FANTUZ SETS CAREER HIGH

By IAN HAMILTON, Leader-Post September 20, 2010

REGINA — Andy Fantuz never quit.

OK, so the Saskatchewan Roughriders' slotback admitted he did once Friday — and it resulted in a 55-yard interception return for a touchdown by Calgary Stampeders defensive back Milton Collins during the teams' CFL clash at Mosaic Stadium.

"They played a different coverage than we expected and I kind of gave up on the route on Darian (Durant, Saskatchewan's quarterback)," Fantuz said. "It was a mistake by me. I needed to keep running and undercut that and if I couldn't catch it at least break it up. I kind of quit on the route, so that was on me.

"I went up and told Darian right away, 'Just keep coming to me. I'm going to be ready all game. I feel great.' He did — and I'm glad he did."

So are the Roughriders. Fantuz finished with 10 receptions for 255 yards, with a 60-yard touchdown, in Saskatchewan's 43-37 overtime victory.

The yardage was a career single-game high for Fantuz, surpassing the 240 yards he had on seven catches versus the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Oct. 14, 2007. Fantuz's showing Friday also put him second in the Roughriders' record book, behind the 260 yards Chris DeFrance had on nine catches against the Edmonton Eskimos on Aug. 5, 1983.

"That stuff doesn't matter," said Fantuz, who now owns the second- and fourth-highest single-game yardage totals in Roughriders history. "I don't really care. Whatever. It doesn't matter. I'm just happy we won."

Fantuz said he has had similar games in his career — he mentioned "a 250 and a 240 back to back" during his rookie season at the University of Western Ontario, as well as the aforementioned Hamilton contest — but Friday's performance was important to him because of the outcome.

The victory improved the Roughriders' record to 7-4-0 and kept them in touch with the first-place Stampeders (9-2-0) in the CFL's West Division.

The club record conceivably could have fallen Friday if Fantuz had held onto a pass on the Calgary sideline in the third quarter.

"Yeah, that one was tough," he said. "It was a first down and possibly more. I felt like I was turning it up, but I guess I just did that too quickly and took my eyes off it.

"We got a touchdown that drive anyway (on a 30-yard run by Hugh Charles, following Jason Clermont's 35-yard second-down reception), so that's why I'm not too mad about it. If we would have had to punt, I would have been a little sick to my stomach."

As it turned out, the Stampeders likely were sick of seeing Fantuz getting behind Collins. The converted safety nearly got his hands on a couple of the passes aimed at Fantuz, but the slotback hauled them in.

"They wanted to match up and put 14 (Collins) on Andy," said Durant, who completed 23 of 39 pass attempts for a career-high 500 yards, "and we knew that was a matchup we could take advantage of."

That resulted in Fantuz's third career CFL game with double-digit receptions — and all have been against Calgary (12 on Nov. 7, 2009, 10 on Oct. 17, 2009, and 10 on Friday). His yardage total nearly matched that of his past five games combined (259 on 22 catches, with no TDs).
"We've got so many weapons on our team that, depending on the week and the matchups, we're going to get it to different guys," said Fantuz, whose squad visits Hamilton on Saturday. "I'm not complaining about my role in the last few weeks, but we knew we could go after it this week and get it done.

"Last time we played Calgary, there were many opportunities that we missed out on (in the Stamps' 40-20 victory on July 24). They came in with the same game plan (Friday), so we adjusted and countered. It was a great job by our coaches getting us ready for this game."

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