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MONDAY - FEBRUARY 8, 2010

12 CROOKSTON PLAYERS SCORE IN 73-48 WIN AT FRAZEE

The Frazee Hornets have won only one game this season and being at home they jumped out to an early 6-3 lead, but from then on it was all Crookston as the Pirates defeated Frazee 73-48 in a game between two teams in Section 8AA at the Frazee High School gym.
Frazee got a couple quick baskets and took a 6-3 lead, but the Pirates, particularly Tim Desrosier got things going with a 15-0 run in the next five minutes and in all the Pirate run was 30-4 with Brandon Lyczewski, Shane Chapman and Josh Baldock finding the range numerous times and Chapman hitting three free throws on a foul. Frazee made it a little closer at half-time, scoring two baskets in the last five seconds, but Crookston still led 37-19 at the intermission. “Before the game everything was about effort,” said Chapman, “our press wasn’t working real good early, but during a time-out Coach Garmen got after us a bit and that was when we started to take off.”
The second half started slowly as both teams had trouble scoring and only scored six points between the two teams in the first three and a half minutes, but Baldock scored three baskets in a 35 second span and Crookston was back on top 49-23 with 12:30 left in the game and the Pirates biggest lead of the game. Frazee proved to still have some fight in them as the Nuggets scored the next six points to get within 20, but Crookston answered with some terrific passing and Papou Maiga finished it off with a lay up. The rest of the game the Pirates substituted freely, getting everybody into the game five at a time and had 12 players in the scoring column and a couple Chris Larson and Matt Bjorgo scoring their first varsity points of the season and even though Frazee scored the last eight points in the game, Crookston won 73-48 for their second win in a row. “We weren’t moving the ball and struggling a bit to start the game,” said Crookston head coach Greg Garmen, “we weren’t being active. We tried some different things tonight and some of them worked. We got into a little bit of a rhythm, which we have been lacking.”  Crookston played a number of players in the first half and eventually everybody dressed played some good minutes. “Frazee has some low numbers until next week sometime, so they aren’t playing JV, so our freshmen were the preliminary game, so we had all the JV who could play in the first half tonight and we put some in the first half as we weren’t happy with some of the play of our players. Some of the JV stepped in a knew what we were trying to do, while some others had some problems.”  Wins for the 9-9 Pirates have been slim in the last month of play and now that they have won two in a row, “It feels great,” said Chapman who had 11 points in the game, “we hope to get on another roll now and pick up some wins.” Those sentiments were echoed by Coach Garmen, “Anytime you win on the road it’s a good thing and I thought we handled their 1-3-1 pretty good in the game.”
Crookston now takes the 9-9 mark to Stephen on Tuesday night to play the Stephen-Argyle Storm who are 8-8 on the season. The game is a makeup from earlier this year and was supposed to be played in Crookston, but tomorrow night was about the only night available for both schools and the coaches agreed to move it to Stephen and then next year the Storm will come to Crookston. “It might work out all right with the postponement,” said Garmen, “the first time we would have been without William (Pankow, the 6’9 post) and of course everything the Storm does goes through the big Borowicz (Matt) kid and we will have someone as tall to defend.”
Crookston was led in scoring by their leading scorer on the season Josh Baldock with 16 points while Chapman was also in double figures with 11 points.
Freshmen -  Crookston defeated Frazee  55-26

  
Carter Denison with a jumper over a Frazee player     Shane Chapman looks to pass to a teammate
 

CROOKSTON GIRL’S HOCKEY SEEDED SECOND FOR SECTION 8A TOURNAMENT

The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team received the second seed for the Section 8A Tournament that will start on Thursday.  The seeds went as expected with Warroad, the number one ranked team in the state getting the Section’s number one seed.
1.  Warroad
2.  Crookston
3.  East Grand Forks
4.  Thief River Falls
5.  Park Rapids
6.  Lake of the Woods

Thursday-  February 11^th -  1^st Round
Lake of the Woods  at  East Grand Forks    7:00 PM
Park Rapids  at Thief River Falls    7:00 PM

Monday -  February 15^th -  Semi-Finals  at  Warroad
6:00 PM -  Warroad   vs  winner of Park Rapids/TRF
8:15 PM -  Crookston  vs  winner of EGF/LOW

Thursday -  February 18^th -  Championship at Warroad
7:00 PM

 

UMC ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT TO HOLD TWO FAMILY FUN NIGHTS AT FRIDAY AND SATURDAYS BASKETBALL GAMES 

The University of Minnesota, Crookston athletic department announced today they will hold two family fun events during the women’s and men’s basketball games on Friday, February 12 and Saturday, February 13 against Minnesota Duluth and Bemidji State. On February 12, “Pink Zone” Hawaiian Night will be the theme against the Bulldogs. Champions Forever will amaze the crowd on February 13 when they perform their Spin-tacular Basketball Show.

