The Crookston Pirate Football team had eight sacks and held Staples-Motley to 43 total yards in a 20-0 victory on Parents Night in the home opener played at the Crookston/UMC Football Field.
The teams punted on their first offensive possessions before Crookston started their second drive from their own 40-yard line and put a nice drive together with a Leyton Salentine 13-yard run for a first down, a 39-yard pass completion from Salentine to Jaden Lubarski and the Pirates had the ball at the Cardinal 11-yard line. Joe Doda ran the ball for six yards and Leyton Salentine faked the handoff and went up the middle and broke a tackle to score the first touchdown of the game with 1:40 remaining in the first quarter. “I faked to Joey, saw a hole and ran it in,” said Salentine. “I was pleased with my offensive line and I only had to scramble a couple times tonight.” Blake Fee kicked the extra point and Crookston took a 7-0 lead. “That was huge because I thought we needed to set the tone,” said Pirate Coach Scott Butt. “Last week we moved the ball on our first drive and stalled out and I thought the kids did a good job of knuckling down and getting after it.”
Staples-Motley started marching the ball down the field on their second series and on the sixth play of the drive, they tried a deep pass and Crookston’s Jaden Lubarski made a leaping interception at the Pirate five-yard line to get a big turnover. “I think it was a big momentum changer,” said Lubarski of his interception. “I saw the guy run past me and I saw the quarterback throw it and jumped up, made the play and hung onto it.” The Pirates offense answered with a short game of seven yards on the play before a Leyton Salentine broke to the outside and had nothing but green grass in front of him for an 88-yard touchdown run and after a blocked extra point kick, Crookston led 13-0 early in the second quarter. “The middle got kind of clogged up so I decided to bounce it out and I busted it out there and beat the corner and was home free,” said Salentine. “I was kind of surprised that things opened up like it did.” Neither team scored the rest of the half, but Crookston’s Lubarski recorded his second interception of the game and combined with six Pirate sacks in the first half, the Pirates dominated. “We haven’t had a lot of turnovers the past couple of years,” said Coach Butt. “He was a rock star for us back there had two and he does a nice job and it is nice to have a tall, long player make some plays tonight.” Crookston had 244 yards of total offense in the first half compared to Staples-Motley’s 15 yards and Crookston led 13-0. “It was a nice defensive performance tonight,” said Coach Butt. “We have a lot of things to work on still, but it was a nice game tonight.”
In the second half, Staples-Motley ran three plays and had to punt, and Crookston had a short field, starting the drive at the Cardinal 45-yard line. Crookston ran six plays with a Joe Doda 10-yard run for a first down sparking the drive and a few plays later Doda scored on a 14-yard run and after a Fee extra point kick, the Pirates led 20-0 with 6:26 left in the third quarter. “It was nice to see Joe get in the end zone,” said Coach Butt. “He has worked hard for us and hasn’t had a lot of room to run, but he keeps working hard for us and it paid off.” The teams had long, time-consuming drives and after three-quarters of play, Crookston led 20-0.
In the fourth quarter, both teams went deep to the bench and Crookston was able to run the clock down to win their first game of the season by a 20-0 score. Crookston had eight sacks in the game and held Staples-Motley to a total of 43 yards in the game. “We were getting in there and making tackles and making plays today,” said Pirate lineman Damian Hodgson. “It was important for us lineman to get lower and we were able to stay low and get some blocks and defensively it was fun to get after the quarterback all night.”
Crookston improves to 1-1 on the year and will host the Hawley Nuggets on Friday at 7:00 p.m. Staples-Motley drops to 0-2 on the year.
Jaden Lubarski with his second interception of the game
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | FINAL | |
| Staples-Motley | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| CROOKSTON | 7 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 20 |
Joe Doda crosses the goal line for a touchdown in the third quarter
1st Quarter
1:40 – Crookston – Leyton Salentine 5 yard run (Blake Fee kick)
2nd Quarter
10:55 – Crookston – Leyton Salentine 88 yard run (Kick failed)
3rd Quarter
6:26 – Crookston – Joe Doda 14 yard run (Fee kick)
4th Quarter
No Scoring
Zach Brown (13) and Lukas Meier team up for the tackle
| CROOKSTON | Staples-Motley | |
| First Downs | 13 | 6 |
| Rushing-Yards | 41-244 | 29-15 |
| Passing | 3-11-1 | 3-10-2 |
| Passing Yards | 57 | 28 |
| Total Yards | 299 | 43 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 1-0 | 1-0 |
| Penalties-Yards | 4-30 | 4-25 |
| Punts-Yards Ave. | 3-24.7 | 7-29.7 |
Rushing
| Crookston | Staples-Motley |
| Joe Doda 16-63 | Cade Schmidt 13-46 |
| Leyton Salentine 10-148 | Josh Lombard 10- (-52) |
| Jacob Hesby 5-2 | Logan White 5-14 |
| Lukas Meier 4-16 | Jordan Carlson 1-7 |
| Nick Garmen 4-10 | |
| Brooks Butt 1-7 | |
| Easton Tangquist 1 (-2) |
Passing
| Leyton Salentine 2-10-1 48 yards | Josh Lombard 3-10-2 28 yards |
| Gunnar Gunderson 1-1-0 9 yards |
Receiving
| Jaden Lubarski 1-39 | Jordan Carlson 1-21 |
| Blake Fee 1-9 | Chase Davis 1-7 |
| Nick Garmen 1-9 | Cade Schmidt 1-0 |
Leyton Salentine on one of his carries Jaden Lubarski with his second interception
(Pictures by Dave Emanuel of Wildfire Photography)
