sports

CROOKSTON PIRATE GIRL’S SOCCER OPENS SEASON WITH A WIN OVER W-H-A

August 27, 2020

The Crookston Pirate Girls Soccer team opened up the season with a goal in the first 82 seconds of the game and led the rest of the way on a complete team effort to beat the Walker-Hackensack-Akeley Wolves 7-2 in a Section 8A matchup played in Crookston. The win made it more enjoyable, but the players were happy to have their first competition as a Pirate in a long time. “It has been a long time….It’s great to be back and it feels amazing,” said Pirate senior Kenze Epema, who got a little choked up. “This is my last year, which is really sad, but it is great to finally start our season with a W. It is just amazing. It was like paradise.”

FIRST HALF
Crookston came out strong to start the game when Kenze Epema kicked the ball on a cross pass and Cassie Solheim scored from about six feet out for a 1-0 lead 82 seconds into the game. Crookston added another goal a little over 11 minutes later when Olivia Huck delivered a perfect pass across midfield and Epema caught up with the ball with nobody around her and put the ball in the net for a 2-0 lead. “It was a breakaway,” said Epema. “It wasn’t a beautiful shot, but it went in and I was glad.” Less than three minutes later the Pirates struck again with Clara Meyer taking a pass on the left side of the net and kicking it into in the lower corner for a 3-0 lead. “I have been working on my kicks a lot. During quarantine, after the snow melted, I went out to UMC and kicked a lot and I worked on it a lot this summer,” said Meyer. “I went to FAST this summer and worked out with the girls hockey team and that really helped.” Neither team scored in the final 24 minutes of the half and Crookston took a 3-0 lead into halftime. “

SECOND HALF
Crookston didn’t waste any time in the second half when Meyer dribbled the ball up the field and passed to Kenze Epema who scored her second goal of the game for a big 4-0 lead less than nine minutes into the half. “Clara was working so hard,” said Epema. “I was in front of the net calling for her and she had a beautiful pass right in front of the net.” Walker-Hackensack-Akeley answered in a big way with two goals by Gabby Cairns that were less than four minutes apart to bring the Wolves within a 4-2 deficit. “The girls got a little tired and had a little lull,” said Coach Reese. “It was the first game and we slowed down a bit because we were a little tired, but that is something we will work on.” Any momentum the Wolves built was quickly taken away when Cassie Solheim took a pass from Olivia Huck and dribbled by everybody to score from about 10 to 15 feet out to give Crookston a 5-2 lead with 14 minutes left. “It feels amazing to be able to get by people,” said Solheim talking about using her speed. “Having my speed makes things a lot easier.” 58 seconds later Crookston added another goal when Kailee Magsam kept running down the left side of the field along and had a nice pass from Epema and kicked the ball by the goalie for the first goal of her career (she usually plays volleyball, but with no volleyball, she came out for soccer this year) for a 6-2 lead. “I put Kailee in and told her she had to bring the energy up and literally two minutes later she scored the goal,” said Coach Reese. “That goal seemed to flip the switch and we were strong the rest of the game.” Less than a minute later, Crookston added their seventh goal of the game when Cassie Solheim scored unassisted to complete a hattrick and the Pirates cruised to a 7-2 victory.
In her first-ever soccer game, Hanna Brouse (who is a volleyball player in the fall, but with no volleyball, she came out for soccer), made five saves to pick up the win in goal for Crookston. “She has a lot of natural instinct, she has great hands and a super great attitude,” said Coach Reese. “She was a libero in volleyball so those skills correlate to being a goalkeeper and she was outstanding.”
The Pirate defense led by Aleah Bienek, Jo Jo Wallace, Dillynn Wallace, and Olivia Huck was outstanding. “Our defense was solid today and they work together well,” said Coach Reese. “They played hard for 80 minutes and were a huge part of the win today.”

Crookston improves to 1-0 on the year and will travel to Fergus Falls Hillcrest on Tuesday, September 1 at 4:00 p.m. “This team plays well together and we had shots from all over the place, we had different people scoring goals, different people getting assists,” said Coach Reese. “It was a nice all-around game for us and a nice way to start the season.” Walker-Hackensack-Akeley drops to 0-1 on the year.

	1st	2nd	Final
Walker-Hackensack-A	0	2	2
CROOKSTON	3	4	7

Scoring
1:22 – Crookston – Cassie Solheim (Kenze Epema)
12:52 – Crookston – Kenze Epema (Olivia Huck)
15:41- Crookston – Clara Meyer (Kenze Epema)
48:47 – Crookston – Kenze Epema (Clara Meyer)
56:12 – W-H-A – Gabby Cairns (Ella Hopen)
60:13 – W-H-A – Gabby Cairns (Ella Hopen)
65:23 – Crookston – Cassie Solheim (Olivia Huck)
66:21 – Crookston – Kailee Magsam (Kenzie Epema)
67:17 – Crookston – Cassie Solheim (Unassisted)