“Pink Zone Hawaiian Night”- Golden Eagle Fans are invited to wear their favorite pink Hawaiian apparel and fill Lysaker Gymnasium. Participants will be eligible for great prizes throughout the evening’s basketball games. WBCA “Pink Zone” is an initiative to raise breast cancer awareness in women's basketball, on campuses and in communities. Game times are scheduled for 6:00 p.m. for the women and 8:00 p.m. for them men against Minnesota Duluth. For more information on WBCA “Pink Zone” visit the WBCA website at http://www.wbca.org/pinkzone.asp.

Champions Forever- UMC-FCA and FCA Plus are excited to sponsor the Crevier family and the Spin-tacular Basketball Show on Saturday, February 13 at Lysaker Gymnasium. The performances will take place at halftime of the women’s and men’s basketball games against Bemidji State University. Game times are set for 6:00 pm and 8:00 p.m.
Are you ready to be inspired? Bruce Crevier is a "Four Time Guinness World Record Holder" for basketball spinning and has traveled all over the world performing and sharing a message of hope to this generation! You will be motivated and inspired!! Bruce and Diane and their family of 12 children use Basketballs, Unicycles, Music and Fun!! Bruce's programs are fit to audiences in any age range in any setting! They invite you to be a part of this Spin-tacular event! (Excerpt from the Champions-Forever website) For more information on the Crevier family and the Spin-tacular Basketball Show, visit the Champions-Forever website at http://www.champions-forever.com/.  “Bruce and his family are truly amazing performers. They have incredible basketball skills and unbelievable talent,” says Natasha Kuhle, Assistant Athletic Director/Senior Woman Administrator (SWA). “This will be one of the most entertaining and inspirational nights of the year at the UMC Sports Center. Bring the whole family out for a fun-filled night of basketball excitement and fun.”

SATURDAY -  FEBRUARY 6, 2010
 

CROOKSTON PIRATE WRESTLERS 3RD AT THE NORTHWEST INVITATIONAL MEET IN FERTILE

The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team had two open weights and were missing Ben Genereux, Javier Portillo and Mariano Portillo as the seniors were taking their A.C.T. tests, but they had a Champion in Anthony Caputo and four second place finishes to finish third in the Northwest Invitational held in the Fertile-Beltrami Gym.

1.  Badger-Greenbush-Middle River - 211
2.  Thief River Falls-143.5
3.  Crookston-126
4.  Roseau-118
5.  Mahnomen-Waubun-113
6.  Park Rapids-101
7.  Melrose-59.5
8.  Fertile-Beltrami-54
9.  Red Lake County Central-52
10.  Warren-Alvarado-Oslo-20

FOR FULL RESULTS, CLICK HERE

  
Cody Weiland in control of his semi-final match.  He won 8-2.             Wyatt Hanson close to a pin in his first match
 

                                                                         COMPLETE RESULTS, CLICK HERE
 

 
Nate Merten wraps up his opponent in his semi-final match     Brody Davidson turns his opponent onto his back right before a pin

HAWLEY GIRL'S BASKETBALL DEFENSE IS TO MUCH FOR THE PIRATES TO HANDLE IN A 41-16 LOSS

The Hawley defense is much of the reason why the Nuggets are ranked #5 in the State and a 17-0 record coming into their game with Crookston at Concordia College in Moorhead and the Crookston Pirates can attest to the defense as Crookston was held scoreless for the first seven and a half minutes of the game and Hawley wins the 18^th game of the season, 42-16 over Crookston.
It was all Nuggets in the first half and particularly Erica Amann who scored 11 of the first 13 points for Hawley who led 13-0 before Ashleigh Erdmann put a close in shot with 10:37 left in the first half. The Pirates had won five of their last six games and mainly because of defense, but the defense they seen tonight was at a higher level and besides turning the ball over, Crookston couldn’t buy a basket when they were able to set up an offense. Crookston was trailing 21-2 with 3:30 left in the first half and made a little push with a Kelsey Grunewald three point shot and a Rachel Wold layup on a pretty give and go to make it 23-7 at half time with the Nuggets in the lead. “We struggled early with their defense,” said Crookston head coach Lon Boike, “we didn’t find their shooters, particularly Amann and we didn’t box out, but after the first five minutes I thought we played well defensively, but couldn’t get anything going offensively. It would have been nice to get it down to 10 or so at half-time and get some momentum going into the second half, but that didn’t happen.”
Despite Crookston’s Rachel Wold scoring the first basket of the second half, it was much like the first, but this time the big scorers for the Nuggets during the season, Jessy Noreen and Amy Stoa doing the damage and other then a couple back-to-back baskets by the Pirates Mackenzie Sandstrom, the Nuggets were up 40-16 with four and a half minutes to go in the game and only one more basket, by Hawley would be scored in that time, while Hawley held Crookston in single digits in both halves and Hawley wins easily 42-16 to go 18-0 on the season. “Hawley is a very good ball club,” said Boike, “I’m disappointed we didn’t play better offensively, but there were no easy shots, they had their hands up and contested every shot. They showed why they are undefeated and ranked fifth in the state and I think we would play better if we met them again, which would be in the Section championship and that would be good, but they were certainly better tonight, but our kids played hard.”  Crookston had only one starter score in the game as Rachel Wold led the Pirates in scoring with seven points. Crookston falls to 10-9 on the season and will host East Grand Forks on Tuesday night.  Hawley is 18-0 and Amann was the only Nugget to score in double figures with 15.

