The Crookston Pirate Boy’s Soccer team hosted Pelican Rapids looking for their first win of the season. Still, the Vikings had other plans as their technically sound offensive game was too much for the Pirates to overcome in a 7-0 defeat in a Section 8A matchup played in Crookston. “Fundamentally, they were better than us today,” said Pirates Head Coach Lon Boike. “They play a lot of soccer year-round, and their skills showed today, obviously.”
For the majority of the game, Pelican Rapids controlled the tempo and pace of the game with good ball control. Crookston’s defense was able to withstand the pressure for the first 18 minutes of the game because of good team defense. However, the Vikings eventually pushed through in the 19th minute with a give-and-go between Mohamed Ahmed and Sebastian Centeno, with the latter finishing into the far side of the net for a 1-0 lead. Three minutes later, Pelican Rapids struck again. This time, Centeno assisted Ahmed on a through-ball at the top of the box for a 2-0 advantage. “They are a very smart team, and they are good at finding the open guy,” explained Coach Boike. “They can move up the field pretty well.” The Vikings found the back of the net again in the 28th minute on a rocket shot from 35-plus yards out off the right foot of Abdul Ahmed into the upper left corner to give the Vikings a 3-0 lead. Pelican Rapids finished off the half with a goal in the 33rd minute when Centeno came through the middle of the box to collect a ricochet and blast it into the right side of the net. “At times, our defense would overcommit, and then they would go right by us, so that was an issue in the first half,” added Coach Boike. Crookston’s offense had limited opportunities in the first 40 minutes. Their best chance came about 20 minutes when a ball was sent into the box and came away with three shot attempts, one each from Alex Longoria, Lucas Miller, and Jackson Reese, but all three shots were deflected off of a Vikings defender. The Vikings outshot the Pirates 24-3 in the half, but only 11 Viking shots were on goal. “Caden did some good things in goal, but he made mistakes too, so there are things we have to fix all around,” said Coach Boike.
The second half was played similarly, with Pelican Rapids controlling the ball for most of the half. Pelican Rapids picked up where they left off with a quick goal three minutes in when Mohamed Ahmed got his second goal of the game on a pass from Jesus Moreno that Ahmed finished on the far side of the goal to make it 5-0. “Sometimes running in a lot of players, we get mixed up on some assignments, and there were times where those guys were driving right through our mids and up to our four defenders,” explained Coach Boike. “Then our defenders get put in a tough spot to recover, and one pass and they have a 1-on-1 with the goalie.” Joshua Urbano got the sixth goal on a shot that came off a broken play in the 52nd minute. Yahir Diaz finished the scoring in the game with a goal coming with 19:20 remaining. Crookston managed one shot on goal in the half coming from Blaine Andringa. “We want to learn from this, and we want to keep getting better and better,” added Coach Boike. “You learn from playing the really good teams, and that is what we are hoping to do.”
Crookston falls to 0-5 and will travel to Bemidji to take on the Lumberjacks on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
Pelican Rapids improves to 4-2 with their fourth straight win.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| Pelican Rapids | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| CROOKSTON | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Scoring
18:08 – PR- Sebastian Centeno (Mohamed Ahmed
21:24 – PR- Mohamed Ahmed (Centeno)-
27:31 – PR- Abdul Ahmed
33:14 – PR- Sebastian Centeno
42:50 – PR- Mohamed Ahmed (Jesus Moreno)
52:50 – PR- Joshua Urbano (Centeno)
60:30 – PR- Yahir Diaz
| SAVES | 1st | 2nd | Final |
| Caden Boike- CROX | 7 | 2 | 9 |
| Arturo Zavala- PR | 0 | 1 | 1 |
