BREESE, ILL — The Saxony Lutheran Crusaders fell to 2-2 after a loss to Mater Dei Friday night.
The Crusader offense showed promise, scoring four touchdowns, two through the air and one on the ground, in the 43-28 loss.
Saxony quarterback Kai McDowell averaged 13 yards per completion, and threw for 143 yards and two touchdowns, one to Ozzie Turner and one to Samuel Janet.
The rushing attack was again led by Alan Rudd, who ran for 138 yards and a touchdown. McDowell scored a touchdown on the ground as well and rushed for 38 yards.
Kevion Williams had a great game on defense, with four tackles for loss and a sack.
Crusaders head coach OJ Turner said the game against Mater Dei was a complete turnaround in style of play compared to the previous week, as their offense is mostly focused on passing whereas Windsor, who the crusaders beat 52-20, are a rushing based offense, and even in the loss it was good to see his team respond and play well against a team with such a contrasting style.
“I think we were prepared well and I think the kids were definitely excited to kind of go and play a different style team,” Turner said. “I think it was a game where it could have gone either way. When it got going they ended up making some bigger plays than we did down the stretch and then ultimately were able to get the win, but our kids play very tough and we’re very very proud of them.”
Turner said in the remaining games leading into the playoffs, the Crusaders will need to focus on minimizing mistakes. Turner said the team has a lot of potential and with fewer mistakes should be able to win close games against good teams.
“You can’t make the amount of mistakes that we made and be able to win games, but we’re super proud of our kids,” Turner said. “We got the running game going very early and it was pretty balanced again whenever it came to running and running and passing… offensively we’re definitely able to do some of the things we want to do and just needed to put that ball in the end zone a couple more times and get a handful of stops as well.”
The Crusaders, now 2-2, will travel to Charleston Friday night for their next game. Kickoff against the Blue Jays is scheduled for 7 p.m.
