Holy Cross Crusaders vs Sullivan Heights Stars

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Two-time Super Bowl champion Tom Coughlin once said, "Football comes down to six or seven plays within a game. The problem is you never know precisely when those plays will happen. "

In the Holy Cross Crusaders' 21-6 homecoming victory against Cross Surrey rivals, the Sullivan Heights Stars, those crucial plays were won by the Crusaders. 

After the Crusaders opened the scoring in front of their home crowd, midway through the first quarter, defense ruled the rest of the first half. 

Both team's units played physical and disciplined, giving each other's offenses trouble in the process. For the Crusaders, defensive end Prince Davidson gave the Stars trouble all day.

Davidson didn't allow backs to get outside in the running game, was disruptive as an edge rusher, and even batted a pass away on a crucial passing down for good measure.

For the Stars, Xavier Khinda was incredibly disruptive inside. The Defensive tackle threw away blockers multiple times while wrapping up ball carriers for a loss of yards. 

With both defenses not giving an inch, the score remained 7-0 to start the second half. Down only one score with the ball to start the 3rd quarter, disaster would strike for the Stars.

On the first play from scrimmage in the second half, the Crusaders recovered a bad exchange on a handoff deep in Stars territory. Two plays later, Crusaders quarterback  Xander McCrone found Kalel Dizon in the endzone on a corner route for six, and after an extra point, it was 14-0.

Later in the quarter, not satisfied with just one passing major, McCrone threw a deep ball over the middle on a key third down. As a Stars safety broke perfectly on the ball, it looked like a sure interception. Instead, the ball sailed straight through the Stars defender's hand into the waiting arms of Kaleb Orellana, and it was 21-0 Crusaders.

The Stars fought to the end, adding the game's last score, but the Crusaders proved too much to handle in a 21-6 loss. Crusaders Head Coach Conrad Deugau was very impressed with his team's effort, particularly his defense. 

" Any time two Surrey schools play each other in anything, there is always extra intensity and focus. Defense today was an all-around team effort. Our DLine was outstanding keeping contain and not making it easy to advance the ball. Our LBs made the plays they needed to and our secondary was really good overall, knocking the ball down and getting a key interception by Safety Luc Fillion. It was A great effort by both teams overall and we were able to secure the victory."

The Crusaders will enjoy this big homecoming victory before they start preparations for their next game against the Abbotsford Panthers at Cloverdale Athletic Park.

Stars head coach Gord Randall was pleased with his team's effort but knew they left too many plays on the field. 

"I was happy with the effort level from our guys. I thought we were focused and put ourselves in the position to make plays and win the game. We just didn't make them. A few key drops, a bad turnover at a bad time and we put ourselves in a hole we couldn't get out of. That's a good team over there, and they will not let you get away with mulligans - we had to be our best and we weren't quite up to it today.
We still felt like today was a good effort to build on, so our job is to correct the errors and be on the other side of the next week."

The stars will look to correct those errors before a tough matchup against the Robert Bateman Timberwolves next Friday.