Pirate Boys Soccer Gets Another Win Against WHA

The Crookston Pirates Boys Soccer team scored two second-half goals in a 2-0 victory over Walker-Hackensack-Akeley Wolves in a Section 8A match played at the Crookston High School Soccer Field. 
Both sides battled through a scoreless first-half with Crookston’s Logan Wardner making two saves and Walker-Hackensack-Akeley’s Josh Kuhlman making six saves in the scoreless opening 40 minutes. “The struggle was we were taking our shots a little too far out, said Crookston head coach Don Cox. “We were also shooting at the keeper and all season they’ve been shooting at keepers like he has a target on him.”
In the second half, Ben Andringa gave Crookston the lead with a long strike from 40-yards away blasting the high kick over the head of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley’s goalie giving the Pirates a 1-0 lead. “That was kind of a lucky goal,” said Cox. “It was kind of a toe punch, not the way that I like to see them done there but Been got a lucky goal for us and you take those where you can get them. He just kind of wound up and got a good punch and those kinds of kicks get good backspin on them and after they go a certain distance before they just sort of falls like a rock and that one’s backspin dropped at the right time for us and into the back of the net.” Crookston added a second goal in the 52^ndminute when Jake Andringa finished off a series of passes, including the assist from Tai Baig, with a goal to push the Pirates’ lead to 2-0. “The second goal was a nice one, it was a relay pass and Jake got it, took it forward from there inside the 18-yard box and put his shot away from the keeper and it went into the net and that wasn’t the case with most of our shots. Most of our shots were right at the goalie, otherwise, we could have had a lot more goals.” Logan Wardner was perfect in net making all seven saves necessary to preserve the Crookston 2-0 shutout victory. “In the second half we were pushing with a lot more pressure,” summarized Cox. “We were putting a lot more pressure on their defense and they were crumbling a bit there and getting frustrated and when an opponent gets frustrated it’s a lot harder for them to focus on their offense.”
Crookston improves to 4-10-1 on the season and will return to the pitch on Thursday when the Pirates host Walker-Hackensack-Akeley at 3:30 p.m. Walker-Hackensack-Akeley falls to 1-10. The Pirates wrap up their regular season in East Grand Forks on Saturday with a 1 p.m. kick-off against the Green Wave.

Scoring
41:03 – Crookston – Ben Andringa
51:15 – Crookston – Jake Anderson (Tai Baig)