The East Grand Forks Green Wave returned the opening kickoff for an 89-yard touchdown and cruised the rest of the way as they beat the Crookston Pirate Football team in the season opener at the East Grand Forks Senior High School field Thursday evening.
1st Quarter
Crookston won the toss and elected to defer to the second half, and East Grand Forks said they would receive the ball to start. It turned out to be a great move as Crookston’s kickoff was caught by East Grand Forks’ Jezrael Jones at the 11-yard line, got to the sideline, and flew down the field for an 89-yard return for a touchdown for a 6-0 lead 10 seconds into the game.
Crookston followed with a three-and-out and was forced to punt. The punt was partially blocked, and East Grand Forks started their first offensive series at the Crookston 32-yard line. The first Green Wave play had sophomore quarterback Jakob Stassen deliver a perfect pass to Austin Rusling down to the one-yard line. After a play for no gain and a five-yard penalty, the Green Wave gave the ball to Jordan Nowacki, who scampered into the end zone for a six-yard score. The two-point conversion was converted for a 14-0 lead four minutes into the game.
The second offensive series of the game for Crookston had a loss of four yards and a loss of three yards before an incomplete pass. Crookston was forced to punt, and Noah Frize returned the punt 41 yards, and the Pirates had a personal foul penalty to bring the ball down to the Crookston seven-yard line. EGF’s Nowacki scored on a seven-yard run, and after Nowacki converted the two-point conversion, the Green Wave led 22-0 with 5:55 left in the quarter.
Crookston’s third offensive series was a struggle thanks to the stellar Green Wave defense, as the Pirates had two runs of two yards each before a one-yard loss, and they were forced to punt again. East Grand Forks started the drive on the Pirate 37-yard line, and after a pair of one-yard gains, the Green Wave tried a pass. Crookston’s Hunter Nicholas was chasing the quarterback and forced him to throw quicker than he wanted, and Tate Hamre jumped the route to pick off the pass.
Crookston wasn’t able to take advantage of the momentum as they lost a yard on a run, threw two incomplete passes, and had to punt for the fourth straight possession. East Grand Forks started the drive at the Pirate 41-yard line, and after a four-yard loss, they handed the ball to Nowacki, and he looked to be bottled up for a small gain before he turned on the after-burners and scored on a 45-yard run for his third touchdown of the game and after a Carson McDonald kick, they led 27-0 after one-quarter of play.
2nd Quarter
East Grand Forks had the ball back to start the second quarter at the Crookston 43-yard line. The first East Grand Forks play was a handoff to Cole Schmiedeberg, who ran for 43 yards for a touchdown. After a McDonald kick, they led 35-0 25 seconds into the quarter.
Crookston had a carry of three yards, no gain, and three more yards and were forced to punt for the sixth straight possession. East Grand Forks had a handful of plays before Jakob Stassen dropped another dime with a perfect pass to Rusling, who got behind the Pirate defense on a fly route for a 49 yard touchdown and a 41-0 lead halfway through the quarter.
Crookston had a turnover on downs after a decent drive and East Grand Forks ran out the clock to take a 41-0 lead into halftime.
3rd Quarter –
East Grand Forks brought in some of the second-string players in the third quarter, and they had a total of nine players that ran the ball in the game. Neither team did much offensively as both teams had clock-eating drives, and neither team scored, and it was 41-0 going into the final quarter.
4th Quarter –
East Grand Forks continued to hand the ball off to various backs. Since they led 41-0, running time started, and the quarter flew by. Crookston started to move the ball a little more and had their best drive of the game. A drive that was over 10 plays was stopped on the East Grand Forks one-yard line. East Grand Forks ran a play and got back to the one-yard line. On the second play, the Green Wave backup quarterback was hit in the endzone, and Crookston earned the two points with a safety. Crookston got the ball back late and had some nice runs from Rylan Lubarski, including an 11-yard run. Tate Hamre had a run for eight yards, and the Pirates had the ball at the Green Wave’s 20-yard line and called a time-out with one second left in the game. After the timeout, Crookston’s Teagan Lubinski dropped back and threw a pass to his 6’4 tight end, Tate Hamre, and he made the catch in the endzone for a touchdown to end the game with East Grand Forks winning 41-8.
Crookston drops to 0-1 on the year and will travel to Park Rapids on Friday, September 6. East Grand Forks improves to 1-0 on the year and will travel to Little Falls on Friday, September 6.
CLICK BELOW to listen to Pirate Coach Nate Lubarski’s post-game comments
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| Crookston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| EGF | 27 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 41 |
1st Quarter –
11:50 – EGF – Jezreal Jones 89-yard kickoff return (run failed)
8:00 – EGF – Jordan Nowacki 6 yard run (Nowaki run)
5:55 – EGF – Jordan Nowacki 7 yard run (Nowacki run)
1:33 – EGF – Jordan Nowacki 45-yard run (Carson McDonald kick)
2nd Quarter –
11:35 – EGF – Cole Schmiedeberg 43 yard run (Carson McDonald kick)
6:17 – EGF – Austin Rusling 49-yard pass from Jaxon Stassen (Carson McDonald kick)
3rd Quarter –
No Scoring
4th Quarter –
2:52 – Crookston – Safety
0:00 – Crookston – Teagan Lubinski 20 yard pass to Tate Hamre
| TEAM STATS | CROOKSTON | EGF |
| Rushing Yards | 117 | 147 |
| Passing Yards | 55 | 81 |
| Total Yards | 172 | 228 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 1-0 | 2-1 |
| First Downs | 7 | 11 |
| Penalties-Yards | 5-40 | 4-20 |
| Punts | 7 – 168 | 0 |
INDIVIDUAL STATS
| CROOKSTON | East Grand Forks |
| Rushing | Rushing |
| Jose Arriaga 13-18 | Jaden Nowacki 4-59 |
| Rylan Lubarski 12-58 | Cole Schmiedeberg 4-52 |
| Teagan Lubinski 9-(-5) | Weston Bratrud 4-(-8) |
| Tate Hamre 3-21 | D’Ajalon Hall 3-9 |
| Casey Weiland 2-25 | Jakob Stassen 3-3 |
| Jack Coulter 2-4 | |
| Ryan Rockstad 1-10 | |
| Jake Chupka 1-9 | |
| Brody Anderson 1-5 | |
| Passing | Passing |
| Teagan Lubinski 4-8-0 55 yards | Jakob Stassen 3-4-1 81 yards |
| Receiving | Receiving |
| Tate Hamre 2 -33 | Austin Rusling 2-80 |
| Rylan Lubarski 2-22 | Jordan Nowacki 1-1 |
