JACKSON — Senior running back Alex Buerck had a wild night Friday, leading the Saxony Lutheran Crusaders (4-4) to a 55-29 victory over the Red Bud (Ill.) Musketeers (1-8) in the Crusaders’ second game in their newly completed stadium.
Buerck rushed for 174 yards and 4 touchdowns on 24 carries and caught 2 passes for 100 yards and 2 more touchdowns, accounting for nearly half of Saxony Lutheran’s 580 yards of total offense and 65 percent of points scored by the Crusaders.
Sophomore quarterback Kai McDowell also had a big night, completing 16-of- 21 passing attempts for 260 yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 interception, and rushed 9 times for 84 yards and another touchdown.
“[Buerck] had a monster game,” said Saxony Lutheran coach O.J. Turner. “We got our run game going pretty quickly. It’s really nice to see here at the end of the year, [the offensive line] has come along, and these holes are getting pretty big for our running backs to be able to run through. Our run game was unbelievable. Any time that we pass, we tend to do a pretty good job of it, but our run game got going and we kind of stuck with it.”
Freshman Alan Rudd had 5 carries for 34 yards and a touchdown, and freshman Joey Haley carried 3 times for 28 yards as the Crusaders tallied 320 yards on the ground.
“We’re probably 70-30 as far as run-pass,” Turner said, “with run being the 70 percent. The kids really stayed on their blocks and we were able to march down the field pretty good.”
And it wasn’t just on the ground. In addition to Buerck’s two scoring receptions, McDowell completed passes to five other receivers. Junior Bryce Gaebler had 3 catches for 66 yards, freshman Ozzie Turner had 3 catches for 36 yards, Madden Cortez had 3catches for 32 yards, senior Jaron Anderson had 4 for 21, and Zach Roth made 1 catch for 5 yards.
Turner also had plenty of praise for his defensive unit, despite giving up 29 points to the Musketeers.
“We had a really, really good week of defense,” Turner said. “We had a handful of misalignments early. That’s kind of why the score was a little close. I had a great halftime talk and they came in and cleaned up those things. It goes back to these kids being able to take criticism and turn around pretty quickly.”
Junior Clark Jones finished with 10 tackles — 8 solo — and 2 forced fumbles; sophomore Caiden Pace had 2.5 sacks and 1 fumble recovery; Cortez and Anderson each had 1 interception; and Ozzie Turner had 1 fumble recovery.
“That was really good to see at the end of the year,” Turner said, “making an adjustment relatively quickly over halftime, and honestly being able to put the gas down and not take it off. This is probably first game ever that we were able to slide our JV in at the end. We’ve been kind of praying for a game like that with teams that we feel like we should be able to manage the game really well and be able to get some more kids in.
“Defensively-wise, in that second half, they did the job they needed to do and ended up having probably five pretty big hits in that second half. That got our crowd, our sideline really excited, and they really wanted to continue to do it. So really, really good for defense. I feel like they’re kind of starting to get their identity, who they are and what they can do.”
The Crusaders, seeded second in Class 1, District 1, get a week off before hosting third-seeded Hayti (4-5) in the second round on Nov. 7.
