The Century 21 peewee Chargers football team are 2-0 this season after a strong defensive effort propelled the club to a 24-8 win over the Lions Saturday at Elks Field in Moose Jaw.
“The kids played really well,” said Chargers head coach Jason Bresciani. “We could tell we were the stronger team out of the two. Even though the heat probably was a factor the kids actually pulled together and stayed on the game plan.”
Chargers quarterback Kaleb Bechtold got the team off to a solid start at 7:04 of the first quarter when he dived into the end zone for a touchdown from the one-yard line before kicking the convert to make the score 8-0. He was back at it at 9:44 of the second quarter when he ran for a 44-yard score to put Estevan up 16-0 with the convert.
“The play was called for him to option to the outside and he chose to keep it, got to the corner and away he went,” said Bresciani.
The Chargers' only blemish of the game came at the 3:28 mark of the third quarter when the Lions' Dallas Erickson intercepted a pass and ran the ball back 64 yards to the end zone. Hugh Nester then kicked the convert to pull the Lions within eight points.
Bechtold made up for the errant throw at 2:17 of the fourth quarter when he punched in another touchdown from the one-yard line. He completed the scoring with a convert after the play to put the Chargers up 24-8.
Bresciani said the Chargers' defence as a unit can be credited with the win as they shut down the Lions play after play making for many two and outs. He said Kyler Dutka, the Chargers' Booster Juice player of the game, helped the defence with many of their tackles for losses from his position as defensive tackle, but he was only one part of a larger effort by everyone tasked with protecting their goal line.
“Really our defence or anybody on our team, it would have been tough to choose a player of the game,” he said. “Everybody deserved it.”
A focus on playing as a unit instead of pursuing individual goals can be attributed to the Chargers strong performance out of the gate this season, noted Bresciani. He said the guys will have to keep that up as they prepare to host the Moose Jaw Riders at Dana Quewezance Memorial Field this Friday.
“We're going to continue what we have been doing, just working hard in practice and get our little wrinkles that happened over the weekend ironed out and focus on our execution,” said Bresciani. “With this league anybody can win, so I'm basically expecting a good hard football game."
