By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
TURNER, Ore.– Five years ago, the field that Crosshill Christian were standing on was part of a pasture off of Hennies Road in Turner.
And now, on Tuesday afternoon, the Eagles will be hosting their biggest game in program history against one of the juggernauts of the classification:
The 2A/1A State Semifinal round against Umpqua Valley Christian.
It’s been a crazy ride for the program. Going from a first-year program four years ago to now making history with, hopefully, some more ahead of them.
They started the season 17-0 en route to a 2A/1A Special District 3 Regular and District Playoff Titles. Then, on May 27, won their first ever State Playoff Game. The Upstart Eagles won another one on Friday to get to the final week of the season.
“It’s been so much fun. I mean this has been a great group of boys. We sort of saw this coming last year and we were really bummed last year when we fell one spot short in making the State Playoffs…I think it just motivated this team even more for what we’ve done this year,” starts Crosshill Christian Head Coach Ben Northrop. “All of the boys, at the end of last season, wanted to work to get better. Almost the whole entire team was pretty committed doing something once-a-week, whether by themselves or together as a group. They wanted to work for it, it’s a testament to all of them. It’s a good group of boys that we’re excited about doing something cool this year.”
Now. To get to Saturday’s finale, they know they need to play the cleanest and sharpest game of the year to make it happen. First pitch is at 4:30pm.
“We need to come out loose, have fun like we have been doing. Play our game, play a clean game, a couple of times that we did lose this season. We had multiple errors in the field, but if we go out and make the routine plays, I say we have a pretty good chance,” said Northrop.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
