The Estevan Lions Club Steelers felt more like the Winnipeg Blue Bombers than the Saskatchewan Roughriders following their Labour Day weekend matchup against the Regina Renegades.
The Steelers dropped to 0-3 with a 30-0 loss in Regina on Saturday.
The Renegades led 7-0 after one quarter and 14-0 at the half.
Steelers head coach Phil Zajac said there was no reason his team shouldn't have beaten the 1-2 Renegades or at least been competitive to the end.
"It was two evenly matched teams, we just didn't score when we needed to score," he said.
"It's a game we should've won. That's the frustrating part."
The Steelers nearly broke the shutout bid late in the game.
"They stopped us three times at the goal line in the fourth quarter, (which was) aggravating, then they scored a meaningless touchdown with a minute left," Zajac said.
He said the Steelers' defence "played pretty well" overall, aside from some big plays that cost them.
"We wanted to start to eliminate some penalties we took last week, and we did better on that," he added.
Running back Levi Pick accounted for roughly 100 yards on the day, and safety/cornerback Evan Stabenow had roughly 10 individual tackles. Prestin Bergen had an interception for the Steelers.
Zajac said the plan now is to repeat the plays until they stick.
"What I'm planning to do this week is simply repetition and execution. We're not going to add any plays on offence or defence, we're just going to review, review, review and rerun, rerun, rerun until we perfect our execution. We've got the right people in the right spots, we just have to do the plays right."
Meanwhile, the Estevan Century 21 peewee Chargers were in action on Monday against the Regina Patriots. The score was not available at press time.
All three Penta Completions Estevan Minor Football teams will be in action on home turf Saturday. The Miners host the Regina Cardinals at 11 a.m., the Chargers host the Regina Thunder at 12:45 and the Steelers play the Junior Griffins at 3 p.m.
