CROOKSTON GIRL’S SOCCER PLAY HARD, COME UP SHORT IN LOSS TO EAST GRAND FORKS

The Crookston girls’ soccer team gave one of the best teams in Section 8A all it could handle for more than 60 minutes, but East Grand Forks broke a second-half tie and added goals late to hand the Pirates a 4-1 loss on Monday afternoon at the Crookston High School soccer field.

FIRST HALF –
East Grand Forks didn’t wait long to get on the scoreboard first. Junior striker Macie Stanislawski scored off of an assist from junior Brooklyn Sayler to give the Green Wave a 1-0 lead. East Grand Forks had several more scoring chances as the first half wore on with nine shots-on-goal in the first 40 minutes, but the Pirate defense held strong and held it to a 1-0 deficit at halftime. “I was really happy with the group defense,” Pirates head coach Sarah Reese said. “We played collectively very well. We transitioned well, and we got scoring opportunities. Last week, we weren’t capitalizing on our offensive opportunities, and today, we were doing that. So, that was really exciting. We want quality and quantity, so we started to turn that around again.”

SECOND HALF –
While East Grand Forks scored in the first five minutes of the first half, Crookston returned the favor, scoring just over four minutes into the second half. Junior defender Aleah Bienek kicked the ball hard toward the goal from about 35 yards away. Green wave keeper Kadynn Melquist came out of her goal to try and cover, but Crookston senior Makenze Epema took Bienek’s long pass and snuck the ball into an empty net, tying the game at 1-1 with just over 35 minutes to go. 

Unfortunately, Bienek collided with an EGF defender while kicking the ball to Epema, and Bienek exited the game. The score remained tied at 1-1 for more than 18 minutes, but as the second half wore on, the Green Wave’s offense became more organized and kept attacking Crookston’s 18-yard box. Macie Stanislawski scored her second goal of the game and fifth of the season on a breakaway to give EGF a 2-1 lead with less than 17 minutes to go. Sixty-six seconds later, the Green Wave scored again on an own-goal by Crookston, but Brooklyn Sayler was credited with the shot that led to the own-goal. It seemed like the final score would be 3-1, but with just seven seconds left in the match, freshman Mya Langerud kicked a ball over the head of several defenders and into an empty goal, putting the cherry on top for the Green Wave. Coach Reese said it was disappointing to see East Grand Forks get a flurry of late goals, but she and her team could see clear improvement and increased confidence compared to the 6-0 losing effort at East Grand Forks just six days prior. “It was a great game,” Reese said. “We certainly played an awesome first half, followed by the start of a great second half. We got a goal, so that was exciting. We were playing the kind of caliber that I know our team is able to play, so it was really exciting. We had great momentum. We had shots and offense, and it was really a great game. While the score was 4-1, we played really well and I’m very proud of the girls. We have to continue to believe in ourselves and put it together mentally and physically.”

Crookston suffered another hardship late in Monday’s game when starting goalkeeper Reese Swanson went down with injury after colliding with EGF’s Brooklyn Sayler on a sliding stop in the box. “Aleah Bienek and Reese Swanson are being further evaluated to make sure they’re on the mend for the future,” Coach Reese said after the game. “We certainly wish them all the best and we got a little bruised up today. We were going shoulder-to-shoulder and making (East Grand Forks) work, and making them earn their shots.”

Crookston drops to 2-5 on the year and will be back in action on Thursday when they host Fergus Falls Hillcrest Academy at 3:30 p.m. You can hear the game live on KROX, with the RiverView Health pre-game show starting at 3 p.m. The Pirates lost to Hillcrest Academy in Fergus Falls back on September 1st, 1-0. Junior defender Olivia Huck said she believes Crookston will be a more confident and competitive team for the games remaining on the 2020 schedule. “After this game, I definitely think our confidence is high,” Huck said. “We already know that we can do well against Hillcrest, as we saw the last time we played them, and we know we’re capable of beating them. If we just have the confidence, and if we just roll with it, we can get a ‘dub’ on Thursday.”
East Grand Forks improves to 5-1 on the year.

Scoring:
5:04 – EGF – Macy Stanislawski (Brooklyn Sayler)
45:51 – Crox – Kenzie Epema (Aleah Bienek)
63:10 – EGF – Macy Stanislawski (Maggey Plante)
64:20 – EGF – Brooklyn Sayler (Grace Kronlund)
79:53 – EGF – Mya Langerud (Grace Kronlund)