TORONTO — He was not Doug Flutie. Mind you, he was not Cleo Lemon either, a Toronto Argonauts’ quarterback who lived up to his surname.

What Zach Collaros did was be himself, and it was more than enough for the B.C. Lions to handle Tuesday night.

Playing in place of injured starter Ricky Ray, the Argos’ spare quarterback mesmerized the Lions defence in leading the Argos to a stunning 38-12 win in his first Canadian Football League start. Collaros amazed an audience of 20,064 at Rogers Centre and undoubtedly surprised the Lions.

But the least impressed individual was the 24-year-old quarterback from Steubenville, Ohio. He has assuredness oozing out of his pores.

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“You know, I’m a confident guy, and as a competitor you always expect to do well,” Collaros explained. “I’ve said, in all my interviews tonight, we had a great week of practice. We were confident coming in.”

His only mistake came early, in the first quarter, when a blitzing Korey Banks forced a turnover at the Argos’ 42-yard line. But the fumble didn’t prove to be too costly. The Lions came away with only a field goal, the first and only time on the evening B.C. held the lead.

“He (Argo coach Scott Milanovich) asked me what happened. I said I messed up. That was it,” Collaros said. “I think the offence started rolling after that. We wore them down in the second half for sure. We could run the ball a little bit easier. When you can run the football, it makes it easier to pass. We executed well.”

Execution was the operative word. A firing squad could not have done a better job on the Lions.

Collaros threw three touchdown passes, two of them into the hands of rookies John Chiles and Alexander Robinson, who each recorded his first CFL touchdown reception.

In the final quarter, another substitute, tailback Curtis Steele — also making his CFL debut as a starter in place of feature back Chad Kackert — scored on touchdown runs of one and 11 yards as the Lions’ defence appeared to give up the ghost.

Without Ray, Kackert, big-play receiver Dontrelle Inman and starting left tackle Tony Washington — four of Toronto’s best players — the Argos were simply too much for the Lions, which happens about once a decade.

The victory was the first for the Argos over the Lions since July 23, 2010, when a 41-yard interception return touchdown by Byron Parker late in the fourth quarter proved decisive in a 24-20 Toronto win. The Lions quarterback that night was Travis Lulay, making his first CFL start in place of the injured Casey Printers.

Since that rare Toronto win, the Lions had gone on a 6-0 run against the Argos and had won 16 of the previous 17 meetings before Tuesday.

The least penalized team in the CFL going into the contest, the Lions showed an unusual lack of discipline in being dinged 13 times for 126 yards. A scuffle in the second quarter resulted in three Lions — Stu Foord, Nick Moore and Courtney Taylor — being flagged for unnecessary roughness penalties on the same play for a net loss of 30 yards (Argo Jalil Carter was also penalized).