  
 Ashleigh Erdmann boxes out a Nugget player           Sara Bjerk fights for a loose ball
                             (Pictures by Dave Emanuel of Wildfire Photography)

UMC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CAN'T STOP HOT SHOOTING MUSTANGS IN A 93-67 LOSS IN MARSHALL

Southwest Minnesota State who had lost four straight games to the University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC), but the Mustangs were hot from the outside, scoring a season high 93 points in a 93-67 win over the visiting Golden Eagles.
Southwest Minnesota State was hot to start off the contest, hitting their first seven 3-point shots that blew open an early 12-10 Mustang lead over UMC. The Golden Eagles were trailing by 20 at one time in the first half, but baskets by Jamie Zelinsky (Jr-Park Center) and Laurie Tyson (Fresh-Rosemount) did give a little spark toward the end of the first half, but they still trailed 45-31 at half-time. The second half was all Southwest Minnesota State, as they continued their hot shooting from the outside and built up a 34 point lead with over seven minutes to go in the game and cruising to a 93-67 win over the visiting Golden Eagles.
Southwest Minnesota State’s 93 points were a season high as they improved their record to 14-8 overall and 8-7 in the Northern Sun Conference.  UMC, who lost both conference games on the weekend are now 8-13 on the season and 6-9 in the conference and will host Minnesota-Duluth and Bemidji State next Friday and Saturday.

UMC MEN'S BASKETBALL SLOW START COSTLY IN LOSS AT SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA STATE

Southwest Minnesota State scored the first seven points in the game, but UMC with Dustin Rahja and Jason Servaty hitting three's and Trent Graves get a basket in the blocks and the Golden Eagles trailed 11-8 with 14:41 left in the first half.  Southwest Minnesota State would then score seven more in a row and then could do no wrong for the rest of the half claiming a 48-23 lead at intermission. Neither team scored much with UMC shooting 31% for the game and only three-three point baskets. UMC drops to 3-18 overall and 0-15 in the Northern Sun Conference and will host Minnesota-Duluth and Bemidji State on Friday and Saturday. Southwest Minnesota State is now 13-8 overall and 8-7 in the conference.

GRAND FORKS KNIGHTRIDERS BOY'S SWIMMERS FINISH SEVENTH AT UND MEET

The Grand Forks KnightRiders finished in 7th Place in the University of North Dakota High School Swimming Invitational. The Minot Magicians won the eight school meet by nearly 100 points over runner up Mandan.  Grand Forks through a co-op with Crookston, has three Crookston swimmers, Isaac and Luke Loegering and Jacob Lutz and the KnightRiders are coached by Brent Newman "Today's meet was our first opportunity of the season to swim hard two days in a row.  We had a little bit of a let off from last night's dual to today's meet.  It's not unexpected at this time of the year considering the amount of training and stress the guys are enduring.  Today was an important learning experience for the guys to adjust to how things work at state where you need to swim your fastest for prelims and then finals, which occur over the course of two days.  We had some quality swims today but not necessarily faster times.  We're confident that will come around as we head into the final weeks of the season."  FOR ALL THE RESULTS, CLICK HERE.





