Saxony defense clobbers Farmington in season-opening thrashing

Facing off against a foe that took it the distance a year ago, Saxony Lutheran girls soccer started 2024 off with a bang in a 7-0 rout of Farmington on Friday afternoon.

For the second consecutive year, the teams squared off in the season opener. But after a 2-1 Saxony victory in penalties last year, the rematch felt quite different from the get-go.

You could count on one hand how many times Farmington brought the ball out of the defensive third in the first half, and Saxony ran up a 3-goal lead at the half and poured it on in the second.

“You always want to open the season on a positive note,” longtime Crusaders coach Chris Crawford began.

“Farmington is always a tough squad. To be able to jump on them a little bit early, that was very nice too.”

Abby Haley got the game’s opening goal about five minutes in, chipping a header off a defender and finding the back of the net for what served as the winner about 75 minutes later.

Seniors Kylie Peters and Annie Adams both scored in the first half as well, capitalizing on the pressure-forced miscues by Farmington to take a big lead by the end of the first 40.

“We just play with a little bit more intensity,” Crawford said. “We were slightly more direct, which I didn’t love, but, you know, it worked for us tonight.”

Clara Brune kicked off the second half with a ridiculous bar-down shot from outside to extend the lead to 4, and Faith Dreyer quickly followed suit with a goal from even farther out.

The first of two for Dreyer, later scoring another in a similar fashion, she stepped up to the expectations that Crawford had set for them, taking them on the chin.

She mustered up some confidence in the second half, letting the ball fly from deep and catching the Farmington keeper out of position twice to put the icing on the cake for Saxony.

“I mean, that’s what I expect out of her,” Crawford said of Dreyer. “She's worked her butt off, so she deserves to have those kinds of moments.”

Camille Richey, the team’s renowned goal-scorer who took a backseat to the early rally, notched the Crusaders’ final goal midway through the second half to wrap up the scoring for the night.

Part of a huge offensive explosion, Saxony septupled its scoring from a season ago, living up to the hype and pounding the Knights’ defense all night long.

“We just had a little bit more intensity to start the second half, and I think that wore them down a little bit,” Crawford said.

All-state keeper Grace Ozark made two saves on the night, having a pretty stress-free outing thanks to a particularly strong performance from the back line.

Even down a man defensively, Saxony crushed any hopes from the Farmington side early, with Adams sliding to the back and helping keep the Knights scoreless.

Forcing turnover after turnover, the Crusaders were relentless in pressing the issue and keeping Farmington out of a real offensive rhythm.

After ending its run at gold a season ago by allowing four in a crushing semifinal loss, Saxony couldn’t have started much hotter this year than it did on Friday.

“Our defense is really, really good,” Crawford said.

“We returned pretty much everybody, and then we added Aleigh Miller in there to help with that.”

With a high-flying start to the season, Saxony made a big statement on Friday as it looks to step up to the challenge of meeting and even exceeding predetermined expectations.

But even with the lofty conjectures of the preseason, the Crusaders stunned the Farmington attack and showed why they’re projected to be one of the top teams in Class 1 this season.

They’ll have three days off before hosting Carterville on Monday afternoon, taking the weekend to rest before facing a cross-river opponent.

Crawford emphasized the importance of that time off, and the aspiration to grow from even the gaudiest of victories.

“We're just going to try to kind of fine-tune some things,” Crawford said. “Make sure that our rotations are good defensively and that we're moving the ball a little bit faster.”