NEW HAVEN, Conn. Back-to-back and belly-to-belly, the New Haven football team made it 16-straight wins against its crosstown rival Southern Connecticut State University with a 21-0 clean sheet against the Owls, the second-straight shutout for the Blue and Gold. With the win, New Haven improves to 5-1 on the season and 4-0 in the Northeast-10 Conference and are now the lone undefeated team in the league after an Assumption loss in overtime to Saint Anselm.

"They are very physical and made some plays on the ball in the air which we have not done," head coach Chris Pincince commented about the Chargers defense. "They had a nice goal line stand, we really stepped up today and we continue to play a at least a two-deep worth of people on defense and hopefully that will reap its benefits here in the next month or so as we try to win this thing [an NE10 Championship]."

Combined with its 56-0 shutout of American International on October 5, the Chargers picked up its first consecutive clean sheets for the first time since the 1997 when they held Elizabeth City (59-0) and Lafayette (38-0), a Division IAA team, scoreless in successive weeks. New Haven would close out that 1997 season with a 12-2 overall record and advance to the NCAA National Championship game against Northern Colorado under head coach Tony Sparano.

The annual rivalry game against Southern Connecticut always has an asterisk next to it on the Chargers schedule knowing the Gridiron Club's Elm City Trophy is on the line, however that trophy will be comfortably parked in West Haven for now a 14th straight season.  In addition to the 14-striaght Elm City trophy victories, New Haven has mixed in a postseason victory and a non-conference win over the Owls to make it 16-straight against its rival.

"Sixteen in a row is a huge deal, especially for us," said captain Joe Vitale (North Haven, Conn./North Haven). "Thirty-seven guys who are seniors here coming into their last math-cup with Southern, we knew that this had to happen in order for us to have a good memory on the season."

"It says a lot" said Pincince about the Chargers 16-straight wins over SCSU. "It's the most important game we play for our alums, for our school and it says a tremendous amount about our kids to be able to ring the bell 16 straight times. That's a good football team over there, they can run the ball, they have a good quarterback and they're physical."

The New Haven offense found paydirt right out of the gates scoring touchdowns on each of its first two possessions to take an early 14-0 lead. Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) would be the beneficiary of the first touchdown as he capped off a five-play, 69-yard drive with a 45-yard sprint up the left sideline untouched by the Southern Connecticut defense.

Despite being forced to punt, the Owls set New Haven up deep in its zone, with the Chargers starting their second drive of the game at their own one yard line. The deep start to the drive wouldn't matter for the Blue and Gold who marched 99 yards in under five minutes as Zaon Laney (Hoboken, N.J./Rahway) capped off the drive with an eight-yard run for his third touchdown of the season.

After taking that 14-0 lead into the locker room at the half, New Haven would add one more score before all was said and done adding a touchdown on its second possession in the second half. The third time was the charm for Josh Zamot (Millville, N.J./Holy Spirit) whose third catch of the game was a 35-yard haul that capped off a 60 yard drive and put the margin at its final differential of 21-0.

Overall for the game, New Haven racked up 313 yards on offense with graduate quarterback Daelen Menard (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Chaminade Madonna) closing out his day 9-of-15 for 159 yards and the one TD pass to Zamot. On the ground, New Haven was led by Ais who finished with 108 yards, his third-straight game with 100+ yards on the ground. Zaon Laney (Hoboken, N.J./Rahway) followed with 71 rushing yards on 13 attempts.

In addition to holding the Owls scoreless, New Haven limited the Southern to just 29 rushing yards, a season-low for any Charger opponent and the fifth-straight game holding an opponent to under 75 yards on the ground. Leading the defense on the day was Vitale who finished with eight tackles, six of them solo stops. Davon Colon (Cromwell, Conn./Xavier) joined him with eight tackles while three other players finished with six tackles - Dante Kiett (Pennsauken, N.J./Eastern Regional), Jales Fisher and Chris Campbell (Staten Island, N.Y./Tottenville).

Combined, New Haven's defense finished with eight total sacks, led by Campbell and captain Jack Quander (Gainsville, Va./Patriot) who each finished with two sacks, including a sack of the Owls Keith Ridley late in the fourth quarter on fourth down to guarantee the shutout.

The Chargers will get back to work with a second-straight road game next Saturday when they head to the Bay State for a meeting with the Assumption Greyhounds. Kickoff from Brian Kelly '83 Stadium in Worcester is set for 12:00 p.m. as the Greyhounds celebrate Homecoming with all of the action available live on NE10 Now on Flo College.