Pirate Boys Soccer Use Strong Second Half To Beat Hibbing-Chisholm

The Crookston Pirates Boys Soccer team scored two second-half goal to secure a 2-1 win in a non-section match against Hibbing-Chisholm in a match played in Hibbing.
Hibbing-Chisholm managed the only scoring in the first half when Sid Warren fired a shot past Crookston goalkeeper Logan Wardner giving the Bluejackets a 1-0 lead. Crookston failed to generate enough offense to breakthrough for an equalizer in the first half despite outshooting their opposition 6-4 in the opening forty minutes. “They got a lucky break, their fastest striker got in behind our defense and managed to outrun him and got ahead of our defender and got a shot off just right of Wardner,” said Crookston head coach Don Cox. “It was a good run on their part and just lucky that he beat our defense. Our defenders were playing well despite the cold, it was super cold and kind of sleeting all afternoon on us. I was subbing them quite a bit just to keep them warm. The defenders were doing a good job, their guy just got behind us.”
Crookston responded well to their deficit in the second half when Jacob Brunelle tied the match with a goal set up by an assist from Noah Kiel 53:13 into the game. “That was just a beautiful goal there,” explained Cox. “Mason LaPlante kind of started it there, Mason got a good clearing from the back, he cleared it out of the backfield and then (Noah) Kiel caught it and relayed it up to Jacob (Brunelle) and Jacob just kind of took off and got by their defenders and went down one on one with the keeper and put it back corner away from the keeper.” The Pirates gained the lead less than five minutes later when Noah Kiel scored off a feed set up by Noah Dragseth giving Crookston a 2-1 lead. “That was another relay,” noted Cox. “That came from (Noah) Dragseth. The right side brought it up and put a nice through ball right through there and Kiel grabbed it, took off, brought it down and put it away from the keeper and the keeper never had a chance to grab it. Just two good examples that if they go ahead and do the combination passes they’ll score. The solo runs just don’t work for us. They’ve got to do relays.”  Logan Wardner made four more saves in the second half to preserve a second-half shutout giving Crookston a 2-1 victory.
Crookston improves to 3-9 on the season and will return to the pitch on Saturday when the Pirates take on Mesabi East in Aurora at 12 p.m. Hibbing-Chisholm falls to 3-10. 

Scoring
17:39 –  Hibbing – Sid Warren
53:13 – Crookston – Jacob Brunelle  (Noah Kiel)
57:37  – Crookston –  Noah Kiel (Noah Dragseth)