CROOKSTON BOYS SOCCER’S FRANTIC COMEBACK BID FALL SHORT IN LOSS TO PELICAN RAPIDS

The Crookston Pirates Boys Soccer team scored three goals during the final ten minutes of the match but fell one goal short in a 4-3 loss against the Pelican Rapids Vikings in a Section 8A matchup played in Pelican Rapids.
Crookston spotted their hosts a 3-0 lead thanks to a sluggish first half for the Pirates. 21:15 into the match Alan Villagomez finished off a pass from Habram Martinez giving Pelican Rapids a 1-0 lead. Less than four minutes later, the Vikings doubled their advantage when Abdinasir Mohamed netted his first of two goals thanks to an assist from Jesus Moreno. Just before halftime, Mohamed added his second goal to give Pelican Rapids a 3-0 lead after forty minutes of play.
The second half started much like the first had ended with the Vikings scoring another goal off the foot of Farhan Omar pushing the host’s lead to 4-0 with twenty-seven minutes left in the game. Crookston began a late rally to try and force overtime with one last push during the waning minutes of the match. With 7:29 remaining Jacob Brunelle got Crookston on the scoreboard with an assist from Eric Delorme. “It was a nice run down on the right side,” explained Crookston head coach Don Cox. “Eric (Delorme) placed the ball right through the middle and Jacob (Brunelle) came in. The keeper rebounded the ball out and Jacob got a foot on it and plunked it in the back corner.” 3:31 later Noah Kiel scored the Pirates second goal with help from Mason LaPlante. “Mason (LaPlante) had a free kick from the left side of the field and the ball went through, over the big, old crowd and right to the front of the net,” added Cox. “Noah Kiel came running in down the middle there, got a chest trap on it and pushed it into the net. The Pirates final goal came with 1:19 left to play from the spot where Mason LaPlante converted the penalty kick to bring Crookston within 4-3 with just over one minute remaining. “(Eric) Delorme was running with the ball and got into the box and they fouled him from behind,” noted Cox. “Actually, the keeper fouled him because he came out and took Eric down, took his legs out from under him so we got a penalty kick for that. Mason (LaPlante) took it and put it in the back corner of the net.” The Pirates late comeback bid would end there as Pelican Rapids survived for a 4-3 win. “We did more passing with the ball,” summarized Cox. “We did a good job of breaking up their triangle passes. In the second half, we had quite a bit more intensity, but not as much as we could’ve had should’ve had. All the scoring was in the last eight minutes of the game, so the boys acknowledged that had they put that together earlier in the match or sooner in the second half that it would’ve been a much better match. We’re definitely a much better skill team than Pelican is. We can run faster than they can. In the first match we were missing players because of the State Fair marching band business, so this time we had more players here and just played a much stronger, a lot better, coordinated match. For some reason, we’re struggling with first-halves. A curse, I guess, I’d call it.”
Crookston falls to 1-5 on the season and will return to the pitch on Saturday when the Pirates host Bemidji at 12 p.m.