CROOKSTON PIRATE FOOTBALL LOSE HEARTBREAKER IN FINAL SECONDS OF HOMECOMING GAME TO EGF

After a scoreless first half, the Pirates played a hard game but lost a heartbreaker in a last-second loss to the East Grand Forks Green Wave 27-22.

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1st Quarter

The Green Wave received the opening kickoff and started their opening drive at their own 35. The Green Wave stuck to the ground to begin a long-lasting drive for their first six plays with John Anderson and Drew Carpenter sneaking ahead to quickly get down to the Pirates 25-yard line. The Green Wave continued to travel on the ground to eat the clock and push into the Pirates’ Red Zone before the Pirates finally stopped the Green Wave short of a first down at their 10-yard line to have them turn the ball over on downs and start the Pirates at their own 10 with 3:25 left. The Pirates struck back with their running game with Running Back Ethan Boll, who pushed them out of their red zone and got a fresh set of downs in just two plays. The Pirates continued with the running game, but with a trick play with a 12-yard run by Tight End Carter Coauette to get the Pirates to their own 35-yard line. The Pirates continued to push past the 40-yard line, but time expired in the first quarter with no score by either team.

2nd Quarter

The Pirates continued to move on the ground and got a short run by Tanner Giese. The Pirates then struck a significant blow on the Green Wave defense with a deep pass to George Widman to set the Pirates up inside the Green Wave Red Zone. However, the Green Wave swallowed the Pirates rushing attack to get into the red zone, so the Pirates tried for a field goal, but kicker Jake Erickson’s kick sailed wide left of the post to keep the game scoreless. After the missed Field Goal, the Green Wave took over at their 20-yard line, returned to their running attack again, and pushed their way up to their own 30-yard line. The Green Wave then made a quick pass through the air to get another first down to Samuel Schumacher, who made a short-armed catch to move the chains and get the Green Wave to midfield. The Pirates were able to hold the Green Wave inside their territory and forced them to punt it away, but the Green Wave prevented the ball from going into the endzone, forcing the Pirates to start from their own 2-yard line with 2:56 left in half. The Pirates stuck with their ground game, with Ethan Boll pushing them out of their endzone to get them a first down at their own 14-yard line. However, the Green Wave defense came crashing down on Quarterback Jack Doda and Ethan Boll to prevent them from getting a first down, forcing the Pirates to punt. The Green Wave’s Cooper Smith took the return around mid-field and was able to move the ball forward to start the Green Wave at the Pirates’ 40-yard line with about 2 minutes left in the half. The Green Wave gave a short screenplay to Smith again, who charged down to the Pirates 22-yard line to give the Pirates another first down just outside of the Pirates’ Red Zone. The Pirates’ defense put pressure on Drew Carpenter, who fired a lob to the end zone, but Sophmore Linebacker Rylan Lubarski snatched the ball out of the air to stop the drive and end the half with the score still tied at 0.

3rd Quarter –

The Pirates received the ball to start the second half at their own 24-yard line. But the Pirates could not break through the Green Wave’s defense and forced them to punt to start the Green Wave at their own 46-yard line. But things quickly bounced back to the Pirates as the Green Wave fumbled the ball on the first play, and was recovered by Carter Coauette to give them the ball back at the Green Wave 41-yard line. The Pirates continued the ground attack and pushed to the Green Wave 20 yard line, and following a 17-yard run by Ethan Bowman, Ethan Boll finally found the endzone with a 3-yard run to put the Pirates on the board. However, Jake Erickson’s extra point attempt was blocked to keep the score only at 6-0. The Pirates then kicked the ball back to East Grand Forks, who started at their own 35-yard line. The Green Wave responded right away, with a substantial 15 yard run by John Anderson to get them to midfield. The Green Wave ran with their momentum with a screen pass to Cooper Smith, who sprinted another 25 yards to get them to the Pirates 25-yard line. The Green Wave continued to push into the Pirates’ Red Zone with another screen pass to Clyde Anderson, put them inside the 5-yard line, and set Quarterback Drew Carpenter up for a quick 2-yard Quarterback sneak to get the Green Wave into the endzone, with a successful extra point to put the Green Wave in the lead 7-6. The Pirates started their next drive at their 22-yard line, who returned to their running attack, but the Green Wave was ready for Ethan Boll to make the Pirates go three-and-out again and punt it back to East Grand Forks, who started their next drive at their 41-yard line. The Green Wave broke quickly through the Pirates’ defense with a 50-yard touchdown run by Clyde Anderson to extend their lead over Crookston 14-6. Disaster struck again for the Pirates as they went to receive the kickoff, but Antonio Romero fumbled the ball on the return, which the Green Wave recovered to start another drive at the Pirates ‘ yard line. The Green Wave quickly began to move down the field and got to the Pirates ‘ yard line before the quarter ended.

