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Chargers remain undefeated, defence riding 11-quarter shut-out streak

Sandwiched between two winless Estevan minor football teams - the atom Miners and the bantam Steelers - and coming off a winless season of their own in 2009, the fact that the peewee Chargers are 3-0 is quite a feat.
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Thanks to a defence that has not allowed a point in 11 quarters, the Chargers improved to 3-0 on the season with a 14-0 win over the Regina Razorbacks.

Sandwiched between two winless Estevan minor football teams - the atom Miners and the bantam Steelers - and coming off a winless season of their own in 2009, the fact that the peewee Chargers are 3-0 is quite a feat.Even more impressive is the fact that in three games, the Chargers have only allowed six points - in the first quarter of their first game - and have played the subsequent 11 quarters without allowing a single point.The Chargers played their home opener on Saturday at Woodlawn Regional Park against the also undefeated Regina Razorbacks.With the Razorbacks driving late in the first quarter, Evan Stabenow picked up a Regina fumble off the turf and ran it back 80 yards for a defensive touchdown.The momentum shift was exactly the spark the Chargers needed."It was quite an amazing feeling," said head coach Steve McLellan. "I don't think we've scored a defensive touchdown in the two years since our current staff has been there. It was another one of those firsts for us. It was really fun. In every single one of our games, we've had a huge momentum shift and that was the one for that game."Kaleb Memory provided the rest of the offence for the Chargers. The offensive lineman was placed in the backfield on a short yardage play and powered through the Razorbacks defensive line to put six points on the board, and then repeated the feat right after to complete a two-point convert.Kristen Skjonsby and Justyn Taillon shared quarterbacking duties for the Chargers on Saturday, commandeering the offence against a tough Razorbacks defence, and putting up enough points to complete the 14-0 win.The defence did the rest.But what is it about the Chargers defence that has made them so impenetrable early in the season?"It's mainly execution. We have a really good defensive system and the kids have definitely bought into it. It's all about momentum and I'm not seeing a lot of missed tackles and guys out of position. Everyone, when the play goes their way, is making a play," said McLellan.Although the offence has only put up nine points in the last two games, McLellan's not worrying about that aspect of the Chargers game either. They're scoring enough to win, after all."I think offensively we're coming along just fine. Always in football, your offence takes a little bit longer to click properly. A lot of it could be based on the managing of the game. In the previous game where we won 1-0, I didn't want to give them any chance for a turnover, so the play-calling was very conservative, and the same was true in this game. We didn't go to the air a whole lot to risk a turnover because we were still in control of the game."Next up, the Chargers play the Regina Thunder at 1:45 p.m. on Saturday in Estevan.McLellan said the Chargers will be looking for some payback against the Thunder, after being "absolutely smoked" by them during the 2009 season.

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