thinks the Lions get special favours from the officials in the league can look at Friday’s game against the Calgary Stampeders to see that just isn’t the case.

As is so often the case in sports, you get breaks and you have them go against you as well. On Friday night a critical 3rd quarter play that went against the Lions changed the course of the game, and set the Stampeders up for a 27-18 victory at McMahon Stadium in Calgary.

With the score tied at 17-17 the Stamps had the ball and quarterback Henry Burris launched a pass that was “caught” by Nik Lewis. The ball popped out when Lewis made contact with ground. CFL rules say the receiver must survive contact with the ground for a pass to be complete. The ball popped out on contact with the ground and was snatched out of the air by Barron Miles and the ruling on the field was an interception. The Stamps challenged the play and the league officials ruled Lewis made the catch and was down by contact. The Stamps scored the go ahead touchdown on the following play and the Lions never recovered.

Bad penalties, missed receivers, and continually finding themselves in 2nd and long did the Lions in in the second half, wasting what was looking to be their best effort of the season.

Both Martell Mallett and Joffrey Reynolds had big nights on the ground, but it was the Stamps defense that buckled down in the second half. A 4th quarter Buck Pierce interception pretty much sealed the deal.

Reynolds finished the night with 157 yards rushing, once again exposing the Lions weak run stopping defense, which has been an issue all season. The Lions special teams also failed them once again. After opening the scoring on an impressive drive early in the second quarter on a Martell Mallett 25 yard touchdown run the Lions surrendered a 75 yard return on the kickoff, transferring whatever momentum they had built up back to the Stamps, who would score four plays later on a seven yard Henry Burris run.

“Demetris Summers’ kickoff return gave us some momentum,” Stampeders coach John Hufnagel said. “We scored some points on that. Then when B.C. scored we were able to answer. Every time they scored, we answered.”

Buck Pierce had a decent night for the Lions, but the crucial interception in the fourth sealed the Lions fate. Then with the Lions driving and needing four yards to keep the drive alive late in the game, Pierce through a ball in the dirt to Martell Mallett with Paris Jackson wide open on a deeper route.

The loss dropped the Lions to 5-7 on the season, and any hopes of challenging for the division are starting to fade. They’ll need help from other teams for that to happen, and they’ll have to help themselves starting next week when the Saskatchewan Roughriders pay a visit to BC Place. The Lions are looking more and more like they’ll be slotting into a cross over spot in the east if they hope to get to Calgary in November.

Quick hits:

• Martell Mallett: 15 carries, 136 yards and 1 TD
• Buck Pierce: 17 for 27 236 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT.
• The Stampeders honoured Wally Buono before the game.
• Nose Tackle Steve Williams made his Lions debut and was quickly dubbed “Little T” by those of us watching the game, because of his last name and his resemblance of former Lions great Tyrone Williams.