Beau Smith’s 149 yards receiving and 2 TDs lead Crookston Football past Cass Lake-Bena

The Crookston Pirate Football team was led by freshman wide receiver/runningback Beau Smith’s 149 yards receiving and two touchdowns as he led his team to a 13-6 victory over the Cass Lake-Bena Panthers in Cass Lake on Friday evening.

1st Quarter –
Cass Lake-Bena won the coin toss and deferred to the second half. Crookston elected to receive to start the ball game. Crookston started the game with an eight yard run from Jaron Knutson and on the next play the snap flew over the quarterback’s head and lineman Nolan Johnson jumped on the ball for a loss of 17 yards. After a Cass Lake-Bena penalty and a seven yard run from Knutson, the Pirates had a fourth down. The Pirates tried a passing play and the Panthers Adrian Brown intercepted the ball. Cass Lake-Bena’s first offensive series started with carries of four and 14 yards by Adrian Brown for a first down. Three plays later Crookston’s Lukas Helgeson recovered a fumble and Crookston had the ball back.
Crookston’s second play of the ensuing drive was another snap over the quarterback’s head for a loss of 18 yards and two plays later, they turned the ball over on downs.
Cass Lake-Bena started the drive at their own 19 yard line. They had a first down on a Parker Tsuji 11 yard pass to Joseph Wind for a first down. Four plays later they had another first down before they turned over on downs and the teams were scoreless after the first quarter of play.

2nd Quarter –
Crookston’s third offensive series of the game started in the second quarter with two Mico Roche runs for 13 yards and a first down. They followed with a 15 yard pass from Asher Wieland to Beau Smith for another first down. A few plays later, CLB had an offsides penalty for another first down. Four plays later the drive came to an end with a turnover on downs.
Cass Lake-Bena had a five play drive that stalled on a turnover on downs after a botched snap on a punt and Crookston had the ball at the Cass Lake-Bena 19 yard line with 1:35 left in the half.
Crookston didn’t waste anytime as Asher Wieland dropped back to pass and found Beau Smith for a 19 yard touchdown pass. Smith also kicked the extra point and the Pirates led 17-0 with 90 seconds left in the half. Crookston took the 19-0 lead into halftime.

3rd Quarter –
Cass Lake-Bena started the second half with the ball and the first play of the half was an Adrian Brown 42 yard run for a first down. Four plays later, the Panthers went for it on fourth down and one and threw an incomplete pass and Crookston got the ball on a turnover on downs.
Crookston fumbled the ball on their own one yard line and Cass Lake-Bena recovered the ball. On the first Panther play, the had a perfectly drawn up play and Tsuji followed his fullback into the endzone for a touchdown, but an illegal motion penalty was called and negated the touchdown. A couple of plays later, the Panthers were called for a holding penalty. After an incomplete pass, the Panthers tried another pass and Wieland picked off a pass and the Pirates had the ball back. They ran three plays that covered nine yards and set up a fourth down and one play. The Pirates went for it and completed a 12 yard pass to Smith for a first down. After a holding penalty, Weiland dropped back to pass and fired the ball down the field and Smith leadped in the air and grabbed the ball over a defender and took off down the field for a 65 yard touchdown. The extra point failed and the Pirates led 13-0 with 3:27 left in the quarter. Cass Lake-Bena had a three-and-out and punted the ball. Crookston got the ball back and three plays later, dropped back to pass and the Panthers’ Adrian Brown knocked the ball to the grass and scooped it up and sprinted 40 yards for a touchdown. The extra point failed and Crookston’s lead was 13-7 at the end of the quarter.

4th Quarter –
Crookston had a three and out and had to punt to start the fourth quarter. Cass Lake-Bena did the same thing. Crookston got the ball back and ran three plays and got a first down. Two plays later, Cass Lake-Bena’s Adrian Brown forced another fumble and the Panthers recovered the ball at the Crookston 49-yaard line with 4:41 remaining.
Cass Lake-Bena had an incomplete pass, a play for no-gain, and tried another pass and Crookston’s Mauricio Arriaga intercepted a pass and Crookston had the ball at their own 29-yard line with four minutes left. The Pirates’ first play was a Mico Roche 15-yard run for a first down and ran a few more plays and ran the clock out to win the game 13-6.

Crookston improves to 1-3 on the year and will travel to Ada-Borup-West on Friday, October 2. Cass Lake-Bena drops to 1-3 on the year.

SCORING-
1st Quarter –
No scoring

2nd Quarter –
1:30 – CROX – Asher Wieland 19 yard pass to Beau Smith (Beau Smith kick)

3rd Quarter –
3:27 – CROX – Asher Wieland 65-yard pass to Beau Smith (run failed)
0:00 – CLB – Adrian Brown 40-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown (pass failed)

4th Quarter –
No scoring

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Helgeson and Roche

Nolan Johnson

TD celebration

Beau Smith

Jacob Biermaier

Asher Weiland

Beau Smith

Maddox Hoerner

Mico Roche

Jaron Knutson

Helgeson and Roche

Nolan Johnson

TD celebration

Beau Smith

Jacob Biermaier

Asher Weiland

Beau Smith

Maddox Hoerner

Mico Roche

Jaron Knutson

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