A good balance of defensive and offensive play lead the Cochrane Lions to a 19-0 win against the Rebels in their season opener, Aug. 24, and leaves them seeded in first place in the Calgary Peewee Football Association.

Head coach Scott Mamchur says the coaches are proud of the team's play in the opener. The defence didn't allow a single first down and some good blocks allowed the offence to march down the field and control the clock.

"I think everybody is having fun. We've worked hard with them on becoming a complete football team and adopting a team philosophy," says Mamchur. "I would say we had a good team win on Saturday and they really rose up to the challenge and are working together for that common goal."

"They're playing very disciplined football. We didn't see a lot of penalty flags thrown and we didn't see anything selfish, so it was good to see."

The peewees enter the season with a good balance of size and skill. They have a full roster of 45 players, which includes five on the practice roster.

Full attention is being paid to safety protocol from minor to professional leagues. All of the Lions coaches are safe contact certified, he explains.

"We limit our hitting in our practices to one day a week. Everybody monitors it. It's probably the most important thing. It was definitely the first thing we addressed with all the parents in our initial parent meeting."

"Every play and everything thing we address and correct during practice are to make sure the boys are safe and their heads are up. We're adopting all the principles we were taught in the safe contact courses."

He says the focus on keeping players safe in the sport is paying off.

"We certainly are seeing far fewer injuries than eight years ago when I first started coaching."

Game Two goes this Saturday against the Eagles at the Ernest Manning Athletic Park in southwest Calgary. Most of their games are played at Shouldice Park. The regular season continues until Oct. 12.

The Bantam Lions kicked off their season the same day and were defeated 43-0 by the Wildcats.