THE CANADIAN PRESS

CALGARY -- Henry Burris hooked up with one of his favourite targets to become the all-time leader in passing touchdowns for the Calgary Stampeders.

Jeremaine Copeland hauled in a five-yard pass from Burris in the end zone in the third, quarter giving the Calgary quarterback 141 passing touchdowns, and the Stampeders beat the B.C. Lions 27-18 Friday. Burris, who also ran for a pair of touchdowns, moved one ahead of Doug Flutie for first place on the franchise list.

"It was a special one," Burris said. "With the season that Cope's had, he was definitely the guy that was destined to make it happen."

On the play, Copeland did a great job to haul in the pass to give Calgary a 24-17 lead. B.C. coach Wally Buono challenged the play, but officials deemed that Copeland kept both his toes in the end zone to make the spectacular catch.

"When I was stretching out for the ball, I knew I had my toes in," said Copeland, who immediately got up to congratulate Burris after his 12th touchdown catch of the season. "That was awesome. I told him congratulations. We've still got a long ways to go, so we're going to try to blow that record out of the water."

Sandro DeAngelis added a pair of field goals for the Stampeders (7-5), who rebounded from a disappointing 24-17 road loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last weekend.

Burris completed 14 of 27 passes for 197 yards, while adding 56 yards rushing.

"Henry, I thought did a lot of great things out there, throwing the ball, running the ball, managing the game, the type of stuff that we ask our quarterback to do," said Calgary coach John Hufnagel. "He had a nice rebound game."

Martell Mallett had a rushing touchdown for the Lions (5-7), while quarterback Buck Pierce tossed pass to Paris Jackson in the end zone. Kicker Sean Whyte added a field goal and a single.

"We left our defence on the field way too long," Pierce said. "We moved the ball well in the first half but did not in the second half. We need to play better for four quarters."

Neither team could get anything going early on as the first quarter ended in a scoreless tie.

The Lions had the best chance to get on the board in the opening frame, but Calgary defensive back Dwight Anderson forced a fumble after O'Neil Wilson caught a pass from Pierce deep in Stampeders territory. Playing in his first CFL game, Calgary's Dee Webb picked up the ball and ran it back 35 yards to end the threat.

With B.C. on the move again early in the second quarter, Webb was flagged for illegal contact on a receiver to give the Lions a first down deep in Calgary territory. On the next play, Mallett rambled 25 yards into the end zone to put the Lions up 7-0.

On the ensuing kickoff, Calgary's Demetris Summers returned the ball 75 yards back to the B.C. 28-yard line. Four plays later, Burris ran for a seven-yard score to tie the game.

"Demetris Summers' kickoff return gave us some momentum," Hufnagel said. "We scored some points on that. Then when B.C. scored we were able to answer. Every time they scored, we answered."

The Lions responded quickly as Pierce hooked up with Emmanuel Arceneaux for a 51-yard pass-and-run play. Two plays later, Pierce tossed a 19-yard TD pass to Jackson.

The Stampeders then rallied back with an 11-yard field goal by DeAngelis, before Burris engineered a seven-play, 65-yard drive that he capped off with a one-yard touchdown plunge to give Calgary a 17-14 lead at halftime.

B.C. took advantage of a Joffrey Reynolds fumble early in the second half and tied the game on an 18-yard field goal by Whyte.

The Stamps then took a 24-17 lead after a pair of controversial plays. First Nik Lewis caught a 28-yard pass at the B.C. five-yard line, but the ball popped right up to Barron Miles, who celebrated as if he had a turnover. Calgary challenged the play and Lewis was ruled to have been down by contact before the ball got loose.

"I am not upset at the calls and as you have to believe the judgement of the people in Toronto," said Buono, while adding, "I thought he (Lewis) did not have possession."

On the next play, Copeland made his TD grab to help Burris reach his milestone.

"We finally broke the curse trying to get it," said Burris, who had gone six quarters without throwing a TD pass. "Now that it's broken we can concentrate on going out there and just making sure that we execute when we get down there and try to get more touchdowns instead of stressing out and making Sandro work overtime."

After Whyte kicked a 56-yard single, the Stamps squandered a chance to build on their lead when a 32-yard field goal attempt by DeAngelis hit both uprights and bounced back into the field of play.

After Keon Raymond picked off an errant pass by Pierce to give Calgary the ball back, DeAngelis regained his composure and kicked a 39-yard field goal to round out the scoring.

Notes: The Stamps have won the last five regular season meetings against the Lions. With the win, Calgary has an all-time record of 91-71-5 against B.C., including a 53-29-2 mark at McMahon. Copeland now has 43 receiving touchdowns to tie him with Herm Harrison and Terry Evanshen for ninth place on the Stamps all-time list.