STE. GENEVIEVE — The Saxony Lutheran Crusaders fell to the still undefeated Valle Catholic Warriors Friday night 74-21.
Despite the lopsided loss, Saxony Lutheran can take away the positive that their 21 points scored is the most allowed by the Warrior defense in a game this season.
Crusaders head coach OJ Turner said he knew the game against the powerhouse would be tough, but he wanted his team to face that kind of challenge early in the history of the program.
“We knew coming into this game, they were going to be very good,” Turner said. “They’re always really good, but I think particularly this year, with the amount of seniors they have, they are definitely rolling pretty well, so we had to just really manage our expectations. We know we’re a two year team, but at the same time too, we don’t have anybody in our coaching staff or on our team that’s going to just lay down for any team that we play.”
Turner said the tough game will serve as a learning opportunity for the program that is still in the process of defining itself.
“We felt like when you’re developing a program, it’s important to go and sometimes see just the best around,” he said. “It was super healthy for our coaching staff and for our players to be able to go against Valle this year. I think we learned a lot. We were able to move the ball on them and get first downs and things like that as well, which was a good testament to our team and ultimately where we see ourselves being one day.”
This Friday night, the Crusaders will end their regular season with a home match up with Priory. The Crusaders are 3-0 at home so far this season, and are determined to finish the season undefeated on their own turf. To keep the streak alive, they will need to overcome injuries against the team out of St. Louis.
“We are currently undefeated at home so we’re pretty excited about keeping that streak going this year,” Turner said. “That’s something big that we were able to kind of do this year and want to kind of keep that going. We’ve battled and we have a lot of injuries this year. A lot of kids are pretty beat up, so it’s going to definitely be a challenge to be able to keep that streak going into the playoffs.”
Turner said Saxony is ready for playoff football, despite the toll that injuries have on the team over the season.
“Even though we’re a young team, even more younger bodies got to get out of there and kind of figure it out,” he said. “It’s great for those kids to be able to get some experience early, and where we’re at right now with some injuries is, that’s what we got. In this game, you get beat up sometimes and you still have to play the game.
The district playoffs will begin for the Crusaders on October 30.
