Mediocre, no. They lost respectably to Dunlap and Highland before last night. Play Carbondale next week. They are not an easy Round 1 team.
Unfortunately, the Internet access to the ACHS broadcast crew failed but I listened online to the biggest bunch of homer hoosiers you could imagine - it was glorious! They stroked out over Jaden Lacy who made every catch comparable to OBJ - one-handed and acrobatic. In other words, they played out of their minds and likely their best game of the year, being that this is Week 6.
Add in that Althoff had two TDs off of kicks for 99 and 63 yards - they still have play makers that are faster than most (maybe all?) in 4A. What needs to be corrected - and I thought it had - is penalties and losing touchdowns for stupid penalties.
With a sophomore QB (kid started varsity baseball as a freshman - he's a player) getting used to the game still, they seem to "practice" passing during games - it's getting better! When they need yards, they run it - left or right side, and wide.
The D is swarmy! If even half of the commentary last night was hyperbole, then every tackle a Crusader made was like a Junior Butkus, the toughness of their players praised as the stood to play another down.
In the end, they won another conference game against a better than average team that hates the Crusaders and played very well and has all season long against damned good teams - and next week, they get Carbondale, another team you discount because they are South 7, I assume.
Would be nice if they had 1-32 seeding so folks could see other teams from across the state.