The Crookston Pirate Boys Soccer team struggled in the first half, but picked up its play in the second half but came up short in a 6-3 loss to the Melrose Dutchmen in a Section 8A game played in Melrose.
FIRST HALF –
Crookston struggled in the first half, and that cost them. A little over halfway through the half, Melrose got on the board with a goal 22 minutes into the game. Five minutes later, Melrose added a second goal. Melrose took a 3-0 lead with 55 seconds remaining in the half to take a 3-0 lead into halftime. “I would say we weren’t very sharp, we weren’t very sharp early in the game. We were playing back and forth to start the game, and it took a while for anybody to get any momentum,” said Pirate Coach Lon Boike. “We just didn’t play very well defensively and we gave up one goal and then we gave up two goals but we’re still in the game and all of a sudden they get that third goal and that was kind of a downer for us and so yeah, we kind of struggled in the first half, we just weren’t playing very well.“
SECOND HALF –
Melrose had a great start to the second half when Alejandro Martinez scored a goal 90 seconds into the half for a 4-0 lead. The goal was Martinez’s second of the game. A little later, Martinez added his third goal of the game to give the Dutchmen a 5-0 lead. Crookston finally got things going offensively a little over halfway through the half when Melrose got called for a handball in the crease, which awarded Crookston a penalty kick. Grant Funk took the penalty kick and blasted it by the Melrose goalkeeper to get Crookston on the board. Over a minute later, Crookston’s Mason Lessard had a nice pass towards the net, and Tony Elbinger was all alone and knocked the ball in with a header to get Crookston within a 5-2 deficit. “We had another breakaway and Mason got a nice kick on the ball, and it just curved around to the far side of the goal,” said Coach Boike. “Tony was all there, all by himself, and put it in the upper corner, so it was a beautiful header.” A little over two minutes later, Crookston struck again as Jay Reese got the ball to Mason Lessard, who kicked the ball into the net to get Crookston within a 5-3 deficit. “We were pushing the ball up the field,” said Coach Boike. “We had a lot of momentum, and Jay kicks (3:04) the ball kind of into the box, and it landed, I think, it must have bounced up one of their guys, and then Mason was right there to kick it in.” Melrose’s Martinez added his fourth goal to give Melrose a 6-3 lead, which they held onto the rest of the way for a 6-3 victory.
Crookston drops to 0-3 on the year and will host Pelican Rapids on Tuesday at KROX Radio Stadium. Melrose improves to 2-4 on the year.
J.V. – Crookston won 3-2 with Mason Lessard scoring all three Pirate goals.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| Crookston | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Melrose | 3 | 3 | 6 |
Scoring –
22:00 – Melrose – Luis Reyes
27:00 – Melrose – Carlos Becerra
39:05 – Melrose – Alejandro Martinez
41:30 – Melrose – Alejandro Martinez
??:?? – Melrose – Alejandro Martinez
65:00 – Crookston – Grant Funk (Penalty kick)
66:33 – Crookston – Tony Elbinger (Mason Lessard)
68:39 – Crookston – Mason Lessard (Jay Reese)
??:?? – Melrose – Alejandro Martinez
| SAVES | 1 | 2 | Final |
| Reggie Winjum – Crox | 20 | ||
| Adan Lara – Melrose | 11 |
