CAPE GIRARDEAU — The Saxony Lutheran Crusaders (2-3) squared off with a tough Charleston squad on Friday at Houck Stadium in Cape Girardeau, and according to coach O.J. Turner, the Crusaders seemed a bit off — at least offensively — leading to a 28-7 loss to the Blue Jays (4-2).
“I think practice was done very well,” Turner said. “We had good practices the whole week, but our energy level, for some reason, was a little low on Friday when we got there, and it showed a little bit. You could tell that defensive-wise. We spent a lot of time on defense, and this is the first time that our offense really got stopped. They put a lot of pressure on [sophomore quarterback Kai McDowell], and we did not do a really good job of handling it. We had opportunities to score. We hit a lot of guys in the chest with the ball, but at the same time, we typically get a lot more opportunities on offense to put the ball in the end zone. And we didn’t get that on Friday night.”
Saxony led 7-6 going into the half, but the Blue Jay offense, led by CJ Kimble’s 105 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns, mounted a big comeback in the second half to secure the victory.
“I think their coach did a really good job, offensively-wise,” Turner said. “It’s just him saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring the house and we’re going to make this young quarterback beat us.’ They had a lot of pressure on us, and probably 35 percent of the time, we had the ball out and did some things right. The rest of the time, they won those battles. We were never really able to get our running game going, and that was definitely a problem throughout the game. We had to depend on our quarterback’s arm a whole lot more than we typically have to.”
And that didn’t exactly work well, either. Charleston’s defense held McDowell, who completed 15-of-31 passing attempts, to 121 yards, intercepting him 3 times, including a costly pick late in the game that stalled the Crusaders’ longest drive.
On the ground, Saxony Lutheran finished with 59 yards rushing and their only score, on a first-half run by senior Alex Buerck, who finished with 39 yards on 14 carries. Buerck also had 4 catches for 43 yards.
“It was not ever really pretty,” Turner said. “It was always a kind of a back-and-forth game. Going down the field, that wasn’t pretty. We had a lot of dropped passes.”
It wasn’t all bad news for the Crusaders. Turner had a lot of praise for his defense, which held the Blue Jay to one touchdown in the first half and only 50 yards passing on the night.
“I feel like our defense stepped it up quite a bit,” Turner said. “[Charleston’s] line is big. They’ve always been big, and they’re pretty physical, but it was 12-7 in the fourth. It’s a real game still at that point. Their running back ran hard, cut the ball back quite a bit, but we really contained him really well. It’s about the fourth quarter. And I think, just as a young team, we asked the defense to do a lot this week and I think they did a really good job. Ultimately, it caught up with us towards the end after a couple of interceptions and we probably dropped our head. We’re still a young team and we weren’t able to finish through.”
Saxony’s next test comes in the form of the Perryville Pirates (4-2), fresh off a pair of victories, including a 35-0 shutout over Jefferson. The Pirates are averaging 27.2 points per game while allowing 17.8, while the Crusaders are averaging 32 points per game – aided by a season-opening 54-18 victory over Veritas Christian — while allowing 27.4. Friday’s loss to Charleston marked the first time this season the Crusaders have failed to score at least 30 points, even in a loss.
“I’m hoping to have some really good energy,” Turner said. “We bring a lot of kids from Perryville to Saxony. Maybe this could be a rivalry game one day. I know my kids are excited about that game. We need something to really get excited about. We’re learning how to win and how to lose. And, honestly, we hope with some of the losses we have, that can maybe take a little pressure off of us and we can kind of just think about ourselves for a little bit.”
Kickoff for Week 7 is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at Pirate Stadium in Perryville.
