CALGARY - After watching his road roommate get his first ever CFL touchdown, Calgary Stampeders safety Wes Lysack had extra motivation to get one as well.
Lysack picked off rookie quarterback Cody Pickett in the third quarter and ran the ball back 57 yards into the end zone after defensive lineman Mike Labinjo caught a one-yard touchdown pass from Henry Burris in the second quarter of Calgary's 34-4 win over the Toronto Argonauts.
"Me and him are roommates and obviously really good friends," said Lysack, who could barely believe it when Labinjo went in on offence and caught the TD pass in the back of the end zone. "I said to him that he's an S.O.B. for getting a touchdown before me. I said he's an extremely large target for Hank to hit so that's the only reason he got it. That's not good. I've got to make sure I get one."
While Lysack congratulated Labinjo on his touchdown, he also kidded that he was upset that he didn't get one first.
"He came on the field and he was like, `what the hell are you doing in the end zone'," said Labinjo, who was pleased to see his roomie accomplish the same feat in the same game. "I'm glad Lysack got his first touchdown. Any time we can get a score on defence, it's good for our team."
In addition to coming up with big scoring plays, Lysack and Labinjo helped Calgary's defence hold Toronto's offence to just 229 yards in total offence and 12 first downs.
"Our defence was exceptional," said Calgary coach and general manager John Hufnagel. "We knew going in that No. 1 we were facing a young quarterback and our plan was to put some pressure on him and hopefully force him to make some mistakes. We were able to accomplish that."
Calgary quarterback Henry Burris also tossed a TD to Nik Lewis, while Sandro DeAngelis kicked four field goals to lead the Stampeders (8-4) to their third straight victory.
Kicker Mike Vanderjagt accounted for all of Toronto's scoring with a field goal and a single.
Making his first CFL start for the Argos (4-8), Pickett couldn't get anything going and when he did the Stampeder defence stopped him in his tracks.
"I am confident I can play better and we have to play better when we (play) Calgary again next week," said Pickett, who wasn't happy that the Argos turned the ball over four times (his interception and three fumbles). "We cannot have turnovers against a good team like Calgary. We have to take care of the ball better."
Late in the first half, Pickett completed a 20-yard pass to P.K. Sam and followed that up with a 19-yard completion to Andre Talbot to get the Argos to midfield. Then the Stampeder defence took over with back-to-back sacks of Pickett by Dwaine Carpenter and JoJuan Armour to run out the clock.
The same two teams will meet for a rematch in Toronto next Saturday when the Argos will try to get head coach Don Matthews his first win this season in his third game since the veteran CFL coach replaced Rich Stubler on the sidelines prior to Week 12.
"I see us getting better and we have some good players," Matthews said. "We had enough chances to make it a very competitive game and did not do it."
After punter Burke Dales opened the scoring with a single, DeAngelis kicked a 16-yard field goal to give the Stamps an early 4-0 lead.
Following a 35-yard field goal by Vanderjagt to get the Argos on the board, Burris engineered a six-play, 68-yard scoring drive culminating in his one-yard TD pass to a wide-open Labinjo deep in the end zone early in the second quarter.
"We worked on that all week," Burris said. "He's a guy who has excellent athletic ability. Labinjo did a good job of selling the block and just crept in the back of the end zone and was wide open."
DeAngelis then added a 37-yard field goal before Burris tossed an 18-yard TD pass to Lewis to give the Stamps a 21-3 lead at the half.
In the third quarter, Vanderjagt missed a 31-yard field goal and had to settle for a 43-yard single before DeAngelis kicked a 10-yard field goal.
Following Lysack's interception return, DeAngelis rounded out the scoring with his fourth field goal of the game in the fourth quarter from 33 yards out.
Notes: The Stamps now have a 19-6-1 record in their last 26 games at McMahon Stadium. Lewis has now caught at least one pass in 83 consecutive game and is three games away from breaking Allan Pitts' club record of 85 straight contests. Burris moved passed Peter Liske and into third place on the all-time career completions list among Stampeder quarterbacks. He now has 1,159 completions to put him 90 behind Jeff Garcia for second spot.