Barnstorming Crusaders dominating JV circuit in first football season

Imagine going to a private school for a junior varsity football game and not being able to find parking anywhere for minutes on end before being forced to squeeze your sedan in between two massive pickup trucks.

Such was the scene at St. Vincent High School in Perryville on Monday, Sept. 30, as it was not an ordinary JV football game.

It was the first-ever game between Saxony Lutheran's newly established football team and its natural rival, St. Vincent. The visiting stands were packed with Saxony Lutheran supporters who relished in finally getting to see their newly minted football team play close to home and win 47-14.

"This is the closest we have to a home game," Saxony Lutheran head coach OJ Turner said. "We turn around and it is packed everywhere."

The Crusaders, wearing their crisp new white uniforms with gold trim, have been something akin to a barnstorming troop. While they await their new home being ready for their first varsity season in 2025, the Crusaders have played exclusively road games during the JV season. Each time, they have answered the challenge and won every game on the schedule.

"The kids don't know the difference right now," Turner said. "They don't know what it's like, so they're doing a really good job."

Because it's their first year, the Crusaders are playing JV football with a handful of upperclassmen who can leverage their athleticism and muscle on the lowerclassmen on the other side to victory.

While the team learns the basics of football for the first time, the Crusaders can hand the ball off to Ethan Bohnert, a senior running back who is also an aspiring bodybuilder, and watch him run 144 yards and two touchdowns. Alex Buerck, a junior running back who proved to be imposing in his own right, also rushed for 140 yards and two scores.

Kai McDowell, a freshman quarterback who is both the present and future of the program, can throw it to 6-3 senior Owen Buchheit for nearly 100 yards and two touchdowns or scamper for a rushing touchdown.

"We've always been big and physical, but the IQ of football, obviously, is low from never playing before," Turner said. "Every game the IQ football goes up quite a bit."

On the defensive side, senior defensive back Seth Mueller went running long distance for three years to running straight to the ball to the tune of three interceptions.

"He's a guy who ran cross country his whole life, never played football, and it looks like a football player out here," Turner said.

Their game at St. Vincent may be the biggest game of the season for Saxony Lutheran in terms of attendance and matchup. For the six seniors who originally entered the school without the possibility of playing football being a reality until their final year, the next three games, two of which will be at Charleston and Kelly, serve as fleeting opportunities for experiences that they'll never forget.

"This is their Super Bowl," Turner said. "We explain to these kids, you got three games left. You got three games that you'll play left ever, so this is their Super Bowl every time they get out here on the field."

The future seems bright for the Crusaders come 2025. McDowell has demonstrated to be a mobile quarterback who is learning to lead an offense on the fly during his freshman year.

"Kai is a stud," Turner said. "Kai will be a high-level college quarterback. His IQ is really high. We're really trying to get the rest of the team to kind of catch up with it. We actually got to slow him down a little bit. He's fantastic. The upside for him is really, really good."

The plan for Saxony Lutheran next year is to build the soccer field into a football stadium with bleachers and lights, so the Crusaders can play home games during their first varsity season. Their small weight room in the basement of the school will need to expand and the players who will be around next year will also have to expand in strength to meet the challenge.

"We got to realize that we're kind of a big JV team," Turner said. "We're playing varsity next year. We got to really hit the weight room and then our IQ football's got to get better if we can beat varsity."