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McCallum boots Lions to win over Saskatchewan

Nov 4, 2012 - 4:41 AM Vancouver, BC (Sports Network) - Kicker Paul McCallum converted all three of his field goal attempts and finished with a total of 11 points as he helped guide the British Columbia Lions to a 17-6 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the final game of the regular season at BC Place.

The Lions (13-5), winners of four of the last five outings, saw Travis Lulay start at quarterback but after a few too many hits the team turned to Mike Reilly who ended up with more than 100 yards of total offense before he too took a seat on the bench in favor of Thomas DeMarco. Lulay completed nine of his 14 pass attempts for 88 yards and Reilly accounted for 103 passing yards and 34 on the ground.

The Roughriders (8-10), losers of four in a row to close out the 2012 regular season, kept Darian Durant safe on the sidelines while signal-callers Drew Willy and J.T. O'Sullivan handled the offense, but the pair barely made a dent. Willy finished the outing 8-of-12 for 67 yards and an interception, while O'Sullivan hit 9-of-14 for 83 yards.

The only points of the first quarter came courtesy of a 20-yard touchdown run by Andrew Harris to give the Lions a 7-0 advantage. BC added a single from McCallum early in the second and then the kicker converted a 13-yard field goal to make the score 11-0.

With only seconds remaining in the first half, Saskatchewan finally got on the board as the team capped a nine-play, 54-yard drive with a 42-yard field goal by Sandro DeAngelis which left the Riders with an eight-point deficit at the break.

Following a scoreless third quarter, McCallum struck again for the hosts as he knocked through a 19-yard field goal from the right hash to boost the advantage back to 11 points.

Barely two minutes later DeAngelis responded for Saskatchewan as he converted a 48-yard field goal to again cut the difference to eight points, until of course McCallum made good on a 33-yard field goal with just over one minute remaining in regulation to seal the victory.

Even before the game was played these two teams already knew their playoff destinations, with the Riders locked in to play Calgary in the West Division Semifinals at McMahon Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 11, while BC awaits the winner of that matchup in the West Division Championship game at BC Place a week later for the right to advance to the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto on Nov. 25.

Game Notes

Harris finished with 57 yards rushing on nine carries in order to take over the top spot in the league in yards from scrimmage on the season...Even though he played just 18 minutes Lulay, who hadn't played since the second week of October, saw his streak of consecutive games with at least one passing score end at 26...With the victory, BC head coach Mike Benevides tied the CFL record for wins by a rookie coach with 13...The teams split their four meetings this season, each winning a pair at home in 2012...Despite the loss, the Riders still own a 92-82-4 advantage in the all-time, regular-season series going back to 1954.