Their teammates had already left Grappone Stadium and prepared for what will be one enjoyable trip back to Connecticut when linebackers Damon Burton and David Onyemem (Dracut, Mass./Central Catholic) had the chance to exchange a high five and shouts of joy.

If ever a group of players earned the right to celebrate, the members of the University of New Haven defense would be a deserving choice.

All the points scored by previous undefeated Saint Anselm came following mistakes by the offense or special teams and despite being put into difficult situations, the defense stole the show in the 24th-ranked Chargers' 21-10 win at Saint Anselm.

Onyemem had 13 tackles, a forced fumble and two tackles for loss while Burton had a pair of interceptions as the Hawks finished with just 177 yards of offense.

"When moments happen, we say this is what we are here for, this is what we do," Onyemem said. "We come here to stop the offense, no matter what the situation is."

The resiliency of the defense was never more evident than early in the third quarter. Sure-handed tight end Kevin Foelsch (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey) was attempting to double catch a pass over the middle from quarterback Connor Degenhardt (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) when the Hawks' Liam Flynn ripped the ball away to leave Saint Anselm 20 yards from tying the game.

After a catch by 6-foot-6 receiver Bobby Long gave the Hawks a first down at the 2, the defense went to work. Tahlee Bailey (Somerset, N.J./Rahway) had a tackle for loss on first down, elusive Saint Anselm quarterback Anthony Santino was stopped for no gain on the next play and after an incompletion, Saint Anselm had to settle for a short field goal.

"We all have the same mindset that we want to be great," Burton said.

"We are all from different places, we trained all summer and with each game, we get closer and closer. Our chemistry is getting better and we are dominating."

New Haven finally appeared to be on the verge of opening up a two-score less when Terrell Ford (Tonawanda, N.Y./Kenmore West) took a pass from Degenhardt and approached the end zone. On a day when the Chargers turned the ball over four times, Ford fumbled away a glorious scoring opportunity.

After two more stops by the UNH defense, the offense finally got the needed touchdown to put the game away.

Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) carried the ball on the first four plays of the drive.

The play after Degenhardt picked up a drive-extending first down on a 4th-and-1 play, he faked the ball to Ais. With most of the defense reacting to the star New Haven running back, Degenhardt only had to elude one player before waltzing into the end zone for the 20-yard TD run.

"I hadn't really pulled the ball a lot," Degenhardt said. We got blitzed off the edge, he crashed down hard in those situations. I kind of expected him to crash down, thinking we would give the ball to Ais.

I was able to pull it out of them. Dev [Holmes] did a good job of blocking on the outside and there is nobody there."

New Haven (4-1, 3-0 in the Northeast-10) won its 15th straight conference game even on a day when the Chargers squandered the chance to pull away in a game they controlled from the opening play of the game.

The play resulted in a 73-yard scoring run by Ais. Ais, who followed up last week's 131-yard effort against Bentley, ran for 183 yards and also had a TD catch.

He was quick to credit his offensive line for getting the Chargers off and running right away.

"I got the ball, I was following my boys and a big hole just opened up," Ais said. "It was nice, all credit to my line there."

New Haven forced a punt on the Hawks' first drive, but Paul Cooper (Kings Park, N.Y./Kings Park) couldn't come up with the short punt to set up Saint Anselm in the red zone. Five plays later Anthony Santino ran in from two yards to tie the game.

Connor Degenhardt (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) extended the drive with a short run on fourth down and facing a 3rd and goal at the 13, Degenhardt spotted Ais uncovered coming out of the backfield. He was able to beat a defender to the end zone late in the first quarter to restore the seven-point lead.

Both teams came up with key turnovers in the second quarter. New Haven's Chisom Okoro (Cheshire, Conn./Cheshire) recovered a fumble to give the Chargers the ball at the Saint Anselm 40. However, a second-down sack short circuited that drive. Earlier in the quarter, Ryan Raybuck came down with an interception in the end zone for a pass intended for Dev Holmes (Troy, N.Y./Troy).

It wasn't just the turnovers that upset New Haven coach Chris Pincince, but the type of mistakes committed by the Chargers will prove costly at some point if they continue to happen.

"All four of the turnovers are completely unacceptable," Pincince said. The punt return thing is garbage, us not competing for the ball in the end zone, Terrell Ford (Tonawanda, N.Y./Kenmore West) reaching the ball out for no reason down there and Kevin not catching the football. That is straight on the offense, that falls on me."

It is not the first time the defense has had to deal with a short field this season. Even playing without standout defensive lineman Mazon Walker (Huber Heights, Ohio/Anthony Wayne), the Chargers delivered perhaps their best effort of the 2022 season.

"I hope they don't get too used to it," Pincince said with a laugh.

"They had a little bit of pride today and this is a high-flying offense that has scored a whole bunch of points and I think they took it upon themselves to play a little harder."

After winning back-to-back road games against two of the better teams in the conference, the Chargers return to play Pace and Post in the next weeks.

"It is all about coming out of here with a victory," Degenhardt said.

"They were undefeated coming in here, we knew that everyone in the league is always going to give us their best game, we are defending champs. We know we are going to get everybody's best game so we have to keep preparing and keep playing hard."

He knows that the miscues like the ones on Saturday have to be cleaned up as the offense needs to finish drives much better than they have so far this season.

"At the end of the day, we know we have a very good offense and we have a good defense and the only way we are going to lose a game is if we beat ourselves," Degenhardt said. "I wouldn't say there was a frustration level, we did a great job sticking together, focusing on the next drive and keeping everybody up when things were going wrong."