FRIDAY -  FEBRUARY 5, 2010

CROOKSTON BOY'S BASKETBALL STOP FIVE GAME LOSING STREAK, BY BEATING CLIMAX-FISHER

The Crookston Pirate Boys Basketball team desperately needed a win, after losing nine of their previous ten games, coming into the game Friday night against the Climax-Fisher Knights.  Crookston jumped out to an early lead and kept on adding to the lead the rest of the game in a 71-42 win at the Crookston High School Gymnasium.  Climax-Fisher was without their leading scorer, Kevin Michael, who injured his ankle Thursday night in the Knights game against Mahnomen.
Crookston took advantage of the absence of the Knights leading scorer as they used a various full court and half court defenses that forced the Knights into many turnovers allowing Crookston to jump out to an 13-4 lead in the first three and a half minutes of the game.  Climax-Fisher settled down and went on a 6-0 run over the next 90 seconds to get within a 13-10 deficit.  When it looked like the Knights had settled down, Crookston applied more defensive pressure and went on a 7-0 run behind two points apiece by Josh Baldock, Carter Denison, Brandon Lyczewski and a free throw by William Pankow.  The Pirates continued to slowly build on their lead over the final eight minutes of the half including six straight Pirates points by 6’4 Junior guard, Tim Desrosier.  “Coach told me in practice to do what I do well and just drive to the hoop and not to worry.” said Desrosier in a postgame interview on KROX Radio, “I was feeling it and kept going to the basket.”   Crookston took their biggest lead of 15 points (34-19) into halftime.  “We had a number of kids that were aggressive, we had some nice post moves and played pretty well.” Said Pirate Coach Greg Garmen, “We played aggressively, had some nice post moves and we didn’t think about it, we just went and played. We were happy with our play and wanted to keep it going into the second half.  After the month of January we had, I will be happy with any lead we have at half time.”
The two teams played even in the first nine minutes of the second half as they still had a 15 point lead (46-31).  Once again the Pirates were sparked by Desrosier who scored four quick points to spark a 13-2 run over a four minute span.  Dan Mykleseth, Papou Maiga, and Lyczewski added two points a piece while Ben Curran added a three pointer in the run.  Coach Garmen went deeper to the bench and had solid performances by Alex Deboer and Zach Cymbaluk who had five points apiece.  “We had some guys that played some extended minutes and everybody played pretty well.” Said Garmen, “When we get good minutes from our players off the bench that will mean good things for us.”   Crookston coasted the rest of the game to a 71-42 victory.  15 Pirates played with 11 of them scoring in the game.  “It was a relief to get this win.” Said Garmen, “We needed this one and we need every win we can get for seeding purposes.  We need to get it going and try to move up in the standings.  It is good to get off the slide after the month of January.”
Crookston snaps a five game losing skid as they improve to 8-9 on the year, while Climax-Fisher drops to 2-13.
J.V. – Crookston won 64-47
Freshman – Crookston 61-38

  
   Tim Desrosier pulls up for 2 of his 12 points            Brandon Lyczewski lays in two of his six points

CROOKSTON PIRATE RALLY FOR A 2-2 TIE WITH SUPERIOR, WI.

Last night it was the #6 team in Minnesota Class A that the Crookston Pirates faced and beat 1-0 and tonight they scored the last two goals in the game to tie the #5 team in Wisconsin High School, the Superior Spartans.

Superior did not have a shot on net in the first period until 13 minutes had expired, but their first shot resulted in a goal from the point on a power play as the Spartans leading scorer Mitch Kontny shot through a lot of traffic was in and the Spartans had one shot and led 1-0. The Pirates quickly took another penalty and the Spartans struck again on only their second flurry of the game and Kontny fed Kellen McCoshen with a pass in the right circle and he snapped off a quick shot that beat Pirate goalie Nick Biermaier on another power play goal and the Spartans had three shots on goal, two for two on the power play and a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period. “Crookston came at us for a trap forecheck that through us off a bit and we had to change things up right away,” said Superior head coach Jason Kalin, “we got the power play working toward the end of the period and had good puck movement during that time.” The Pirates were coming off an emotional 1-0 win over rival Thief River Falls last night and the coaching staff could tell, “When you play back to back and put everything on the line like we did last night you know they were going to be tired,” said Crookston head coach Jon Bittner talking about his squad, “It was a battle out there and we spotted them those two goals.”
Crookston took the only two penalties of the second period and although they staved off Superior’s power play this time, it did take away from the Pirate offense and they had managed only two shots on goal for the first 10 minutes of the period. The local lads seemed to get charged up late in the period when Mark Bittner rang a shot from the point off the cross bar with just over two minutes left in the period and a few seconds later, Crookston senior Alex Edevold was given a pass about the Superior blue line and he skated in a few strides and let a wrist shot go that was top shelf and Crookston was on the scoreboard with 1:51 to go in the period and even though they were out shot 9-6, Crookston had cut Superior’s lead in half at 2-1 after two periods. “It was kind of a muckers game,” said Jon Bittner, “it certainly didn’t have the flow like it did last night in Thief River, where we expended a tremendous amount of energy.”
It didn’t take long for Crookston to tie it up when Mark Bittner could be heard barking for a pass and teammate Nick Regeimbal put it right on the tape and Bittner snapped off a shot that beat the Spartan goaltender to tie it 2-2 just 56 seconds into the third period. As it was the whole game, shots were at a premium as the two teams had only eight total between them in the third period and both goalies were stellar and sent it into overtime. Crookston’s Regeimbal did ring another one off the cross bar as he leaned on a blast from the blue line, but it was not to be and overtime was at hand.
Crookston had a power play just a minute into the extra frame and didn’t materialize much as Superior kept everything to the outside. Crookston would be whistled for a penalty with exactly two minutes left in the overtime, so the Spartans played with the man advantage the rest of the way and they managed four shots on goal in that two minute span, but Biermaier after giving up a couple late first period power plays was solid the rest of the way and the teams settled for a 2-2 tie. “Superior is a young team without a lot of seniors and for us it turned into a mucking and grinding out and we had three more pipes tonight,” said Bittner, “I was really pleased with the gutty effort of our team.”  Crookston is now 6-14-2 and has three games left of their regular season and all  Section 8A games starting at Park Rapids on Tuesday night. Superior is ranked #5 in the State of Wisconsin and is 11-8 on the season. “We got a little sloppy at times tonight,” said Superior head coach Kalin, “we were passing up opportunities right in the middle and top of the circle and we didn’t work for rebounds like we normally do, but give credit to Crookston too, they are a nice team that works hard and it was a good hockey game.” Superior will now play Jamestown (N.D.) at the Crookston Sports Center on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 PM.
JV -  Superior beat Crookston 2-0 with Crookston’s Kollin Erdman having 55 saves in the game.

