"Hey, who's the (bleepin') frauds now?'' Burse yelled in the direction of the B.C. Lions' locker room.

Take that, Dale Joseph! Go home, Lions!

The Edmonton Eskimos won the debate that really counted, knocking off the cocky Lions 40-33 in a CFL Western
semifinal that ranked right up there with the 1989 Grey Cup as an all-timer.

"It was a great game for our players,'' said head coach Kay Stephenson. "The players came up big. We made some big plays.''

The Eskimos are now 7-1 in divisional semifinals at Commonwealth since 1986.

Three unlikely heroes
 In the wild war of attrition, it was a trio of unlikely heroes who were front and centre in adding another chapter to the Eskimos' mystique.

Burse was on the sidelines early with a pulled hamstring. Starting quarterback David Archer could not answer the bell for the second half and had to be replaced by Jimmy Kemp.

A 24-10 halftime lead quickly evaporated into a 33-26 deficit and it looked like the Esks would be the team packing to go home today.

"Momentum reversed on us, so it was good that we got that done last week (against Saskatchewan), because we had to do it again today,'' said Stephenson.

Yesterday, the tide started to turn when rookie linebacker Duane Stewart intercepted a Damon Allen pass intended for Rod Harris with just over six minutes left.

"I knew 81 (Harris) was going to run a corner route,'' said Stewart. "Damon happened to throw it late, so I had more time to get into position and caught the ball. It was a crucial time in the game.

"I knew from all the rest of the stuff that happened, I let a (Harris third-quarter) touchdown go by and let my teammates down, so I had to do something. A lot of guys depended on me, so I had to do my part.''

The best came last
Then Kemp and Brian Wiggins took over.

Kemp had been frustrated by his inability to punch the ball in the end zone for most of his relief appearance, but he saved his best for last.

With 4:08 left, the pair turned Stewart's interception into a 17-yard TD. Receiver Wiggins wrestled the ball out of Lion defender Glenn Rogers' hands to tie the score at 33-33.

Then, after the defence buckled down, Kemp got the ball back with 1:12 left.

After the first underneath crossing-pattern of the game to Troy Mills went for a 14-yard gain, Kemp kept it simple again as he hooked with another underneath to Wiggins, who crossed the goal line 45-yards later with just 26 seconds left.

"I didn't do anything spectacular,'' said Kemp, who completed 13 of 19 attempts for 185 second-half yards.

"I called the most basic play in the book, something that we all know, that we have a lot of confidence in and we got the job done.

"I've got to give a lot of credit to Troy Mills and Brian Wiggins and all the guys who made big plays for us. The name of the game is big plays. B.C. had a lot in the second half and we had to have some.''

Wiggins, who made six catches for 112 yards, has established himself as the go-to guy in this offence the past three weeks.

But his first TD catches of the season could not have come at a more opportune time.

"All I wanted to do was make the catch,'' said Wiggins about his game-winner.

"My idea was to catch the ball, get as much as we could and get us into field goal range. When I caught it, I looked up and saw nothing but green grass. I just came clear wide open and my instincts told me to keep running.''

That's because his path to the end zone had been cleared when wideout Don Blair ran an in-pattern, taking the Lions defenders with him.

Summary:
 First Quarter
 Edm -- Single Fleming 52 3:40
 Edm -- FG Fleming 20 11:43
 BC -- FG Passaglia 41 13:54
 Second Quarter
 Edm -- FG Fleming 52 6:12
 Edm -- TD Mills 7 run (Fleming convert) 10:12
 Edm -- TD Dowdell 13 pass from Archer (Fleming convert) 13:12
 BC -- TD E.Brown 45 pass from Allen (Passaglia convert) 14:17
 Edm -- FG Fleming 42 14:56
 Third Quarter
 Edm -- Single Fleming 54 2:30
 BC -- TD Harris 24 pass from Allen (Passaglia convert) 4:39
 BC -- TD Allen 11 run (Harris two-point convert) 7:24
 Edm -- Single Fleming 54 11:45
 Fourth Quarter
 BC -- TD Rogers 52 interception return (Johnson two-point convert) 1:39
 Edm -- TD Wiggins 17 pass from Kemp (Fleming convert) 10:52
 Edm -- TD Wiggins 45 pass from Kemp (Fleming convert) 14:34
 
 BC            3   7 15 8---33
 Edmonton  4 20  2 14--40
 
 Attendance -- 26,102
 

	BC	Edm
First downs	16	24
Yards rushing	192	157
Yards passing	202	335
Total offence	394	492
Team losses	17	23
Net offence	377	469
Passes made-tried	13-26	26-36
Returns-yards	11-159	16-181
Intercepts-yards by	1-52	1-18
Fumbles-lost	0-0	2-1
Sacks by	3	3
Punts-average	12-39.6	9-41.2
Penalties-yards	6-30	11-82
Time of possession	24:59	35:01

 

Individual Stats:
Rushing: BC -- Allen 11-79, Drummond 10-78, Johnson 5-35;
              Edm -- Mills 23-128, Kemp 3-24, Archer 2-5.
Receiving: BC -- Brown 5-105, Harris 5-54, Jackson 1-20, Drummond 1-18, Johnson 1-5;
                Edm -- Wiggins 6-112, Dowdell 5-59, Blair 4-55, Mills 5-48, Deibert 4-34, Myers 2-27.
Passing: BC -- Allen 13-26, 202 yds, 2 TDs, 1 INTs;
             Edm -- Archer 13-17, 150 yds, 1 TD, 0 INTs; Kemp 13-19, 185, 2 TDs, 1 INTs.