EDMONTON – The Edmonton Elks wrapped up their 2025 schedule with a 20-10 loss to the Calgary Stampeders at Play Alberta Field at Commonwealth Stadium on Friday. Edmonton finishes coach Mark Kilam’s first season as head coach with a record of 7-11, its most wins since 2019.

“I think there was growth throughout the staff and the football team,” Kilam said. “I definitely think we established the foundation of who we want to be, especially on a day-to-day basis, of how we want to interact in this building, how we want to practice, the energy we want to bring. But I’m disappointed right now, I wanted to play better in the last game of the year.”

In his CFL debut, receiver Jalon Calhoun scored Edmonton’s lone touchdown. Green and Gold kicker Vincent Blanchard drilled a 51-yard field goal, tying for the second longest of his CFL career.

Elks veteran quarterback Cody Fajardo completed 20 of 27 passes for 272 yards and led the Green and Gold with 24 yards rushing. OJ Hiliare was Edmonton’s top pass catcher, hauling in six completions for 86 yards.

“Cody was leaving it all out there,” Kilam said. “We didn’t give him a lot of time on some things, but I thought he was playing his heart out, which he always does.”

Quincy Vaughn scored the only touchdown for the Stamps, who got four field goals from kicker Rene Parades. The Stampeders scored on their opening drive and never trailed in the game.

Edmonton’s defence came up with a number of big stops throughout the game, as Calgary went just one-for-four in the redzone.

Calgary jumped ahead 7-0 after Vaughn rushed for a one-yard touchdown just 4:58 into the game. Early in the second quarter, the Stamps drove to the Elks’ one-yard line and had first and goal, but Edmonton’s defence came up with two big stops, forcing the Stamps to attempt a field goal. Parades knocked it home from 12 yards to put the visitors up 10-0.

With 7:12 remaining in the second quarter, Parades connected on a 44-yard field goal as Stamps extended their lead to 13-0. Another field goal from Parades, this time from 41 yards with 59 seconds left, put Calgary up 16-0 going into the half.

On the opening possession of the second half, Blanchard hit a 51-yard field goal to cut Calgary’s lead to 13. The Stamps responded by driving to the Elks’ six-yard line for a first-and-goal, but the Green and Gold defence held strong again, and Calgary had to settle for a 10-yard field goal from Parades, making the score 19-3.

Fajardo finds Calhoun for his first CFL touchdown! #GoElks pic.twitter.com/cSXXrOnWIc

— Edmonton Elks (@GoElks) October 25, 2025

Fajardo connected on a nine-yard pass with Calhoun for the receiver’s first CFL touchdown. Blanchard tacked on the extra point, and Edmonton trailed 19-10 with 6:32 to play in the third quarter.

“I feel like my experience in the preseason and being in camp translated over,” Calhoun said of his CFL debut. “I kept working for two months preparing myself for this moment. So when I got to this moment I just took it.”

Early in the fourth quarter, Calgary went in front 20-10 on a single by Parades. A blocked punt gave the Stamps first-and-goal at the Elks’ three-yard line, but Edmonton kept the Stamps out of the endzone to force a turnover on downs, keeping the score 20-10.

THEY SAID

Fajardo on the team’s growth:

“I honestly think the biggest things that we personally did was started to believe and learn how to win football games. We learned that when the game got tight we were able to win those games. Early in the year we just didn’t know how to win. We played good ball, we battled to end, but we just didn’t know how to find that last gear in the fourth quarter, but things changed over the last two months, so I was really proud of that.”

Kilam on the team’s play at home:

“We wanted to honour the fan base by playing a certain type of football at home, I said that in my very first press conference. We’ve talked about what it means to the people in this community to play good football at home, play physical football, have big plays, all those kind of things. I really do want to credit the crowd, because we had a couple really good ones this year. I know there some other options in the sporting world tonight and we still had some people show up. There was a lot of young fans and we saw some young football teams, so that’s always exciting.”