Alex Edevold scores the first Pirate goal by with a shot in the upper right hand corner of the net
             (Picture by Dave Emanuel of Wildfire Photography)

    Mark Bittner skates across the red line past a Superior player
             (Picture by Dave Emanuel of Wildfire Photography)

1st Period
13:03 -  Superior -  Mitch Kontny (Chris Bishop)   (PP)
15:23 -  Superior -  Kellen McCoshen  (Mitch Kontny, Chris Bishop)  (PP)

2nd Period
15:09 -  Crox -  Alex Edevold (2)  (Mark Bittner, Zach Mercil)

3rd Period
:56 -  Crox -  Mark Bittner (3)  (Nick Regeimbal)

Overtime
No Scoring

   Nick Biermaier deflects a shot with Alex Prudhomme (20) in front

UMC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL STARTS CONFERENCE WEEKEND WITH LOSS AT  MANKATO

The University of Minnesota, Crookston Women’s Basketball team continued Northern Sun play tonight as they traveled to Mankato, Minn. to take on the Mavericks of Minnesota State. Golden Eagle Brittani Wiese (G, 5-7, FR, Albertville, Minn.) dropped a season-high 22 points but Minnesota State won each half by four points to take the victory 76-68.

The Golden Eagles were led by Wiese’s 22 points. She was 8 of 16 from the field, 4 of 6 from long range and 2 of 3 from the free-throw line. Jamie Zelinsky (G, 5-11, JR, Brooklyn Park, Minn.) added 15 points and earned a team-high seven assists, a game-high two blocked shots, and a game-high eight rebounds. Kelsey Van Ackeren (G, 5-9, SR, St. Cloud, Minn.) followed Zelinsky with 11 points while Bri Zabel (F, 6-0, JR, Northfield, Minn.) closed out the top Minnesota, Crookston scorers with 10 points. Minnesota State was led by Liz Trauger’s game-high 28 points. She was followed by Lauren Barber who scored a career-high 20 points.

The Golden Eagles fall to  8-12 overall, while the Mavericks, who were the coaches favorite to win the conference have struggled this year but improve to 12-9. Minnesota, Crookston returns to the court tomorrow to play Southwest Minnesota State University. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.

UMC MEN'S BASKETBALL PLAY THE FIFTH RATED TEAM IN THE NATION IN MANKATO

The University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) Men's Basketball team, 3-16 on the season and 0-13 in the Northern Sun Conference will be challenged tonight when they face the Mavericks of Minnesota State-Mankato, who are ranked #5 in NCAA Division II and are sporting a 19-1 overall record and 12-1 in the conference.  Game time in Mankato is about 8:00 PM.

UMC CLUB HOCKEY SQUAD TAKES GAME ONE FROM  MINNESOTA STATE-MANKATO CLUB TEAM

The University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) Men's Club Hockey team had four goals in the first period on their way to an 11-1 win over visiting Minnesota State-Mankato Club Hockey team at the Crookston Sports Center.  The two teams complete the weekend series on Saturday night at 7:00 PM.

UMC BASEBALL FALLS IN BOTH GAMES OF A DOUBLEHEADER AT THE  METRODOME AGAINST BEMIDJI STATE

Despite having no outdoor practices, the University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) baseball team opened up their season with a  pair of losses against Bemidji State in the Metrodome in Minneapolis.  It was also the first games of the season for Bemidji State who scored in every inning but the first in game one and two Beaver pitchers combined on a four hit shutout 7-0. In the second game Bemidji State scored three times in the first inning, but the Golden Eagles came back with four runs in the bottom of the first inning, three on a Devin Croal (Soph-Coon Rapids) inside the park home run.  Bemidji State tied the game with a run in the fifth inning and then scored four times in the top of the seventh to make the final 8-4.  UMC starts off the season 0-2 and neither are counted as Northern Sun Conference games and UMC is off now until February 28th when they will play Northern State at the Metrodome.

