JACKSON — Saxony Lutheran won 42-13 over Vienna-Goreville Friday night, but the victory and the score was not the most memorable part of the evening.
The Crusaders hosted “pink out night” in support of cancer awareness. The team donned special all pink alternate jerseys and honored Thai Rudd, mother of Saxony running back Alan Rudd, who has been battling cancer.
They also recognized Vienna-Goreville’s Cole Waters, who is battling cancer as well.
“It was a really good full week to just to love on people and support cancer awareness,” Crusaders head coach OJ Turner said. “You know awareness is the whole nine yards, a lot of times I’m a football coach, but you know it’s not always about football and this week It was you know not all about football. It was really about loving and supporting.”
On the night his mother was honored, Rudd led the team offensively with 105 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns on 5 carries, including one that went for 85 yards.
“Rudd got going pretty quickly,” Turner said. “So on a day where we’re supporting his mom and everybody in the community of Saxony and Jackson were involved in supporting him, it was great for him to come out there and score. It was a great start for everything that we were doing. So the running game got going pretty quickly and then we were very balanced this week.”
Bryant Abernathy and Sam Meyr got going as well, running for 59 and 51 yards respectively.
Saxony quarterback Kai McDowell was nearly perfect, completing 9 out of 10 passes, connecting with Ozzie Turner 4 times for 85 yards and three touchdowns. McDowell also connected with Bryce Gaebler, Samuel Janet and Jace Graham for a total of 187 yards.
“We were able to start quickly with offense and just really tighten up some things that we need to tighten up,” Turner said.
The Crusaders will run into their biggest challenge of the year this Friday night as they travel to Ste. Genevieve to take on the Valle Catholic Warriors, who are currently 7-0 and have dominated most games they have played this season, scoring 40 or more in all 7 and never giving up more than 14 points to an opposing offense.
“Judd has done it for a long time, he’s a really smart coach and the players are very disciplined in what they do,” Turner said. “All our coaches have played some level of ball so we’re gonna be prepared. We’re not a team that’s gonna just lay down for anybody. But we think they’re very prepared, they’re undefeated, they’re coming in with a lot of energy. But at the same time too, when we started this program, we started with a mindset that we wanna get better every game and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go out there and we’re going to compete.”
Kickoff against the Warriors is scheduled for 7 p.m.
