ROBERTSDALE, Alabama - The Central Christian School’s boys soccer team has a history of success over the last few years. This season is no different as once again the Saints will head to Tennessee for the National Association of Christian Athletics tournament.

The Saints are 12-3-1 heading into Nationals on Oct. 31. After winning another regional tournament by defeating Trinitas in the finals the Saints set their sights on another appearance in the Final Four tournament.

In the Final Four Tournament the Saints met up with Gateway in the first round. They would win that game before losing their next round game against the host team Trinitas by a score of 1-0.

With the upsetting loss in the Final Four the Saints have quite a bit to do before Wednesday’s trip to Tennessee for the National Tournament.

“Well I think a big thing is we need to have stronger attacking,” Saints head coach Dan Crotts said. “Joshua Willis was out for our final game so having him back playing up front working with Jesse McCarty will be a big help.”

For the Saints to be successful at Nationals they need to rely not only on McCarty, a 40-goal scorer, but also the whole team to play together and be successful.

Timmy Shelton and senior Brad Yockers also have had stellar performances throughout the season.

“Other people have to step up. That’s where having Joshua Willis will help us we will have three or four guys now that have shown that they can score in the past,” Crotts said. “We can’t just key on one player we have other players that can finish and that’s the important thing. It has to be about 11 guys working together.”

An improved defense has been a big key down the stretch for the Saints who started out the season with the defense as a question mark.

“I think we are playing our best soccer. At the beginning of the year it was our weakest point and now it is one of our strengths. We were really short-handed defensively at the beginning of the season and we replaced some of our guys; they have adjusted really well to it.” Crotts said. We need to control the midfield which is what we struggled with against Trinitas.”

Along with the improvement of the defense, Saints goalie Brad Yockers has continued to play really well in net.

One of the biggest sayings in sports is you need to start quick and play well from the beginning. That is something that seems to be giving the Saints a little bit of trouble as of late.

“The first 20 minutes of the games on Saturday and Sunday we didn’t start well,” Crotts said. “Once the guys get going they do really well. That’s a big thing we need to fix. If you want to win a National Championship in soccer you can’t lose.”

Even though winning the national championship is the number one goal for coach Crotts and the rest of the Saints soccer team it’s not the most important thing.

“All we can do is play well and let the chips fall where they may.” Coach Crotts said. “I just want our team to perform well. When we do, even if we don’t win it all, it’s important. That’s what we talk about. It doesn’t matter if we win. We would like to but the bottom line is not everyone is going to win and that doesn’t make us a bad team or bad individuals.”

The tournament will start on Oct. 31 and it will consist of 24 teams divided into three different divisions.