4th Quarter –

The Green Wave continued to drive into the Pirates’ Red Zone with more runs to push the Pirates back against their endzone, with two runs by Clyde Anderson setting them up with a fresh set of downs at the 5-yard line. The Green Wave stuck with Anderson, who pushed through the Pirates’ defense once again to find the endzone for his second touchdown to put the Green Wave up 21-6. The Pirates finally received the ball again and began their drive at their own 33-yard line. The Pirates went back to the running game, and with the combined efforts of Ethan Boll and Tanner Giese in Wildcat plays, the Pirates quickly pushed across midfield into the Green Wave territory in four running solid plays. Boll continued to use his speed to weave through defenders and pushed the Pirates to the Green Wave’s 10-yard line. The Pirates stuck with Boll, who sprinted into the Green Wave’s endzone, first for a touchdown and again for a two-point conversion to cut the Green Wave’s lead down to 7, trailing 21-14. The Green Wave went to receive the kickoff and started their next drive at the 20 yard line after a touchback. The Green Wave found Cooper Smith for another screen pass to move the Green Wave up to their 36 yard line to keep the chains moving and drop the clock under five minutes left in the game. The Pirates’ defense finally stood strong to stop the Green Wave just inside their 40 yard line to force them to punt. and start the Pirates for their potentially last drive with 3:16 left at their own 28 yard line. The Pirates went back to Ethan Boll in the Wildcat who got a strong 12-yard run to their own 40 yard line out of bounds for a first down and to stop the clock. Boll continued to keep the ball and drove down to midfield and into Green Wave’s territory. With 2:04, the Pirates tried a shot down the Green Wave’s 10 yard line but the Green Wave was able to hold the Pirates off to force them to go for it on 4th down. But Jack Doda returned to the game to find Tanner Giese open at the Green Wave’s 19 yard line to give the Pirates another 1st down with 1:36 remaining. The Pirates tried to push into the endzone for the third time, but the Green Wave’s defense continued to hold them off and forced the Pirates to use the last of their timeouts with 58 seconds remaining in the game. Ethan Boll then tried his hand at quarterback and found George Widman for a first-down pass inside the five, which set Ethan Boll up to find the endzone again for another 2 yard touchdown run. The Pirates chose to go for a two-point conversion to take the lead with less than thirty seconds left in the game. Ethan Boll was able to outrun the Green Wave defenders to find the endzone to put the Pirates in front once again 22-21. With 26 seconds left in the game, the Pirates kicked it back to the Green Wave, where Cooper Smith made a strong return to set the Green Wave up at their own 45 yard line with 17 seconds left. The Green Wave found Damien Bushaw for a quick first down pass to move them into Pirates territory and fell out of bounds to stop the clock with 9 seconds left. The Green Wave repeated the same play, but the Pirates were able to keep Green Wave in bounds at the Pirates 34 yard line to force them to use their last timeout with four seconds left in the game. In the final seconds of the game, Drew Carpenter fired a hail mary pass to Cooper Smith in the end zone, who won the battle in the air to catch the ball to get a game-winning touchdown to give the Green Wave the win over the Pirates 27-22.

FOR PIRATES COACH NATE LUBARSKI’S COMMENTS, CLICK BELOW

1st Quarter –
No scoring

2nd Quarter –
No scoring

3rd Quarter –
7:10- Crookston- Ethan Boll 3 yard run (kick failed)
4:06- EGF- Drew Carpenter 2 yard run (Drew Carpenter kick)
0:56- EGF- Clyde Anderson 50 yard run (Drew Carpenter kick)

4th Quarter –
10:51-EGF- Clyde Anderson 5 yard run (Drew Carpenter kick)
6:47- Crookston- Ethan Boll 5 yard run (Ethan Boll run)
0:26- Crookston- 2 Ethan Boll 2 yard run (Ethan Boll run)
0:00- EGF- Drew Carpenter 34 yard pass to Cooper Smith 

INDIVIDUAL STATS

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