GAME #1


GAME #2

THURSDAY -  FEBRUARY 4, 2010

REGEIMBAL’S GOAL IN LAST SECONDS LIFTS PIRATE BOY’S HOCKEY TO 1-0 WIN AT THIEF RIVER FALLS

The Crookston Pirates Boy’s Hockey team was coming off their most crushing defeat of the season when they lost in overtime to East Grand Forks on Saturday during the Grand Opening of the Crookston Sports Center. That loss was quickly erased as Nick Regeimbal’s power play goal with 23 seconds left in regulation turned out to be the only goal and Nick Biermaier had a 30 save shutout as the Pirates upset the #6 ranked Thief River Falls 1-0 in a Section 8A game at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.
The game started with much of the action in the Crookston end, as the Prowlers took advantage of two Crookston back to back penalties, but were turned away numerous times and it was Crookston that had the best opportunity in the first period when freshman Connor Morgan was coming in on a two on one and fired a shot from the left circle and beat All State goalie, Zane Gothberg, but it rang off the pipe to remain scoreless late in the first period and although outshot 10-3, the Pirates and Thief River Falls were 0-0 going into the first intermission.  “It was a little déjà vu when Conner hit the pipe,” said head coach Jon Bittner, “in the game in Crookston against TRF, Morgan (Terpstra) hit a cross bar early in that game too, so you began to wonder a little bit, but we didn’t say anything to the team after the first period. We did some adjusting on the forecheck and it worked.”
The second period was much like the first with Thief River Falls near doubling Crookston in shots and it was the first line center for the Prowlers, Matt Lindquist who had a breakaway with about seven minutes left in the period, but was stoned by Crookston senior goalie Biermaier to keep it a scoreless tie and now Thief River Falls had outshot the Pirates 21-9 through two periods. “It was a chess game out there,” said Crookston head coach Jon Bittner, “there were moves and counter moves going on and making adjustments and our kids picked up on it and helped on our forecheck. We tried to get a player or players down to the net and drag their forwards down too and it started to work a bit in the second period.”
The first four minutes of the third period had both sides skating shorthanded and at one time the Pirates had their top scorer, Morgan Terpstra and stalwart defenseman Mark Bittner in the penalty box, but again Biermaier came up with some more key saves. Crookston appeared to get stronger in the third period, putting some quality shots and some tantalizing opportunities, which included Pirate senior Micheal Awender doing some good forechecking in the offensive zone and down tight sliding a pass through the crease to fellow senior Jared Johnson who had a wide open net and tried to go to the far side of Gothberg and missed the net and a golden chance to get the first goal.  Thief River Falls would take a hooking penalty with 2:05 left in regulation and give Crookston their second FULL power play of the game and the Pirates used about all of it when the struck gold with the extra man, as defenseman Alex Prudhomme was up in the play and found Regeimbal open with a pass and ‘Reggie’ put a high shot over the glove of the Prowler goaltender for the first goal of the game and just 23 seconds left in regulation. “Alex Prudhomme was just walking across the point and he kind of fumbled with it a little bit, but made a nice backhand saucer pass to me and I got my head up and shot and with Morgan (Terpstra) causing havoc in front causing some problems for Zane (Gothberg) and he couldn’t see and it went in,” said Regeimbal. “It felt good as I probably had a hundred chances tonight and didn’t score and I wanted to make sure on this one that I had my head up and I saw an opening and just shot.”  Prudhomme actually was playing defense and wasn’t supposed to be where he was to set up the winning goal. “Alex was actually not a forward on that power play, but sometimes it’s hard to hold a stallion back and we thought he would be better served on the backside with Mark Bittner, but he went up and Ryan Bittner went back and ended up being a scoring opportunity. I really didn’t see the goal, because I don’t have my glasses on and I didn’t know if it was in or not and all of sudden everyone starts cheering and then I came in cheering too, a little late, but it was a good time.”
Crookston did out shoot Thief River Falls 12-9 in the third period, but the Prowlers ended up have the shots advantage 31-20. “Thief River had a lot of shots right away,” said Biermaier, “there was a lot of screening, but my defense did a heck of a job of pulling out players in front and clearing the puck and that is all you can ask as a goalie.”  When did Biermaier start feeling that something special could be happening tonight? “With about six minutes left in the third period I was thinking about a win. After Reggie scored the goal it just became hectic. You get nervous and we get an icing call and they get a faceoff with 13 seconds left in our end and I just prayed that Morgan ties the puck up in our corner, which he did to run time off, which he did.”
Crookston was short of numbers for the game tonight as the Edevold brothers, Alex and Ryan were unable to dress up for the game, as they father Mark fell down a flight of stairs at a Pirate hockey parents night on Wednesday and he was transferred quickly to a Fargo Hospital last evening. The two Edevold sons accompanied their mother and sat vigil with their father overnight and this morning until the danger sign passed and Mark was going to be all right. The Crookston School District has a policy that if a player does not have a pre-approved absence they can’t participate in any extra-curricular event that night, so both Edevold’s had to sit tonight’s game. “This is for the Edevold’s,” said Coach Bittner, “this is for Mark and Jackie and Alex and Ryan Edevold. This is for them and all our fans back in Crookston, who have come out to watch all the time and the big crowd last Saturday against East Side and all players past too, this one is for all of you and we felt very emotional about that.”
Crookston is 6-14-1 on the season and a huge win in the Section with three Section games left, but first the Pirates will host Superior, Wisconsin tomorrow night at the Crookston Sports Center. “This is certainly a huge win for us,” said Biermaier, “beating Thief River Falls, who we know is going to be at the top in the Section is a dream come true actually. We decided that we have to kick it in gear if we want to go anywhere.”
With the loss Thief River Falls drops to 14-6 on the year and will host Lake of the Woods on Saturday afternoon.
JV -  Thief River Falls won 6-0

