Crookston Pirate Boys Soccer falls to Bemidji

The Crookston Pirate Boys Soccer team battled, but the Bemidji Lumberjacks were too much in a 5-0 loss in the season opener played at the Bemidji Middle School on Saturday afternoon.

FIRST HALF –
It was a good battle with Bemidji getting a few scoring chances in the first 10 minutes of the game. The Lumberjacks continued to pressure the Pirates, and Bemidji’s Ashtin Wright kicked the ball towards the goal and hit traffic in front of the net. The Pirate defense couldn’t clear it, and Bemidji’s Brecken Holte kicked the loose ball in the net for his first varsity goal for a 1-0 lead just over 13 minutes into the game.
The play was even for the 20 minutes and Crookston was finally able to get a quality scoring chance with 14 minutes left in the half when Jay Reese had a beautiful pass up the field to Grant Funk who got a kick off and just missed to the right of the net.
Even though Bemidji didn’t make a sub the entire first half, they continued to pressure the Pirate defense late in the half. With 3:53 left in the half, Bemidji had an opportunity, but they booted the ball over the net, and the score remained 1-0. With two minutes left in the half, Bemidji had another point-blank shot, but Crookston’s goalkeeper, Reggie Winjum, made the save on the corner of the net.
Bemidji continued to put relentless pressure on the Pirates and had a 2-on-1 as Austin Riewer slid a pass over to Holte, who tapped the kick into a wide-open net on a beautifully executed 2-on-1 to take a 2-0 lead with 1:15 left in the half.
Crookston had one last chance in the final seconds as Jay Reese broke free and put a solid kick on goal, but the Lumberjack keeper made the save, and Bemidji took a 2-0 lead into halftime.

SECOND HALF –
Bemidji started the second half strong. Just over four minutes into the half, Bemidji’s Jeron Huseby slid a pass over to Austin Riewer, who launched a line drive kickards out. I from about 20 yt sailed into the net for a quick 3-0 lead.
Bemidji continued to pressure the Pirate defense and had several scoring opportunities, but Crookston’s Makoti Weber came up with a couple of big stops to keep the score 3-0 in favor of the Lumberjacks.
With 17 minutes left, things started to get a little physical, and Bemidji was called for a yellow card, giving Crookston a free kick. Weber kicked the ball from about 30 yards out, and it went over the top of the net, and Bemidji held on to a 3-0 lead.
Less than a minute later, Bemdji took advantage of a costly Pirate mistake to score their fourth goal of the game. The ball was loose, and a Crookston defender tried to clear it but missed it, allowing Bemidji’s Jeron Huseby (son of Crookston High School grad, Lars Huseby) to get the ball and slid a shot under the Pirate keeper for a 4-0 lead with 16 minutes left in the game.
Less than two minutes later, Bemidji snuck behind the Pirate defense and Ashtin Wright kicked a shot on goal, and Winjum made the initial save, but the ball rolled to his right and Alex Harrison was there to kick the ball in the net for his first varsity goal for a 5-0 lead with 14:46 to go in the game.
Bemidji had another opportunity with over five minutes left in the game when Bemidji had a shot go off the crossbar, and the game stayed 5-0.
Bemidji held on the rest of the way and won the game 5-0.

Crookston drops to 0-1 on the year. Bemidji improves to 1-0.

Click above to listen to Coach Lon Boike’s comments

	1st	2nd	Final
Crookston	0	0	0
Bemidji	2	3	5

Scoring –
13:09 – BEM – Brecken Holte (Ashtin Wright)
38:45 – BEM – Brecken Holte (Austin Riewer)
44:08 – BEM – Austin Riewer (Jeron Huseby)
63:58 – BEM – Jeron Husebey
65:14 – BEM – Alex Harrison (Ashtin Wright)