THE CANADIAN PRESS

THE CANADIAN PRESS

EDMONTON -- The Calgary Stampeders likely wish their season series against Edmonton wasn't over yet.

Henry Burris ran for two touchdowns and passed for a pair of others as the Stampeders continued their domination over Edmonton this season, defeating the Eskimos 36-20 on Friday night.

It was the seventh consecutive win and third straight this season over Edmonton for the Stampeders, who improved to 9-1 and moved six points ahead of second-place Saskatchewan in the CFL West.

``They made some big plays but we were able to keep our poise and reload and answer them,' said Calgary head coach John Hufnagel, who saw his team rack up 587 yards in offence.

``Offensively we were on the field a lot and I think we wore their defence down. That's part of our personality as a football team. If you run the ball productively on first down, you can do some good things with that.'

Burris was happy to see his team complete the season sweep over Edmonton, winning the three games by a combined score of 146-40.

``They are our provincial rival so it's huge,' said Burris. ``It's also great to keep our momentum going in the right direction heading into a big game next week in Regina. Edmonton played their butts off. They made it tougher tonight. But we kept our composure.'

Of particular note was a milestone for Stamps running back Joffrey Reynolds, who ran for 145 yards to vault past Kelvin Anderson to become the team's all-time career rusher.

``It means a lot to me,' said Reynolds. ``Any time you can be the best for a franchise, that's huge. Especially moving ahead of a guy like Anderson who had seven 1,000 yard seasons. I'm just happy to be mentioned in that company.'

Edmonton dropped to 2-8 on the season in a tie for last in the West with B.C.

However head coach Richie Hall saw the game as an improvement to the first half of the Labour Day double-dip.

``We played hard,' he said. ``We played well. We played with pride. We gave ourselves a chance. We played a lot better than we did the other day.'

Calgary got on the board first on its opening drive as Burris passed 37 yards to a wide-open Arjei Franklin down to the Edmonton 16-yard line, leading to a 23-yard field goal from Rob Maver.

The Stampeders were pressing again with four minutes left in the opening frame when Eskimo Chris Thompson stepped in front of a Burris pass and took his sixth interception of the season 84 yards back for a touchdown and a 7-3 Edmonton lead.

Calgary regained the lead early in the second quarter after a long drive, finished off by an eight-yard passing TD from Burris to Rob Cote.

But Edmonton quickly responded when just over a minute later newcomer Marco Mitchell made an impressive debut, outworking defender Brandon Browner to reel in a long bomb from quarterback Ricky Ray for a 69-yard TD.

Calgary twice lined up for long field goal attempts by Maver but both missed and were brought out of the end zone.

Edmonton conceded a safety for field position late in the second but the move didn't pay off _ Calgary marched down the field and scored with 26 seconds left on an eight-yard QB keeper by Burris to give the Stamps a 19-14 lead.

But Edmonton cut the lead to 19-17 on the final play before the half as Noel Prefontaine kicked a massive career-best 57-yard field goal, two yards shy of a team record.

Calgary's offence continued to march confidently downfield to start the third quarter, adding a three-yard TD run by Burris to go up by nine.

Calgary added another safety midway through the third as Juwan Simpson sacked Ray in the end zone.

The Stamps made it 35-17 late in the third after yet another long drive ending when Burris passed six yards into the end zone to Nik Lewis.

Edmonton started off the fourth with a field goal, followed by a Calgary punt single.

The Eskimos looked like they might have a chance to get back into the game with five minutes to go when it appeared that Tristan Jackson had run a missed field goal all the way back. But the play was called back on a hitting from behind call to Maurice Lloyd.

The Stampeders visit Saskatchewan next Friday while Edmonton plays next Sunday in Montreal.

Notes: Calgary has won the last six meetings with Edmonton, defeating them by a combined score of 108-20 in their two previous meetings this season. . . In Monday's 52-5 Labour Day loss to the Stamps, the Eskimos wound up with more turnovers (six) than rushing yards (five). . . Calgary's victory earlier in the week was the third game in a row the Stamps posted more than 40 points, the first time they had done so since 1998. . . The Eskimos had a number of new faces in the lineup including offensive lineman Kelly Bates, wide receiver Marko Mitchell and running back Brad Lester, who came in as the starter in his first ever CFL game. A pair of key layers also returned from injuries; running back Calvin McCarty and returner Tristan Jackson. . . Calgary had largely the same lineup as they fielded the previous game. . . Calgary entered the match with a league-leading plus-9 turnover ration while Edmonton was last at minus-17. . . The 35,349 in attendance was the worst crowd for a Labour Day rematch in the 22-year history of the home-and-home series between the two Alberta teams. The previous lowest crowd count at Commonwealth was 40,729.