   
  Nick Regeimbal shoots past a TRF player               The Pirates swarm their goalie, Nick Biermaier after the win

Nick Biermaier makes one of his 30 saves on this break away shot

1st Period
No Scoring

2nd Period
No Scoring

3rd Period
16:37 - Crox - Nick Regeimbal (6)  (Alex Prudhomme)  PP

CROOKSTON GIRL'S HOCKEY BEAT EAST GRAND FORKS 4-1 TO SECURE  #2 SEED

In a battle of two of the top teams in Class A Girls Hockey, the #4 ranked Crookston Pirates beat the #8 ranked East Grand Forks (EGF) Greenwave 4-1 at the Crookston Sports Center.  The game was for the second seed in the Section 8A Girls Hockey Playoffs, the second seed will also get a first round bye.
In the first period the Pirates controlled the play for the first 10 minutes and at one point outshot EGF 6-2.  Crookston had their best opportunity with six minutes remaining when Shannon Kaiser received a pass in front of the net and tried a one timer, but the Greenwave goalie, Tamara Twite came up with a big save.  The big save didn’t phase Kaiser as she took a pass from Emily Meyer in front of the net and as she was falling to her knees and slapped the puck past the goalie to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead, which they would take into the first intermission.  “Sometimes when you get the prettiest shot at the net it doesn’t go in and then you get a shot that isn’t as pretty and you get the goal.” Said Pirate Coach Tim Persson, “Shannon has been due for some of those as she has been working so darn hard and she stayed with it and shot the puck and it went in.  She can shoot the puck from her knees or even off of one leg, she has the knack to do it.” 
In the second period, Crookston scored early and often as Kaiser took a pass from Meyer again and scored her second goal of the game to give Crookston a 2-0 lead.  Sophie Lien would add another goal 32 seconds later as she was right in front of the net and slapped a shot past the EGF goalie to give the Pirates a 3-0 lead.  33 seconds later Crookston’s Meyer scored the third Pirate goal in a 79 second span to give the Pirates a 4-0 lead.  “That first line (of Kaiser, Meyer and Broekemeier) have cycled the puck down low and somebody was in front and boom they score.” said Persson, “Sophie Lien took advantage of a lucky bounce as her shot bounced over the goalies stick and went in.  She put the puck on the net and made something happen.”  Neither team scored in the final 13 minutes of the period as Crookston took a 4-0 lead into the second intermission.  “I thought we dominated the play in the first two periods.” Said Persson, “I thought we took the play to them most of the time and had more quality scoring chances than they did.”
In the third period the only goal came with under four minutes left in the game when EGF’s Leah Jensen poke checked the puck away from a Pirate and skated in on a break away and made a nice move to score the only Greenwave goal of the game. “I thought Rachel (Biermaier) was going to make the stop as she came out on her and looked to play it perfect.” Said Persson, “She gave Leah about six inches and that is all Leah needed to put the puck away.”
The Pirates would hold off the Greenwave in the final minutes and held on to a 4-1 victory to seal the 2^nd seed in the Section 8A Girls Hockey playoffs and will receive a first round bye.  “I am happy with how the game played out as we played very well.” Said Persson, “I thought the game was a pretty physical as we lost Kailey Biermaier in the first period, we lost Leah Dufault and Mandie (Persson) in the second period so we were down to two defenseman at one point.  But we will have time for a little rest.”
The Pirates improve to 16-8 on the year and will host Fargo South on Tuesday, February 9.  East Grand Forks drops to 13-9-1on the year.
J.V. – EGF won 5-2

        Shannon Kaiser tries a one timer shot on the EGF net
 

Emily Meyer with a wrist shot as an EGF player tries to block the shot

1st Period
11:35 - Shannon Kaiser (29) (Emily Meyer)

2nd Period
3:10 - Shannon Kaiser (Emily Meyer, Jessica Broekemeier)
3:42 - Sophie Lien (1) (Brianna Breiland)
4:29 - Emily Meyer (11) (Jessica Broekemeier, Shannon Kaiser)

