CROOKSTON BOYS SOCCER FALLS AT PELICAN RAPIDS

The Crookston Pirate Boys Soccer team scored their first goals of the season, but it wasn’t enough in a 7-2 loss to the Pelican Rapids Vikings in a game played in Pelican Rapids.
Crookston had a tough start in the rain Pelican Rapids scored the first goal of the 11 minutes into the game.  Pelican Rapids added four more goals over the next 25 minutes and led 5-0 to at halftime.  “We got off to a rough start in the rain,” said Pirate Coach Lon Boike. “We set our goal at halftime to put more pressure on (Pelican Rapids) defensively and win the second half.”

In the second half, Crookston picked up their play and scored two goals in the second half.  The first Pirate goal came off a corner kick from Ben Brantner and Noah Dragseth took the ball and scored for the first Pirate goal of the season.  A few minutes later, Alex Kiel added a goal to bring Crookston within a 7-2 deficit, but the comeback fell short and Pelican Rapids held on for the 7-2 victory. “We played an outstanding second-half tying them at two goals each, and finishing the game confident and feeling better about ourselves in the way that we played,” said Coach Boike.  “We came together as a team, our eighth and ninth graders along with great upper-class leadership played tremendous for us and gave us some real momentum going in the next week. Caleb did another great job in goal. Tai Baig did a super job on defense and Ben Brantner, Noah Kiel and Noah Dragseth also played well on offense.”
Crookston drops to 0-3 on the year and will host Fergus Falls Hillcrest on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. at the Crookston High School soccer field.