Pirate Boys Soccer and EGF Play to a 2-2 Tie

The Crookston Pirate Boys Soccer team had a tremendous performance from their senior goalie, Logan Wardner, with 28 saves and the Pirates played to a 2-2 overtime tie with the East Grand Forks Green Wave in a Section 8AA battle at East Grand Forks.
The first half was even for most of the half and it was Crookston scoring the first goal of the game when Ben Brantner found Jacob Brunelle with a nice pass and Jacob kicked the ball into the net for a 1-0 lead just shy of 18 minutes into the game. “He got a nice pass from Sam Overgaard and put it in,” said Pirate Coach Don Cox. “It is about combinations and we did a nice job and worked together on the goal.” The teams didn’t have a lot of chances the rest of the half and Crookston took a 1-0 lead into halftime. “We came to play today and the boys were playing hard, which was better than last time we played East Grand Forks,” said Coach Cox.
East Grand Forks didn’t waste any time, scoring a goal seven minutes into the second half to even the score at 1-1. A little over eight minutes later, Crookston regained the lead when Ben Brantner got a pass to Jake Anderson in front of the goal, about 15 yards out and Jake had the ball poked away and regained control of the ball and had a sliding kick past the goalie into the right corner of the net to give Crookston a 2-1 lead. “It was a nice goal,” said Coach Cox. “Another combination and a great second effort for Jake to stick with it for the goal.”
Crookston was heavily dependent on their goalie, Wardner, in the second half. With 18 minutes left in regulation, Wardner made a big save to keep Crookston’s lead at one goal. With 14:56 left in the second half, Crookston’s Jake Anderson was given his second yellow card and that forced a red card and Anderson had to leave the game, which hurt the Pirates. The red card also means Anderson will have to miss the next game, which is the first round of the Section 8A playoffs. “We have been struggling with our tempers all season long,” said Coach Cox. “The boys have been talking all season long and will hurt us going into the playoffs.”
East Grand Forks tied the game at 2-2 with under five minutes left in regulation. Once again, Wardner came up with a huge save on a one-on-one with 22 seconds left in regulation to keep the score tied at 2-2, forcing overtime.
One minute into the first overtime (in soccer they play two five minute overtime periods) it looked like East Grand Forks was going to score when they had an open net after Wardner made a save and the ball popped loose in front of the net and a Green Wave player kicked the ball and it hit Dilon Owens in the head and he made the save and the game remained scoreless. With 27 seconds left in the first overtime, Wardner made a diving save to keep the game tied at 2-2.
In the second overtime, with 2:51 left, East Grand Forks had the ball in front of the net and kicked the ball, but Wardner made a leaping save and knocked the ball up and over the net for another save. East Grand Forks looked like they took a 3-2 lead with 22 seconds left, but offsides was called and the game remained tied at 2-2. Neither team scored the rest of the way and the teams played to a 2-2 tie. “We played much better against East Grand Forks compared to the first time we played. The boys played harder and that was nice to see a much better effort,” said Coach Cox. “Logan was outstanding and was making saves all over the place, he was definately our player of the game today.”
Crookston ends the regular season at 4-10-2 on the year. East Grand Forks is 8-6-1 on the year.

Logan Wardner makes one of his many saves in the game (Picture by Bruce Brierley of the Exponent)

Sam Overgaard controls the ball in the first half (Picture by Bruce Brierley of the Exponent)

Scoring
17:50 – Crox – Jacob Brunelle (Sam Overgaard)
47:00 – EGF – Mohammed Barkadleh
55:34 – Crox – Jake Anderson (Ben Brantner)
75:28 – EGF – Khalid Omar