3rd Period
13:10 - Leah Jensen (unassisted)  PP

CROOKSTON WRESTLERS SHUTOUT EAST GRAND FORKS  79-0

The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team improves their dual record to 11-2 on the season with a whitewashing of East Grand Forks/Sacred Heart in a match held at the Sacred Heart High School 79-0. "We certainly weren't trying to get a shutout when it started," said Crookston head coach Chad Hitchen, "things just worked out that way as the Green Wave forfeited five matches and they didn't have much movement in their lineup and Gajeski stayed at 135 pounds to face Mariano and we got a pin there, so it was all in the matchups which favored us in the match."
Crookston does have a couple ineligible wrestlers, but a pleasant surprise when Justin Altepeter, a senior wrestled his first varsity match of the season at 189 pounds and he defeated Aaron Mehling by a pin in the first period. "That was rewarding for Justin," said Hitchen, "he weighed in at 191 pounds (wrestlers get a two pound allowance after the new year) and he started the season at 217 pounds, so he has dropped 26 pounds and when someone sacrifices like that for the team, it's nice to see him being rewarded with a win." Altepeter was in the same weight area as Brody Davidson, so he was unable to wrestle at 215 pounds or heavyweight, but after a season of cutting weight he get's into the lineup and a spot that Crookston has had open numerous times during the year. Crookston will now take a more inexperienced squad to the Northwest Invitational in Fertile on Saturday, as three seniors, the Portillo twins and Ben Genereux will be taking ACT tests on Saturday, so the Pirates  Jacob Egeland and Cody Erickson will get a chance in the tournament and Crookston will be open at 130 pounds and heavyweight for the tournament.
 

GRAFTON SPOILERS HOLD OFF PIRATE GIRLS BASKETBALL RALLY FOR A 55-53 WIN

The Crookston Pirate Girls Basketball team got behind early and had to play catch up the rest of the night and couldn’t get over the hump as they lost to the Grafton Spoilers 55-53 in Grafton.  There are a few differences between Minnesota and North Dakota basketball.  In North Dakota there is a shot clock and they play four quarters instead of two halves like Minnesota.
Grafton started the game by going on a 9-2 run and the Pirates would battle back the rest of the first quarter as they outscored the Spoilers 11-7 the rest of the quarter to get back within a 16-13 score at the end of the first quarter. 
In the second quarter the Pirates would trail by ten points with a two minutes left before they made a run and cut the deficit to four points (31-27) at halftime.  “The end of the half was kind of like BGMR,” said Pirate Coach Lon Boike, “We were down by ten and cut it down to four points and were feeling pretty good going into halftime.”
In the third quarter the Pirates were outscored 12-8 and trailed 43-35 going into the fourth quarter.  Grafton would build an 11 point lead and once again the pesky Pirates would battle back to get within five points with a minute to go in the game.  Grafton called a timeout and the Pirates came out in a 1-3-1 half court trap and forced Grafton to use their last time out.  Crookston came out again in the half court trap after the time out, forcing Grafton to throw the ball away.  The Pirates took advantage as Kristin Remick hit a three pointer to bring the Pirates within a 55-53 score with less than 30 seconds left in the game.  Crookston’s defense came up big once again as a Pirate stole the ball from a Spoiler, but missed the lay up that would have tied the game.  Crookston was forced to foul, sending a Grafton player to the line to shoot two free throws (Crookston had ten fouls – giving Grafton two shots in the double bonus) and the Spoiler missed both attempts and Crookston grabbed the rebound and called a time out.  The Pirates were trying to get the ball into Lauren Graham (who had 21 points in the game), but the ball was tipped out of bounds and Crookston inbounded the ball and tried to get the ball back inside to Graham.  The pass into Graham was tipped around and the clock ran out and Grafton held on to a 55-53 victory over the visiting Pirates.  “We were never able to take the lead.  They would take a big lead then we would get back to within one or two points, then they would take a big lead again and we would get back within a couple of points.” said Boike, “It wasn’t one of our best games, but we worked extremely hard as the girls were exhausted after the game.  We gave ourselves a chance to win and did everything the right way at the end of the game and again gave ourselves a chance to win.”
Crookston falls to 10-8 on the year and will play the #5 ranked team in Class AA Hawley at Concordia-Moorhead on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.  Grafton improves to 13-4 on the year and beat East Grand Forks 57-55 on January 22.
J.V. – Grafton won 50-45
Freshman – Grafton won 32-29

  
Lauren Graham goes up for 2 of her 21 points   The Pirates play tough defense late in the game
                              (Pictures by Dave Emanuel of Wildfire Photography)

WEDNESDAY - FEBRUARY 3,  2010

UMC FOOTBALL SIGNS 12 PLAYERS TO NATIONAL LETTERS OF INTENT ON SIGNING DAY

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