CALGARY \u2014 B.C. quarterback Nathan Rourke ran for three touchdowns and threw for two more in the Lions’ 52-23 win over the host Calgary Stampeders in the CFL on Friday.<\/p>\n
His backup Jeremiah Masoli scored on a one-yard carry, Zander Horvath scored a 70-yard rushing touchdown and Justin McInnis caught a pair of touchdown passes for the Lions (7-7-0). Kicker Sean Whyte contributed a field goal and five convert points.<\/p>\n
Quincy Vaughn scored a rushing touchdown, Tevin Jones caught a touchdown pass and Rene Paredes kicked a trio of field goals for the Stampeders (8-5-0), who dropped their second in a row.<\/p>\n
Rourke completed 20 of 24 pass attempts for 331 yards. At 3,935 on the season, the 27-year-old from Victoria set a league record for most by a Canadian passer in a single season. Rourke surpassed Russ Jackson’s 3,641 in 1969.<\/p>\n
Vernon Adams Jr. completed 11 of 16 pass attempts for 125 yards, but didn’t finish the game after he was tackled on a third-quarter carry. Two of his first three passes of the game were intercepted.<\/p>\n
His backup P.J. Walker went 8-for-9 in passing for 64 yards and a touchdown. Walker appeared to injure his arm with five minutes remaining, which sent third-stringer Vaughn into the game.<\/p>\n
The game was billed as a clash between B.C.’s prolific offence and one of the best defences in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was all Lions, however, as the visitors led 28-7 at halftime in front of an announced 23,554 at McMahon Stadium.<\/p>\n
The Lions extended their streak of scoring 30-plus points in a game to seven straight.<\/p>\n
With Calgary on B.C.’s 22-yard line on the first drive of the third quarter, Adams was removed from the game by the injury spotter after he was kneed on a 10-yard run.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vaughn converted a third-and goal into Calgary’s first touchdown of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lions countered on their next possession when Rourke, who rushed for 43 yards on six carries in the game, sprinted for the end zone’s edge for a three-yard major.<\/p>\n
The Stampeders eked out a second touchdown early in the fourth quarter when Walker connected with Jones in the end zones. A two-point convert attempt failed.<\/p>\n
Rourke and McInnis connected again midway through the fourth quarter on an 11-yard touchdown strike. Horvath took a handoff 70 yards downfield to score B.C.’s sixth touchdown.<\/p>\n
B.C. was without CFL rushing leader James Butler with a thigh injury, but led 21-0 before Calgary registered its first down of the game.<\/p>\n
The Lions, who lead the CFL in offensive touchdowns this season, scored their 39th on the game’s opening drive when Rourke’s one-yard carry capped a six-play, 71-yard march.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adams’ first and third passes of the game were intercepted by Christophe Beaulieu and Micah Awe respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lions didn’t cash the first turnover for points, but Masoli scored on a one-yard plunge on the second to make it 14-0 for the visitors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
B.C. needed just two plays on its next possession to score. Rourke tore through the Stampeders defence on a 26-yard scoring run after Stanley Berryhill’s one-handed catch for a 53-yard gain.<\/p>\n
Paredes produced Calgary’s first points of the game with a 23-yard field goal early in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Assisted by Calgary’s 15-yard face-masking penalty, Rourke whipped a 35-yard touchdown pass to McInnis midway through the second quarter for a 28-3 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paredes booted a 29-yard field goal on the final play of the half and another from 48 yards in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
UP NEXT:\u00a0The Lions visit the Toronto Argonauts and the Stampeders are also on the road against the Montreal Alouettes next Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2014 B.C. quarterback Nathan Rourke ran for three touchdowns and threw for two more in the Lions’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-156385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}