Reynolds sets rushing mark in Stamps' victory

The Calgary Stampeders have a new rushing king.

Running back Joffrey Reynolds became Calgary's all-time rushing leader Friday night while helping guide the Stampeders to a 36-20 victory over the lowly Edmonton Eskimos at Commonwealth Stadium.

Needing only 50 yards, Reynolds easily eclipsed Kelvin Anderson's career mark of 8,292, finishing the contest with 145 yards on 21 carries.

Reynolds also rushed for at least 100 yards for the 30th time in his career, another Calgary record.

"It means a lot to me," Reynolds told reporters. "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."

Quarterback Henry Burris powered the passing attack, going 29-of-35 for 404 yards, including two TDs and two rushing scores.

Burris overcame an early interception to shred the Eskimos' defence.

The red-hot Stampeders (9-1), who won for the seventh straight game, can extend their West Division lead depending on what the Saskatchewan Roughriders (6-3) do in their matchup at Winnipeg Sunday afternoon (1 p.m. ET).

Edmonton no match

Calgary continued its mastery of the Eskimos, winning six consecutive games against its hated rival.

"They are our provincial rival so it's huge," Burris said. "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."

During the last month, the Stampeders have embarrassed the Eskimos (2-8), winning by a combined 104 points in three games.

The axe remains over the head of coach Richie Hall, who has been rumoured to be on the firing line for the last six weeks.

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

Trailing 14-12 late in the second quarter, the Stamps reclaimed their advantage with a six-play, 69-yard drive. Burris scored on an eight-yard quarterback draw, giving Calgary a 19-14 lead with 31 seconds remaining.

Late field goal

Refusing to simply head to the locker-room, Edmonton cut the advantage to only two points when kicker Noel Prefontaine drilled a 57-yard field goal to the delight of the 35,349 in attendance.

Prefontaine's kick did little to slow down the division-leading Stampeders.

Taking the opening kickoff to begin the third quarter, Calgary easily drove down the field — thanks in large part to a 32-yard run by Reynolds — and scored when Burris ran in from three yards.

Linebacker Juwan Simpson gave Calgary a 28-17 edge on Edmonton's next possession when he sacked Ray in the end zone.

Burris put the game out of reach with 2:47 remaining in the third, completing a six-yard crossing pass to receiver Nik Lewis to extend Calgary's lead to 35-17.

Single ends scoring

A Prefontaine 36-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter cut the Stamps' advantage to 15 points, but Calgary punter Burke Dales ended the scoring with a 54-yard single.

While the Stampeders appear to have the most balanced team in the league, head coach John Hufnagel must be concerned about his kicking game. Rob Maver missed three field goals Friday night, including one that was returned for a touchdown by Tristan Jackson in the fourth quarter.

Luckily for Maver, the score was wiped out by a clipping call.

"They made some big plays but we were able to keep our poise and reload and answer them," said 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."