Crookston Pirate Boys Soccer Beats North Lakes Academy

The Crookston Pirate Boys Soccer team scored two goals in the first eight minutes and held on the rest of the way to beat the North Lakes Academy Huskies of Forest Lake in Hugo on Friday afternoon.

FIRST HALF –
Crookston had a tremendous start, as they were aggressive from the start of the game. Crookston put pressure on the North Lakes Academy (NLA) defense right away, and it paid off less than six minutes into the game as Gunnar Groven had a nice pass to Brandon Colborn about 15 yards in front of the net, and Colborn blasted a kick into the left side of the net to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. “The last thing we told them in the huddle was to put a lot of pressure on them right away, and we could cause some turnovers,” said Coach Lon Boike. “That was a nice play and a great goal to start things off for us.”
Crookston continued the pressure, and less than two minutes later, Michael Bochow got a pass behind the defense. The NLA goalie misjudged the bounce of the ball, and Matthew Contreras got the ball all by himself and kicked it into the wide-open net to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead 7:30 into the game. “We felt pretty good and nice to get a quick 2-0 goal,” said Coach Boike. “It was a nice play, and Mathew knocked it in.”
NLA started to settle in on the defensive end, and that turned into a few quality scoring opportunities. The Huskies had the ball in the Crookston zone and kicked to the corner of the net, but Pirate goalie Reggie Winjum made a tremendous diving save. “Reggie had a huge game for us and it was by far his best game of the year so far,” said Coach Boike. “They had some quality shots, but Reggie was huge.”
The teams played even for the next 10 to 15 minutes without a quality scoring chance as the defenses stiffened up. Crookston started to control play the rest of the half as Groven had a kick on goal, but it hit the upper crossbar on the right side. One minute later, NLA had a penalty kick, and Crookston’s Winjum made another big save.
Crookston added another goal in the final four minutes of the half. Grant Funk had the ball along the sideline and got it to Groven, who kicked it, and it was deflected back to him. The NLA goalie was out of position, and Groven kicked the ball in the net to give Crookston a 3-0 lead with 2:27 left in the half. “That was great for Gunnar as he got the start today and keeps getting better every game,” said Coach Boike. “That was a big lead for us going into halftime.”
NLA had one more chance to score before the half ended with a point-blank shot on goal, but Crookston’s Winjum made the save, and Crookston took a 3-0 lead into halftime.

SECOND HALF –
Play evened out in the second half as NLA started the half strong and put a lot of pressure on the Pirate defense, but they were able to keep the Huskies from getting any quality shots on goal.
10 minutes into the half, Crookston’s Contreras got a shot on goal, but it just sailed off the side of the net, and Crookston still had a 3-0 lead.
NLA had the move and kick of the game about halfway through the half, but Crookston’s save of the game. H Winjum had the e made an amazing athletic save to rob a Royal goal, and Crookston led 3-0 halfway through the second half.
A couple of minutes later, NLA had a free kick and Winjum came up with another save.
With 16 minutes left in the game, NLA had a breakaway after a beautiful pass. Once again, Winjum made a save to keep the shutout alive.
NLA finally solved Winjum as they beat the Pirate defense, and Will Molitor made a perfect pass to Levi Molitor, who kicked it past a diving Winjum. With 13 minutes left in the game, the Royals were within a 3-1 deficit. “They played with a little more energy than we did in the second half,” said Coach Boike. “It was a great play and I felt kind of bad for Reggie because I was hoping he would get a shutout.”
NLA had a free kick, and the Husky kick went right on goal. Winjum made the stop, but the ball was loose, and his teammates helped him cover it up.
About a minute later, Crookston’s Colborn kicked the ball from about 20 yards out and hit the left pipe, it bounced out in front of the net, and Colborn followed his own shot and kicked the ball into the right side of the net for a 4-1 lead. “It was a big goal to give us some room,” said Coach Boike. “Brandon is always hustling, and he followed it up and kicked it in after the goalie was out of position.”
Crookston held on to win the game 4-1.

Crookston improves to 4-2 on the year and will travel to Detroit Lakes on Tuesday. NLA drops to 0-8 on the season.
JV – Tied 2-2

	1st	2nd	Final
Crookston	3	1	4
North Lakes Acad.	0	1	1

Scoring –
5:47 – Crookston – Brandon Colborn (Gunnar Groven)
7:30 – Crookston – Mathew Contreras (Michael Bochow)
36:33 – Crookston – Gunnar Groven (Grant Funk)
67:21 – NLA – Will Molitor (Levi Molitor)
78:12 – Crookston – Brandon Colborn