Saxony soccer cruises to district championship

Saxony Lutheran soccer left no doubt who would walk away with the title at the end of the night.
The Crusaders scored early and often on the way to defeating Gateway Science Charter 8-0 in the Class 1, District 1 title game at Kelly High School on Friday. It’s Saxony’s first district title since 2016.
“We really stuck to our gameplan and took advantage of the opportunities that we were given,” Saxony coach Chris Crawford said. “We were disciplined in the way we played and we have been playing the exact way we have wanted to play all season.”
How exactly is that?
“We want to win those 50-50 balls, defend together and attack as a unit,” Crawford said. “We want to possess the ball and let the ball do the work for us.”
Those attributes worked for Saxony as eight different players scored in the title game against Gateway. Clara Brune, Faith Dreyer, Camille Richey and Abby Haley each scored a goal in the first half. Maggie Hillin, Annie Adams, and Mallory Kohlfield scored in the second half, and Sophie DeBrower scored the final goal with about 25 minutes left to trigger the mercy rule.
Saxony continued the momentum they built in the semifinal against Kelly as the Crusaders won the two district tournament games by a combined score of 17-1. Saxony has also improved over the last several seasons as they won four games in 2021 and eight games one year ago.
“It was fun,” Crawford said. “It was nice to win the district tournament since we haven’t done that in quite some time. It culminated the work that these girls have been putting in for the last few years. The upperclassmen may have taken their lumps over the last several seasons and it really paid off for us in this tournament.”

Although Saxony may have cruised through the district tournament, Crawford didn’t think too far ahead throughout the year, and definitely not all the way to the district title game in March.
“These seasons are very long and injuries happen,” he said. “We try to focus on the process instead of the outcomes. If we do all the little things we will get the outcomes we want.”
It also helps that Saxony is in the correct class.
Saxony has spent the last two seasons in Class 2 or Class 3 as part of the state’s success factor, and Crawford did not want to leave this opportunity to put their stamp back on Class 1 once again go to waste.
“We have work to do and goals that we would like to achieve,” Crawford said.
That starts with the Class 1 quarterfinal on Saturday in which Saxony Lutheran (11-8) will take on Metro (14-6) at Saxony Lutheran High School at 3 p.m.
Crawford has been watching film ever since the contest became a reality.
“They have athletes all over the field and very good skill players,” he said. “We want to make them adapt to us because we feel if we can do that, we can walk away with a win.”