ROBERTSDALE, Alabama - The Central Christian men’s soccer team recently made a trip up to Dayton, Tenn. to play in the National Championship tournament, a tournament they were invited to after another greet regular season and regional tournaments.

Usually playing out of the division three bracket, the Saints this season got placed in the division two bracket making their road to the a National Championship a little bit more difficult.

Overall the Saints finished the tournament with good results as they left Tennessee with a 7th place finish out of 24 total teams.

For the majority of the season the theme for the Saints soccer team seemed to be great offense with the defense that seemed at times to struggle to keep up. In the tournament it seemed to be the offense that struggled.

“It was tough. We played against better competition and that’s going to happen,” Saints head coach Dan Crotts said. “It was a frustrating week but the guys never gave up. It is very tough playing two games in one day and we had to do that twice.”

With that being said the Saints did have a couple of players that stepped up and played a good week of soccer including Jesse McCarty, who continued his successful season of shattering the school record for most goals in a season.

“He played great. He had a great, record-breaking season,” Crotts said. “It was the most goals scored in one season by far.”

Senior goalie Brad Yockers also played a great tournament and continued his great play that led the Saints all season long. Yockers was picked by the division two coaches as the best keeper in the division.

In the end it was much more than a soccer tournament for the Saints players and coaches, it was a chance to come together as a team and make memories that will last a life time and also honor God.

“I always told the guys that I don’t mind losing to a team that is better than us, As long as we play our best,” Crotts said. “God sees our best and that’s what he wants us to do. If you lose to a team that’s better than you that’s ok and you move on. They gave everything they had and played well. It just wasn’t enough and that’s okay.”