The Crookston Pirate Boys Soccer team’s offense struggled and St. John’s Prep was able to score three second-half goals and coasted to a 3-0 victory in the season-opening game played in Crookston. “It wasn’t a terrible first outing for us, and now we know what we have to work on,” said Pirates Head Coach Lon Boike.
FIRST HALF
The first half was a lot of kicking back and forth without many scoring opportunities for either side. Each team had a couple of decent chances but were unable to convert. “I would have liked us to dump the ball in more and let our strikers run it down,” said Coach Boike. “We didn’t get a lot of shots on goal and that is something we have been trying to change the last few years.”
St. John’s Prep had their best chance come halfway through the first half when a shot glanced off the crossbar and deflected back to a Johnnies player, but Crookston’s goalie, Caden Boike, made a nice recovery save to erase the opportunity.
The Pirates answered back a couple of minutes later with a counter attack. With numbers on their side, Crookston only had one shot on goal that was deflected by a defender. It looked like Crookston was going to get another shot off, but a Johnnies player inadvertently fell on the ball before it was cleared.
Outside of those two opportunities, both teams had very little sustained success as completed passes came at a premium. “Their defense was pretty good and we just couldn’t sustain anything on offense,” said Coach Boike.
SECOND HALF
The second half got off to a quick start as St. John’s Prep got a goal in the first minute of the half. A few simple passes and Mate Lechner finished off the run with a low shot to the opposite corner to take a 1-0 lead. “That was a tough goal with scoring in the first minute,” added Coach Boike.
10 minutes later, Logan Richter connected on a goal of his own as he sliced through the Pirate defense to make it 2-0.
The final goal of the game came with 12 minutes left in the second half. A cross-field pass came from the right side right to the Johnnies’ Nick Hanson who took a touch and took a shot that deflected off Boike and trickled towards the goal. Evan Christenson hustled over to try and save the ball from rolling in, but by the time he got there and kicked it, it had already crossed the line to give St. John’s Prep a 3-0 lead.
Crookston struggled to generate any offensive pressure in the second half, with both of their best opportunities coming in the final eight minutes. The closest they got was a great through-ball pass from the midfield, however, the Johnnies’ goalie, Jakob Auerleow had good instincts and beat Brannon Tangquist to the ball to prevent the goal. “Our passing needs to be sharper and we had some guys out of place at times,” explained Coach Boike. “We have the game on video so we will go back and watch it and figure those things out.”
Crookston falls to 0-1 to begin their season. They will have a chance to bounce back on Saturday when they host Fergus Falls at 11 am.
St. John’s Prep starts its season with a 1-0 record.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| St. John’s Prep | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| CROOKSTON | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Scoring –
41:00 – SJP- Mate Lechner
51:00 – SJP- Logan Richter
68:00 – SJP- Nick Hanson
| SAVES | 1st | 2nd | Final |
| Caden Boike – Crox | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Jakob Auerleow – SJP | 1 | 2 | 3 |
