O’FALLON — Sophomore quarterback Kai McDowell led Saxony Lutheran (1-0) into a new era Friday, scoring the Crusaders’ first-ever touchdown in their first varsity game on the way to the program’s first-ever victory.
Saxony Lutheran, which played a junior varsity schedule last year before taking the plunge into varsity football this season, topped host Veritas Christian Academy (0-1) 54-18, leaving coach OJ Turner excited about the rest of the Crusaders’ inaugural season.
“We were full of excitement going into that game, obviously,” Turner said. “All spring, all summer, we were waiting for that first game to kind of really show how much we improved and the kids showed up and were very excited.”
Of course, Turner said, there were some nerves in addition to the excitement.
“Definitely some nerves,” Turner said. “Our team’s still very young. If you look at our starters, we’re probably about half freshmen still. So, this is a big deal, being as young as they are, [football] IQ they are, to come and play at a varsity level.”
Adding to that was the general unfamiliarity with their opponent.
“We were definitely a little bit in the dark as to exactly what we would see and had to make some adjustments for sure in the first half,” Turner said.
After McDowell – who rushed for more than 100 yards — scrambled for the Crusaders’ opening score, the teams traded touchdowns through the first half as the Crusaders held onto a slim 26-18 lead before scoring 28 unanswered points to secure the victory.
“Always, always room for improvement,” Turner said. “Nervous-wise, when we first got out there, you could kind of definitely tell. On the defensive side of the ball, we kind of let some people get behind us a little bit, kind of poking our head inside, but all those things can be fixed relatively easy.
“I really felt that our team played well. They definitely made improvements from our jamboree and we’re very glad to be able to play our first real game and then be able to look at that and make improvements from it.”
Turner said he also got a few surprises during the game.
“I was surprised, honestly, just with my whole freshman corps,” Turner said. “There’s a lot of freshmen I got on my team. You know, Ozzie Turner, Madden Cortez, Allen Rudd, Mason Anthony — those are some that come to mind. A couple of them are starters on both sides of the ball and they played their first-ever varsity game on both sides of the ball and really did some really good things. I knew they would be able to help us, but not to the level that we saw. We’re very happy to see that.”
As for McDowell, Turner had plenty of praise.
“He had a really good game for sure,” Turner said. “As a sophomore, he’s a big leader on our team. He got the ball out, we were pretty balanced on our running and our passing, and he did a really, really good job for us.”
Turner also pointed to sophomore defensive lineman Evan Thompson and the rest of the defensive line as key contributors.
“Our defensive line is doing a really good job,” Turner said. “We’ve got a young, I mean a very young team. Evan Thompson is a sophomore that we knew would be able to help a little bit, but man, he really, really showed up [Friday]. That young group really stepped up and played well.”
Saxony is scheduled to host Doniphan at 7 p.m. tonight at Houck Stadium in Cape Girardeau, the team’s temporary home field while the school finishes construction on the Crusaders’ new stadium, which is expected to open in coming weeks.
