The Crookston Pirate Boys Soccer team’s leading scorers, Brandon Colborn, Matthew Contreras, and Jay Reese, each scored a goal, and goalie Reggie Winjum was stellar in net again as they beat Grand Forks Central 3-1 on a cool, rainy night in Crookston in front of a big crowd at KROX Radio Stadium.
FIRST HALF –
Crookston came out strong from the start and had one shot on goal in the first five minutes. The teams battled back and forth for another five or six minutes before Crookston’s Jay Reese scored 12:07 into the game to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. Matthew Contreras threw the ball in from the sidelines, Brandon Colborn headed the ball in front of the net, and Reese came in and kicked the ball into the left side of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Grand Forks Central answered with a bit of a lucky goal just over halfway through the half. The Knights’ Luis Florez got the ball and made a nice move to get a pass over to Sam Christman, who kicked the ball from the top of the box on the far side. The ball was deflected by a Pirate and the deflection redirected the ball into the net and the game was tied at 1-1 with 19:33 left in the half.
The teams continued to battle each other, the wind and the rain, and they played to a 1-1 tie at halftime.
SECOND HALF –
Crookston had a great start to the second half as Michael Bochow made a nice field at the top of the box, split two defenders, left a pass to Brandon Colborn, and blasted a kick into the net for a 2-1 3:07 into the second half. The teams continued to battle, with each team making a run at each other’s defense, but neither had any quality scoring chances until Crookston struck again less than 18 minutes into the half. Matthew Contreras got the ball on the far sideline and dribbled all the way to the middle of the field and toward the top of the box and let a kick go. The ball slipped through the hands and the legs of the Knight goalie, and Crookston had a 3-1 lead. Crookston had a shot after a great move by Jay Reese go off the crossbar, and Crookston’s Reggie Winum made some tremendous saves and Crookston ran out the final 20 minutes of the half to win 3-1.
Crookston drops to 7-3 on the year and will Hibbing on Friday. KROX will video stream all the home games for the rest of the season. Grand Forks Central drops to 1-10-2 on the year.
J.V. – Grand Forks Central won 3-1
Listen to Coach Lon Boike’s postgame comments by clicking below.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| Grand Forks Central | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Crookston | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Scoring –
12:43 – Crookston – Jay Reese (Brandon Colborn)
20:27 – GFC – Sam Christman (Luis Florez)
43:07 – Crookston – Brandon Colborn (Michael Bochow)
57:48 – Crookston – Matthew Contreras
| SAVES | 1 | 2 | Final |
| Reggie Winjum – Crookston | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| Jack Carls – GFC | 6 | 5 | 11 |
