sports

PILLAGER SCORES 22 UNANSWERED TO BEAT PIRATE FOOTBALL

October 14, 2022

The Crookston Pirate football team had a great first half but gave up 22 unanswered points in a 22-12 loss to the Pillager Huskies on Friday night. “We were really happy with how we came out and started this game tonight,” said Pirates coach Nate Lubarski. “For some reason, we started slowly in the second half and it cost us. It’s a tough loss but we have to keep grinding and get back to work. We will learn from this loss and get better.”

1st Quarter-

The Huskies received the opening kickoff and started their opening drive at their own 35. The Huskies started the game with a three-and-out. The Pirates began their first drive at their own 33-yard line but were in a similar situation as the Huskies as a holding penalty pushed them back to their own 23 before Pirate running back Ethan Boll barreled through the defense to get a first down at their 47. The Pirates connected on a 22-yard pass from Jack Doda to Tanner Giese to get down to the Huskie 20. Ethan Boll finished the drive off, lowering his shoulder to drive through a defender with a powerful 18-yard run for the first score of the game. “Things were certainly going well for us early in the game,” said coach Lubarski. “We have relied on Ethan a lot this year and he is such a physical runner and it showed on that play.” The two-point conversion failed to keep the score 6-0. Pillager began their next drive at their own 35 and tried to counter with a running attack of their own but the Pirate defense refused to let them forward. The Huskies chose to go for it on 4th down and with a quick pass to Cowen Cremers, the Huskies were rewarded with a first down at their own 46. The Huskies continued to use their rushing attack and pushed to the Pirates 29 to finish the 1st Quarter, training the Pirates 6-0.

2nd Quarter-

An offsides penalty on the Crookston gave Pillager a fresh set of downs at the Pirate 24. Pillager tried a deep pass and Antonio Romero intercepted the ball and the Pirates had the ball at their own five-yard line. The Pirates used a couple of running plays to get to their own 30-yard line before Tanner Giese broke a 59-yard run, his longest of the year, to get down the Huskies five-yard line. “It was a great run by Tanner on that play and I was really hoping he was gonna score,” said coach Lubarski. “He is a great athlete we got him out in space and we were able to do that a few times tonight and he had success.” The Pirates fumbled on the next play and Pillager took over possession of the ball at their own seven-yard line. Pillager countered with their own rushing attack with a 35-yard run by Derek Hoglin to get the Huskies to their 42. They continued to use the ground, with Christian Hooge dragging Pirate defenders to continue their drive across mid-field. It looked like Pillager was going to continue driving down the field until Crookston defensive lineman Clay Hanson stripped the ball away from the Pillager running back and the Pirates had the ball at their own 40! Crookston couldn’t get anything going and had a fourth-down situation. Jack Doda found Running Back Tanner Giese for a quick pass out of the backfield and sprinted down the sideline and dove into the endzone for a 40-yard touchdown. The Pirates tried another two-point conversion and were stopped again and they led 12-0. Pillager didn’t do much in the final minutes of the half and Crookston took a 12-0 lead into halftime.

3rd Quarter –

The Pirates started the second half at their own 30 after a facemask penalty. The Pirates were forced to punt the ball. The Huskies started at their own 36 and moved the ball easily, including a 19-yard run to get to the Pirate 45. Christian Hooge continued the momentum with a 42-yard run to get Pillager to the Pirates two yard line. “That is the one thing about defense is that you have to do your job no matter what,” said coach Lubarski. “No matter how enticing it is to go after where you think the ball is, you have to stay sound defensively and at times we didn’t tonight.” The Pirate defense stopped Pillager on the first three plays but was unable to keep Running Back Derek Hoglin out on the fourth as he broke through the line and into the endzone to get the Huskies on the board for the first time to cut the lead down 12-7. “We have really struggled coming out of halftime this year,” said coach Lubarski. “We didn’t look like the same team to start the third quarter and we have to be better at that.”
Crookston looked to counter but the Huskies sacked Jack Doda and forced him to fumble the ball, which the Huskies recovered at the Pirate 23-yard line. Pillager looked to capitalize on the turnover, with a 14-yard pass to tight end Justin Anderson to get down inside the 10-yard line. A few plays later, Pillager scored on a one-yard quarterback sneak. Pillager added a successful two-point conversion to put them ahead of the Pirates 15-12 with less than two minutes remaining in the quarter.
Crookston tried to answer, but they became undisciplined with a series of penalties pushing the Pirates back to their own 33-yard line. After a penalty on Pillager, Crookston was able to move the ball a bit further to the Huskies 37 before the quarter ended, trailing 15-12.

4th Quarter –

The Pirates tried to get their running game going with Ethan Boll back on the attack, but the Huskies defense pushed him back multiple yards and forced the Pirates to punt. Pillager was in no hurry with a 15-12 lead and started with the ball at their own 22. They went with their rushing attack and methodically moved the ball down the field. Quarterback Christian Hooge tried a sneak but lost the ball and as he was getting up after putting a knee on the grass, he was hit by a Pirate. The officials called a helmet-to-helmet hit that gave the Huskies a first down at the Pirate 37. The Huskies took advantage of the fresh set of downs with a 31-yard run from Derek Holgin to get the Huskies down to the six-yard line. A play later, Hoglin finished the drive with a two-yard run into the endzone for a 22-12 lead with 3:56 remaining in the game.
The Pirates looked to respond with Doda connecting on a 16-yard pass to Tanner Giese but a blow to the head penalty negated the play and pushed them back to their own 31. After another Pirate penalty, they had the ball in a fourth and 35 situation with just over three minutes left to play. Crookston only moved the ball 10-yards on the play and turned it over on downs. Crookston wasn’t able to do anything in the final minutes and Pillager held on for a 22-12 win. “We didn’t do a good job of protecting Jack tonight and the bottom line is we have to throw the football better,” said coach Lubarski. “We need to relieve some pressure off our run game and right now we haven’t been able to do that. We are going to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do to get some kind of a passing game.”

With the loss, the Pirates fall to 2-5 and the Huskies finish their season 2-5.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
Pillager 0 0 15 7 22
CROOKSTON 6 6 0 0 12

1st Quarter –
4:37-Crookston-Ethan Boll- 18-yard run (run failed)

2nd Quarter –
1:22-Crookston-Jack Doda 40 yard pass to Tanner Giese (run failed)

3rd Quarter –
5:46-Pillager-Derek Hoglin- 7-yard run (kick is good)
1:55-Pillager-Christian Hooge- 1-yard run (pass to Anderson)

4th Quarter –
3:56-Pillager-Derek Hoglin- 2-yard run (kick is good)

TEAM STATS

CROOKSTON Pillager

Rushing Yards 187 275
Passing Yards 99 21
Total Yards 286 296
Fumbles-Lost 2-2 4-3
First Downs 12 17
Penalties-Yards 11-100 10-85
Punts 2-53 2-63

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Crookston Rushing

Ethan Boll 20-91
Tanner Giese 5-64
Jack Doda 8-24
Carter Coauette 1-2
Antonio Romero 1-1