sports

DETROIT LAKES SCORES TWO SECOND HALF GOALS, BEATS PIRATES GIRLS SOCCER

September 8, 2022

The Crookston Pirate Girls Soccer team hosted the Detroit Lakes Lakers on Thursday afternoon from the Crookston High School Soccer Fields. The Pirates had won two straight entering the match, but the Lakers would score two second half goals on their way to a 3-1 win. “I am proud of the way we played,” said Pirates Coach Sarah Reese. “It wasn’t the result we wanted but we’re playing really tough competition early in the season and it was a solid match from both teams.”

FIRST HALF –
Early in the opening half, Detroit Lakes would get a few nice shots on net, but Crookston goalie Reese Swanson would make a couple of nice saves keeping the game scoreless. The Pirates were going against a stiff 20 mph wind in the opening half and that made it tough to generate offense on the Lakers end of the field. “We lost the coin toss at the start of the match and they wanted to go with the wind in the first half,” said Pirates Coach Sarah Reese. “Sometimes you just have to play through that and we saw how hard it can be to do that in the first half.” At the 29-minute mark, the Lakers would strike first on a Pirates turnover, and a nice pooch kick by Kaydence Swiers that would sail over Swanson and find the back of the net for a 1-0 lead. Crookston would get a few opportunities down on the Lakers end in the final ten minutes, including a corner kick, but Detroit Lakes would keep the Pirates off the scoreboard and take a 1-0 lead into halftime.

SECOND HALF –
With the start of the second half, Crookston was able to play with the wind and it gave a big jolt in the offense. The Pirates had multiple opportunities in the first five minutes including a corner kick from Keona Arnold that narrowly missed the net. A few minutes later, Madeline Harbott would fire a shot from the right side of the box, and the ball would go through the Lakers goalie and into the back of the net tying the game at 1-1 with thirty minutes remaining. “We talked at halftime about angling our passes and that’s exactly what Kailee Magsam did on that play,” said Pirates Coach Sarah Reese. “She set up Madeline Harbott perfectly on that one and she did the rest so it was great to see some success there.” The tie didn’t last long, as Detroit Lakes would score less than three minutes later to reclaim the lead at 2-1. The rain slowly started to fall after that adding another challenge for both teams. with twenty minutes remaining in the match, Crookston would get a great opportunity in front of the net but Cassie Solheim would be turned away. It would turn out to be the Pirates best scoring chance for the remainder of the match, and Detroit Lakes would add one more goal with seven minutes remaining, to win the match 3-1. “I think we ran out of gas at the end of the match,” said Pirates Coach Sarah Reese. “There was definitely a stretch towards the end of the match where we got tired and so that’s something that will continue to get better at as the season goes on.”

Crookston drops to 2-2 on the year and will play this Saturday at Walker-Hackensack-Akeley. The match will get underway at 11:00 a.m. Detroit Lakes improves to 2-4.