EGF Dominates Pirate Football In Season Opener

The East Grand Forks Green Wave Football team has 19 seniors on the team and they are expecting big things this year and they started the season on the right foot with a dominating 49-28 victory over the Crookston Pirates in the season opener for both teams in a game played at the East Grand Forks football field.

Crookston started the game with the ball and ran two plays and Leyton Salentine scampered for a first down on a 12-yard run. Three plays later, the Pirates had a fourth and five and couldn’t convert and turned the ball over on downs. East Grand Forks used the momentum from the big defensive stop and started a five play 60-yard drive that took less than two minutes and was capped by a Julian Benson two-yard touchdown run. The Wave converted a two-point conversion and led 8-0. Crookston turned the ball over and East Grand Forks had a short field and ran seven plays, spanning 40 yards and capped by Julian Benson’s second touchdown of the game for a 15-0 lead. Crookston answered with an impressive nine-play drive that spanned 57 yards with a big catch from Jaden Lubarski and some tough runs by Salentine. The Pirates had the ball on the Green Wave seven-yard line and Salentine dropped back to pass and saw Ty Hamre cutting across the middle of the field along the goal line and fired a pass. Hamre and an East Grand Forks defender were fighting for the ball and Hamre grabbed the ball and ripped it away from the opponent for the touchdown. Crookston went for two and Salentine passed to Lukas Meier in the end zone for the two-point conversion and East Grand Forks’ lead was 15-8 with 10 seconds left in the first quarter. “It was huge,” said Pirate Coach Scott Butt. “I thought Ty did a great job of wrestling the ball away from the defender and Leyton threw a nice ball.”

Crookston finally stopped East Grand Forks on their third possession (first of the second quarter) for a three-and-out and a punt. Crookston’s ensuing drive was short-lived with a three-and-out and a punt. East Grand Forks followed with a six-play 65-yard drive that took less than three minutes and was capped by an eight-yard Julian Jones eight-yard touchdown, his third of the game and the Green Wave led 22-8. On Crookston’s next possession, they had a three-and-out and the punt was blocked and picked up by East Grand Forks’ Chase Olderback who scampered 25 yards for the touchdown and the Green Wave led 29-8. The Green Wave weren’t done as they had the ball after a Pirate punt and scored on a Jackson Galstad eight-yard run with 45 seconds left in the first half for a 36-8 lead going into halftime. East Grand Forks had 240 yards of offense in the first half, compared to Crookston’s 118. “That was probably the best half of football that we have played in my tenure here,” said East Grand Forks Coach Ryan Kasowski. “I think our kids were ready to go and they are excited for this season. We have a great group of seniors and came out in the first half and dominated. We sure like our five guys up front with their size and speed and we really like our football team this year.” Crookston Coach Scott Butt said East Grand Forks handled them in the first half. “They mauled us and they are big and physical and they showed why they are seniors that are good and they did what they wanted for a while,” said Coach Butt. “We were getting driven back and we didn’t get much going on the ground.”

The third quarter didn’t have a good start for the Pirates as they kicked the ball off and Blake Moen caught the ball at the 15-yard line and flew down the field, pretty much untouched, for an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and the Green Wave led 42-8. Crookston seemed like they had an answer and put a nice drive together after a nice 27-yard reception for Lubarski and a late hit on the quarterback penalty gave the Pirates an extra 15 yards. Four plays later, the Pirates turned the ball over on downs on the East Grand Forks 10 yard line. East Grand Forks’ first play was a handoff to Julian Benson and he ran 90 yards for his fourth touchdown of the game for a 49-8 lead with 8:27 left in the third quarter.

Crookston answered with a drive that was capped by a Salentine 26 yard run for a touchdown and after a two-point conversion, the Pirates trailed 49-16. Crookston scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including a two-yard run from Joe Doda. The Pirate highlight in the fourth quarter was the running of Jacob Hesby, a freshman, who had seven carries for 48 yards. Another highlight was Brady Wisk getting his first varsity carry for an eight-yard touchdown.  Crookston made a bit of a run in the fourth quarter with both teams going deep to the bench and East Grand Forks held on for a 49-28 victory. “I thought our kids did a good job of responding and we had some young kids that played hard for us in the second half,” said Coach Butt. “Jacob Hesby did a good job for us and ran the ball well. Brady Wisk ran hard and did a great job too. We have a lot of work to do and we will have to do some conditioning to get in better shape and we have to stay together as a family and listening to the kids after the game, it won’t be a problem.”

Crookston drops to 0-1 on the year and will host Staples-Motley on Friday. East Grand Forks improves to 1-0 on the year and has now won nine of the last 10 meetings between the two teams.

1st Quarter
7:38 – EGF – Julian Benson 2 Yard run (Benson Run)
4:40 – EGF – Julian Benson 4 Yard run (Ben Kern kick)
0:10 – Crox – Ty Hamre 7 yard pass from  Leyton Salentine (Lukas Meier pass from Leyton Salentine)

2nd Quarter
6:22 – EGF – Julian Benson 8 yard Run (Ben Kern Kick)
4:39 – EGF – Chase Olderback 25 yard blocked punt return (Ben Kern Kick)
:45 – EGF – Jackson Galstad 8 yard Run (Ben Kern Kick)
3rd Quarter
11:39 – EGF – Blake Moen 85 kick return (kick failed)
8:38 – EGF – Julian Benson 90 yard run (Ben Kern Kick good)
6:05 – Crox  – Leyton Salentine 26 yard run (Blake Fee run)

4th Quarter
9:01 – Crox – Joe Doda 2 yard run (run failed)
2:17 – Crox – Brady Wisk 8 yard run (run failed)

Rushing

Passing
Leyton Salentine          9-16-0     136 yards

Receiving
Jaden Lubarsk     5-60
Ty Hamre             3-57
Lukas Meier          1-11
Joe Doda               1-4
Walker Winjum     1-4

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