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Saskatchewan routs Calgary to book spot in Grey Cup

Nov 18, 2013 - 1:47 AM Calgary, AB (SportsNetwork.com) - After taking down their bitter rivals, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are coming home.

Darian Durant threw three first-half touchdown passes and Kory Sheets ran for 177 yards and a score as Saskatchewan advanced to the 101st Grey Cup following a 35-13 thumping of the Calgary Stampeders in the West Division Final.

The Roughriders will face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Mosaic Stadium in Regina in next Sunday's Grey Cup.

The last two Grey Cup champions, the B.C. Lions and Toronto Argonauts, won the game on their home field.

Durant, who tossed majors to Rob Bagg, Weston Dressler and Chris Getzlaf, completed 24-of-30 passes for 280 yards in the triumph.

Calgary running back Jon Cornish, who led the CFL in rushing yards, was held to just 67 on nine carries for the Stampeders, who played in their fifth Division Final in six years. Calgary won the Grey Cup in 2008, but dropped last year's tilt to Toronto.

Sheets finished second in the CFL in rushing.

The Stamps had the CFL's top-rated offense during the regular season, but turned the ball over seven times Sunday.

Calgary quarterback Kevin Glenn was 7-of-13 for 185 yards with two interceptions before giving way to Drew Tate in the second half. Tate completed 5-of-11 throws for 90 yards.

The Stampeders' Rene Paredes booted through a pair of first-quarter field goals, sandwiched around Durant's 3-yard TD flip to Bagg, as Saskatchewan owned a 7-6 edge after a quarter of play before seizing control in the second.

After Durant hit Getzlaf for a 7-yard score, the Roughriders got the ball right back two plays later when Terrell Maze recovered a Jeff Fuller fumble following a 46-yard completion to the Saskatchewan 31-yard line.

Saskatchewan was unable to get more than a single, but the Roughriders regained possession again one snap later after recovering another Calgary fumble.

Glenn found Maurice Price for a 57-yard gain down to the Roughriders' 18, but he coughed the ball up and Rod Williams returned the fumble 35 yards. Cornish was whistled for an unnecessary roughness penalty on the play to put the ball at the Calgary 42.

Two plays later, Durant fired to Dressler for a 37-yard TD strike for a 22-6 Roughriders' lead late in the opening half.

Tate came on for Calgary's opening series of the second half and found Joe West for a 46-yard score to cut the gap to 22-13.

Chris Milo missed an 8-yard field goal on Saskatchewan's ensuing series, but hit from 12 yards out midway through the fourth quarter to stake the visitors a 25-13 spread.

Calgary's Larry Taylor fumbled a punt which ricocheted off his foot with 4:26 left, and Paul Woldu knocked the ball out of bounds to give Saskatchewan the ball at the Stamps' 32-yard line. This set up a Milo 39-yard field goal.

Sheets' 1-yard TD plunge with 1:12 remaining capped the scoring.

Game Notes

The temperature for Sunday's game was minus-eight ... Hamilton defeated Toronto, 36-24, in the Eastern Final earlier on Sunday ... Calgary boasted the CFL's best regular-season record at 14-4.