The Coquitlam Chargers blanked the Richmond Raiders 21-0 Sunday in a battle for supremacy in bantam division football.
The Chargers scored on their first drive in the clash for first place. A long run on a reverse by Martin Norman set up Coquitlam on the Raiders five yard line. From there, Darrel Gelera followed the blocking of Marco Aiello and Liam Burgess to bull his way into the end zone.
The Charger defence shut down the vaunted Raider offence, forcing a punt that was partially blocked and recovered by Jason Tade. Quarterback Lucas Gill quickly connected on a 25-yard touchdown strike to Liam Stewart to put the Chargers up 14-0 at the half.
Interceptions by Stewart and Matt Shuen silenced a couple of second-half drives by the Raiders. A blocked punt set the Raiders up on the Coquitlam 20 yard line in the fourth quarter. But the Charger defence again came up to meet the challenge and snuffed out the Raider drive to no gain. Rylan Smaaslet, Matt MacAloney, Jason Gee and Darrel Gelera were standouts for the Charger defence.
Norman completed the Charger scoring on a 50-yard run.
The Chargers will look to defend first place when they take on Cloverdale Sunday afternoon at Mackin Park.
In peewee division action Sunday, the Coquitlam Wildcats hammered the Richmond Raiders 40-6.
