Crookston Pirate Boys Soccer shutout by Fergus Falls Hillcrest Academy

The Crookston Pirates boys‘ soccer team trailed 1-0 at halftime, but it was all Fergus Falls Hillcrest in the second half on their way to an 8-0 victory in a Section 8A matchup in Fergus Falls.

FIRST HALF –
The first half was a good battle, while Fergus Falls seemed to control play for about 60 percent of the half. Hillcrest had several chances, but never had a great scoring opportunity in the first 30 minutes. Crookston’s defense was fantastic, keeping the Comets in front and not allowing them to get any top-notch scoring shots on goal, and they had a lot of sliding tackles, with most of them coming from Makoti Weber, who played an outstanding half of defense. Hillcrest started to put a little more pressure on the short-handed Pirates, and Hillcrest’s Drew Fischer had a cross in front of the net, and Pedro Los Santos kicked the ball in the net for a 1-0 lead with less than seven minutes left in the half. When the ball hit the net, the crossbar collapsed and the goal was broken. There was about a 10-minute delay to replace the goal, and play resumed. Crookston finished strong and had two decent scoring chances, but came up empty, and Hillcrest took a 1-0 lead into halftime.

SECOND HALF –
Rain started to fall during halftime, and that carried over into the start of the second half, and that didn’t seem to help the Pirates. 48 seconds into the half, Hillcrest’s Marco Salazar was taken down in front of the net and was awarded a penalty kick. He kicked the ball past the diving Pirate goalkeeper for a 2-0 lead. A little over two minutes later, Hillcrest’s Benjamin Hadres was in front of the net, was tripped up, and was awarded a penalty shot. He kicked the ball by a diving Pirate goalkeeper to give the Comets a 3-0 lead three minutes into the second half.
The Pirates did a great job of keeping one of the top goal scorers in the state, Zane Holmquist, off the board in the first half, but 6:57 into the second half, there was a cross, and Holmquist was in front of the net and scored on a header for a 4-0 lead less than seven minutes into the second half.
Hillcrest continued to put a bunch of pressure on the Pirate defense, and they would get on the board again almost halfway through the half when Pedro Pereira scored his second goal of the game, and less than four minutes later, Hillcrest’s Benjamin Hadres scored his second goal of the game for a 6-0 lead. Hillcrest continued to pressure the Pirate defense and Hadres scored his third goal of the game with a little over 10 minutes to go. With less than three minutes remaining, Miles Selvage scored his first varsity goal and Hillcrest won the game 8-0.

Crookston drops to 1-6-1 on the year and will travel to Mesabi East on Friday, and Hibbing next Saturday.

To listen to Coach Lon Boike’s postgame comments, click below.

	1st	2nd	Final
Crookston	0	0	0
Hillcrest Academy	1	7	8

Scoring –
33:37 – FFHC – Pedro Pereira (Drew Fischer)
40:48 – FFHC – Marco Salazar (penalty kick)
43:03 – FFHC – Benjamin Hadres (Penalty kick)
46:57 – FFHC – Zane Holmquist
56:10 – FFHC – Pedro Pereira
59:50 – FFHC – Benjamin Hadres
69:35 – FFHC – Benjamin Hadres
77:15 – FFHC – Miles Selvig