Saxony Lutheran coach O.J. Turner said many of his players viewed Friday’s road game against Perryville as a homecoming of sorts.
Many of his Crusaders — in the middle of the school’s first-ever season of varsity football — hail from Perryville, so taking the field at Pirate Stadium felt like a big deal.
“The kids came out ready to go,” Turner said. “A lot of our kids come from Perryville, probably 60 percent of my team. They were really excited about this game. This feels like a homecoming game for them, so they woke up ready to go from Monday.”
And they showed it. The Crusaders (2-4) hit the field firing on all cylinders and racking up 462 yards of total offense — just 17 less than Perryville — but the veteran-loaded Pirates (4-2) used their 479 yards a little more effectively, beating Saxony Lutheran 56-42 in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
The Pirates’ offensive machine was led by senior quarterback Kayd Luckey, who completed 7-of-12 passes for 79 yards and 2 touchdowns, and rushed 10 times for 118 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Right on his heels was senior running back Barrett Wheeler, who rushed for 243 yards and 4 touchdowns. He also caught 2 passes for 32 yards and a fifth touchdown. The two seniors combined accounted for 440 yards of total offense.
“Our seniors on Senior Night were leading the way,” said Perryville coach Brent Roth. “We’ve got the four linemen up front — Ben Huber, Derek Martin, Alex Hayden and Wes Pfaff — and they dominated the game. And then Kayd Luckey managing the game and putting everybody in the right spots, and Barrett obviously doing his thing. The seniors were leading the way emotionally and physically.”
Late in the fourth quarter, all that separated the Crusaders from a victory over the Pirates were 7 points and 5 minutes, 31 seconds.
“I’m thinking, ‘How do I make my onside recovery hands team better?’,” Roth said, referring to two consecutive onside kicks from the Crusaders in the third quarter, one of which resulted in a Saxony touchdown. “We’ve used them a ton this year and we’ve given up three onside kicks on the year. That was what was going through my head. I knew offensively we were going to be able to move the ball. It was just, ‘Hey man, let’s make sure we put it in the right guy’s hands so we don’t get some type of silly turnover here.’ That guy’s hands are Barrett Wheeler’s. The kid doesn’t fumble. We know if we want to close out a game, we put the ball in his hands.”
After Saxony scored on an 8-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Kai McDowell to make it 48-42, the Pirates' offense stepped it up, with Luckey handing off to Wheeler repeatedly as Perryville marched down the field, culminating in a 1-yard touchdown run to leave the score 56-42 with 2:10 left on the clock.
After the kickoff, Saxony kept pounding away, driving down the field to just shy of the red zone when McDowell made his only big error of the night, as he lofted the ball toward a receiver only steps from the end zone. That pass, one of only 8 he didn’t complete in 35 attempts, was picked off by Perryville’s Dawson Wolk with 53 seconds left in the game.
“That was the first turnover we [recovered] in three games,” Roth said. “We needed one. I just kept yelling the whole game — we need that turnover. It was a huge play. Dawson had a big two-point conversion catch down here and then gets to cap the game off. A huge play by him.”
Roth also praised freshman Josh Gremaud, who stepped into some big shoes when senior running back and defensive end Drew Leuckel went down with a knee injury.
“Drew goes down and Josh has to replace our best football player,” Roth said. “And he goes in and he did that on the offensive side and the defensive side as a freshman. Those are very creative positions. There’s a lot of mental things that go in there, and Josh was able to run that. Kudos to him as a freshman to come in and run those positions.”
As for Turner, despite the loss, he was pleased with his young team’s performance.
“We’ve got freshmen and sophomores that are out here battling,” Turner said, “and they did. I mean, [Perryville’s] line was a lot bigger than us and we battled the whole time. We went toe-to-toe with a Class 4 team. We’re super excited about the future.”
McDowell led Saxony’s offense, completing 27-of-35 passing attempts to 5 different receivers for 343 yards and 3 touchdowns with 1 interception, and rushed 7 times for 51 yards and 2 more touchdowns.
Ozzie Turner had 8 catches for 148 yards and a touchdown, Bryce Gaebler had 8 catches for 96 yards and a touchdown and Zach Roth had 4 catches for 48 yards and a touchdown. Madden Cortez had 4 catches for 38 yards and Alex Buerck caught 3 passes for 23 yards, while rushing for 72 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries.
Up next for Saxony is visiting Massac County, Ill. (2-5), while Perryville will travel to Herculaneum (3-3). Kickoff for both games is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday
