Last night, the Faith Lutheran Crusaders played against the Legacy Longhorns- bringing their A game in the second half. The Longhorns had come off a three week winning streak, with all the games featuring large point leads, last week when they lost to Liberty (7 – 32). The Crusaders had just won their first game of the season, after losing the first two, when they played Palo Verde and won (17 – 14).

The game began with the Crusaders on the ball, but they quickly lost it after only four plays. They recovered it when Junior Linebacker Nate Meredith (#2) tackled a Legacy running back with 6:38 left in the first quarter. The ball was quickly lost again a minute later, leading to a Legacy touchdown and extra point.

The Crusaders played three downs in an attempt to tie-up the score, but were unsuccessful when running back Saundre Spiller fumbled the ball with ten minutes remaining in the second quarter. The Crusader defense was quick to stop the Legacy offense and move the ball back to their players. With six minutes left in the half, quarterback Sagan Gronauer made a successful 50 yard pass to Josh Hong who ran it in for a Crusader touchdown and completed it with a 2 point conversion to lead the longhorns 8 – 7. The Longhorns offense was stopped by the Crusader defense again giving their offense one more opportunity to increase their score before the first half ended. Gronauer attempted to throw the ball for a touchdown pass to wide receiver Elijah Kothe, but the pass ran incomplete when he  was tackled in the end zone and ultimately broke his collarbone. The Crusaders closed out the half with a field goal for 3 points (11 – 7).

The second half started off slow, but the Longhorns came back with a TD with one minute left in the third quarter to raise the score 11 – 13. Soon after, Crusader Wide Receiver Dalton Kincaid (#81) caught a 45 yard pass and in the next play caught another pass in the end zone for a touchdown ending the third quarter.

To start off the fourth quarter, the Crusader defense shut down the Longhorns. Sagan Gronauer then passed the ball to wide receiver Peyton Thornton who caught it for a 70 yard gain. With a fourth down, the Crusaders sent in Kicker Garrett Greene to make a field goal and he did not disappoint. The Longhorns tried to make a comeback with 1:05 left in the game, but the pass was intercepted by Josh Hong on the Longhorn’s 10 yard line. The game finished with the Crusaders on the ball and the score at 20 – 13 Crusaders.