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August 19, 2017

About Last Night…

DB Ciante Evans during a game in BC on Aug. 18, 2017 (Photo by Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck)

Here’s a closer look at Friday night’s 21-17 victory at BC Place:

Fantastic four

Friday’s result extended the Stamps’ winning streak to four games, matching the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for the current longest active streak.

This marks the eighth consecutive season the Stamps have put together a string of victories of at least four games and they have a total of 15 such streaks since the start of the 2010 campaign. Edmonton, with six winning streaks of four games or more in the past eight years, is second in that category over that span followed by BC and Montreal with four apiece.

Also, the Stamps have now won 15 consecutive games coming off a regular-season bye week.

Finding a way

Calgary hit the win column at BC Place despite producing a season low of 21 points.

While the Stamps lead the league in scoring so far this season and also ranked first in points scored both in 2015 and 2016, they’ve also found a way to manufacture victories on nights the offence isn’t firing on all cylinders. Since the start of the 2015 season, Calgary is 10-6 in games the club scores 25 points or fewer.

How the West can be won

On opening night of the 2016 season, the Stampeders dropped a 20-18 decision at BC Place. Calgary hasn’t lost to a West Division opponent ever since.

By avenging that loss with a win in Vancouver, the Stamps have now won 12 consecutive matchups against divisional opponents.

Friday’s result, coupled with Winnipeg’s victory over Edmonton on Thursday, creates a logjam at the top of the division as the Eskimos, Stamps and Blue Bombers are separated by just two points. Those three clubs have combined for a 19-4-1 record so far in 2017.

A handful of three-pointers

Rene Paredes matched his career best on Friday by booting five field goals.

It’s the 11th time in his career Paredes has had five three-pointers in a single game and the eighth time he’s gone five-for-five. Including playoffs, he now has 50 career field goals against the Lions, the team against which he made his spectacular CFL debut in 2011 with a clutch, late-game 50-yard field goal.

Paredes is 22-for-25 on field goals this season and for his career stands at 281 successful kicks, just one back of J.T. Hay for second place in franchise history.

Pick party

Alex Singleton’s first-quarter interception of a Jonathon Jennings pass was the first pick of the second-year Calgary linebacker’s career.

It was also the ninth interception by a Stamps player this season, with nine different players contributing a pick apiece. That trend was broken in the second quarter when cornerback Ciante Evans became the first Stamp in 2017 to pick up a second interception.

A fine Mess

With a 16-yard run late in the third quarter on Friday, Stamps tailback Jerome Messam surpassed the 5,000-yard mark in career rushing.

Messam now stands at 5,027 yards and he’s one of just three active players above 5,000 yards, joining former teammates Andrew Harris of Winnipeg (5,728) and Brandon Whitaker of Toronto (5,208). Messam currently leads the CFL in both rushing yards (559) and rushing touchdowns (seven).

Roy rocketing up the charts

Roy Finch keeps moving up on the list of Stamps returners.

After having cracked the team’s all-time top 10 in punt-return yards during Calgary’s previous game, Finch upped his total to 1,557 on Friday to move past Harvey Wylie and into ninth spot. Next up is Terry Vaughn at 1,580. It’s especially remarkable considering this is just Finch’s second season with the Red and White and he was out of football in 2015.

Finch, who had a nifty 47-yard kickoff return to open the game on Friday, has 3,162 combined return yards in 22 career regular-season games for the Stamps.