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Durant leads Saskatchewan in double OT victory over Lions

Nov 15, 2010 - 8:32 AM Regina, SK (Sports Network) - Darian Durant's 24-yard touchdown pass to Jason Clermont in double overtime was the game-winner, as Saskatchewan moved on in the CFL playoffs with a 41-38 victory over the British Columbia Lions in the West Semi-Finals.

Following a Paul McCallum 37-yard field goal for B.C. to begin the second OT, Durant hit Chris Getzlaf for an 11-yard gain on 2nd-and-10 from the 35. On the next play, Durant found Clermont slanting from the left side, and the former Lion broke a tackle and sprinted up the middle toward the end zone to give the Roughriders the win.

Clermont, who spent 2002-08 with the Lions, recorded his first touchdown catch with Saskatchewan in two seasons after 37 scores with B.C., helping the Roughriders advance to the West Final against Calgary next week. He finished with three catches for 63 yards.

"I'm just so proud of the Riders in this game," said head coach Ken Miller. "They just kept fighting back and fighting back for as long as it took. I don't know what I said had much to do with it, but Darian wasn't following through very well. I talked to him about transferring his weight and then he got some short completions and was back to his old self."

Durant finished with 310 yards passing and three touchdowns on 20-of-37 efficiency for the Roughriders, who are looking to return to the Grey Cup Final for a second straight season after losing by a point last year. Weston Dressler caught eight passes for 150 yards and two scores, while Wes Cates had 65 yards rushing and a touchdown on 15 carries.

Travis Lulay completed 28-of-49 passes for 352 yards with two touchdowns and an interception for the Lions, who played a division semifinal overtime game for the second straight year. In 2009, B.C. defeated Hamilton, 34-27, in OT before losing to eventual champion Montreal in the East Division Final.

"It's obviously very tough," Lulay said. "We battled, we battled. We battled the second half of the season to get here. You've got to give them credit. They made plays. They finished the game by making plays. These guys have great fans and they started feeding off them in the second half."

The Lions trailed by seven with 1 1/2 minutes remaining, and Lulay drove the team down the field to the opposing 29 yard line with just a couple seconds on the clock.

With time for only one play, B.C. sent three receivers down the left side of the field, and Lulay sent up a prayer toward the end zone. Emmanuel Arceneaux was left uncovered and grabbed the ball as he fell to the ground for the game- tying touchdown as time expired.

In the first overtime, Cates rumbled in from one yard out on Saskatchewan's possession, and Durant's two-point conversion pass to Andy Fantuz made it 35-27. The Lions answered, however, with Lulay's dive into the end zone from five yards away and a subsequent two-point conversion pass to Geroy Simon.

Warren Kean's 47-yard single and 29-yard field goal gave the Roughriders an early lead in the first before McCallum's 44-yard field goal in the final moments cut the B.C. deficit to 4-3.

Kean drilled a 22-yard field goal with just over nine minutes until halftime for a 7-3 contest before the Lions grabbed their first lead, 10-7, on Steven Black's 15-yard touchdown reception three minutes later.

McCallum drilled two field goals -- from 38 and 20 yards away -- to give the Lions a 16-7 advantage at halftime. He started the third quarter with his fourth field goal, a 45-yarder, for a 12-point difference, but Dressler's four-yard touchdown catch got the Roughriders to within 19-14 heading to the fourth.

Kean's 22-yard field goal early in the fourth made it a two-point game before Durant's 75-yard touchdown pass to Dressler with 9:13 to play provided a 24-20 contest in favor of the Roughridgers.

The fourth field goal from Kean, a 24-yarder, increased Saskatchewan's lead to seven with 3:08 remaining in regulation.

Game Notes

Clermont's last touchdown catch occurred on August 22, 2008 while with the Lions...The Roughriders have won at least one playoff game in six of the last eight seasons...The Lions and Roughriders have faced each other in the playoffs in five of the last seven seasons. British Columbia is 3-2, including an overtime victory in the 2004 West Final.