The Crookston Pirates Boys Soccer team was held scoreless in a 3-0 loss against Grand Forks Central in a non-Section match played on the Crookston High School Soccer Field.
Grand Forks Central wasted little time opening the scoring just 1:54 into the match when Jackson Macho took a pass from Lucas Kanta before slotting a shot past Crookston goalkeeper Logan Wardner giving the Knights a 1-0 lead. Crookston managed just two shots on goal in the first half, both of which were saved forcing the Pirates to face a 1-0 deficit at halftime.
In the second half, Logan Wardner took a shot to the knee forcing the goalkeeper to the sideline for a few minutes. With Wardner sidelined, Grand Forks Central took advantage scoring two goals in less than two minutes. In the 67thminute Jackson Macho scored his second goal of the match giving the Knights a 2-0 lead. 71-seconds later Sylvester Osodo received a feed from William Lawson before firing the ball into the back of the net giving the Knights a 3-0 lead. Logan Wardner reentered the game after the third goal and held Grand Forks Central the rest of the night with 21 saves in the match. Crookston was unable to muster any offense the rest of the match falling 3-0 to their visitors. “In the second half, one of their players took a shot and hit Logan (Wardner) in his bad knee and reinjured it, so we had to take him out for a couple minutes,” explained Crookston head coach Don Cox. “That’s when they scored those two goals. The defense went kind of wavy on us instead of playing nice and flat and tight. They got loose and porous so they got two quick goals and we never could get enough pressure up to recover anything or get anything recoverable that we could do anything with up front. They need to put more pressure up front. They’ve got to work together and talk more. They’ve just got to start working together as a team.”
Crookston falls to 2-7 on the season and will return to the pitch on Saturday when the Pirates travel to Fergus Falls to take on the Otters at 3 p.m. Grand Forks Central improves to 8-3-1.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| Grand Forks Central | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| CROOKSTON | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Scoring
1:54 -GFC – Jackson Macho (Lucas Kanta)
66:41 – GFC – Jackson Macho
67:52 – GFC – Sylvester Osodo (William Lawson-body Jr)
| Saves | 1st | 2nd | Total |
| Caden Fultz – GFC | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Logan Wardner – Crox | 12 | 9 | 21 |
| Casey Tiedemann – Crox | 0 | 1 | 1 |
