The Estevan Century 21 peewee Chargers football team suffered their first loss of the season Thursday at Darold Kot Field against a strong club from Weyburn.
The Chargers fell 32-0 to the Eagles (4-0), who have yet to give up a single point this season in Moose Jaw Minor Football (MJMF) action. The loss brings the Chargers record to 3-1, which they will try to improve on tonight at Dana Quewezance Memorial Field against the Weyburn Ravens (1-3).
“It's just getting back to how we know how to play,” said Chargers head coach Jason Bresciani about what the team needs to do against the Ravens. “Get ourselves refocused and basically start over again. Get back to the drawing board and refocus again and start working together.”
Bresciani said the club expects to have starting fullback Kyle Mack and defensive back Hayden Borhot back for the Ravens game after the pair were forced to miss the contest again the Eagles with concussion symptoms. He said both have indicated they are feeling better, but the Chargers starting quarterback Kaleb Bechtold may not be ready to return after suffering an injury while playing hockey a few days before they played the Eagles.
“Those are a couple key players,” he said, noting having them out against the Eagles played a factor in the loss. “At this level of football it's a lot of the running game, so when your quarterback and your running back are out it makes a difference.”
The Eagles' players are a bit bigger than those on the Chargers, which may have intimidated them and created a lack of focus among the players during the game, noted Bresciani. He said they looked uneasy and with the Eagles constant attack some frustration seeped into their play.
“They pressed us all game,” said Bresciani. “It's just some adversity we haven't seen before. We never had a team that pressed us that bad. We didn't know how to get out of it. It comes with experience and practice of how to deal with that situation.”
The Chargers have spent the short week between games trying to refocus on their game and what makes them a power in the MJMF. Bresciani said they're getting back to football fundamentals and will let the positives they enjoyed against the Eagles shine through as they get back into game action.
“We had some great tackles and some great blocking and some great runs. There is a lot of things we can take away from (the Eagles game). There is just as many positives as there were negatives.”
