The Crookston Pirate Boy’s Soccer squad hosted the Grand Forks Central Knights looking for their first win of the season, but the Knights scored four goals in a 10-minute span on their way to a 5-1 win at a match played at the Crookston High School soccer field. “Overall I thought we played really well outside of that ten minute span they had,” said Pirates Head Coach Lon Boike. “I thought we might have been a step slower than we can be, but we still hung in there today.”
FIRST HALF
Grand Forks Central had 14 shots in the first half, eight of which were on goal. Using the strong wind at their back, the Knights were putting consistent pressure on the Pirates’ defense. GFC opened the scoring in the 16th minute of the game when Hayden Mack worked down the right sideline, passed to Edem Akohin across the middle who returned him the ball at the top of the box and Mack finished into the near corner for a 1-0 lead. The Pirates started to get more chances on offense and had two quality opportunities late in the half but could not capture that tying goal. “We started getting some more subs in there and they did a nice job of pressuring the ball and getting a few shots out there,” added Coach Boike. The big play of the half came with no time remaining after a last-second handball in the box on the Pirates gave the Knights a penalty kick. Still, it only remained a 1-0 game after 40 minutes because Caden Boike was able to save the penalty kick for the Pirates. “Under ten seconds you don’t think anything is going to happen and we were thinking ‘oh no’ but Caden read it well,” said Coach Boike. “That was pretty exciting for us going into the half.”
SECOND HALF
The second half started very quickly as the Pirates were able to continue the momentum through halftime and score just 17 seconds into the half. Evan Christensen stole the ball after the kickoff and sent a ball over the Knights’ defense that Jack Garmen chased down and kicked into the right set of the goal to tie the game at 1-1. “I was happy for Jack. That was his first high school goal and he’s been working hard to get that,” said Coach Boike. “It was a great ball by Evan and put it right where he had to.” The next 15 minutes were played at a stalemate with neither side creating much offense. Then, the GFC offense broke outscoring four goals in 10 minutes. Owen Fields notched two goals, while Ross Wilber and Ryaan Aishami each added a goal to jump out to a 5-1 lead with 13 minutes left. “It can’t be just our three defensive guys back there. We have to get our midfielders back there and mark a guy,” explained Coach Boike. Crookston’s only shot on goal in the second half came on Garmen’s goal as the Knights countered the Pirates offense well. “
Crookston drops to 0-9 this season. They will get right back to it on Tuesday when they host Fergus Falls Hillcrest Academy in their final regular-season home match of the year. “We are going to have our hands full with them so we just have to be ready to play,” said Coach Boike.
Grand Forks Central improves to 2-11-3 this season.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| CROOKSTON | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Grand Forks Central | 1 | 4 | 5 |
Scoring
15:23 – GFC- Hayden Mack (Edem Akohin)
40:17 – CROX- Jack Garmen (Evan Christensen)
56:34 – GFC- Ross Wilber (Brody Kendall)
58:52 – GFC- Owen Fields (Zakeriya Mahamud)
65:26 – GFC- Ryaan Aishami
66:45 – GFC- Owen Fields
| SAVES | 1st | 2nd | Final |
| Caden Boike- CROX | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| John Vandeberg- GFC | 2 | 1 | 3 |
