The Crookston Pirate Football team wrapped up the regular season taking on the Hawley Nuggets. The Pirates played well on defense and attempted a late comeback, but the Nuggets ultimately won the game by a score of 22-14.
1st Quarter –
Hawley received the opening kickoff and went three and out. Crookston got the ball and had a fourth and one. The Pirates tried to go for it but there was a false start penalty and they had to punt. On the punt the snap was high, and Hawley got the ball with excellent field position. One play into the Hawley drive Noah Nelson threw a pass to Levi Lelm for a 14-yard touchdown giving Hawley a 6-0 lead.
Crookston got the ball back and gave two carries to Rylan Lubarski for five yards and on third down, Teagen Lubinski got a carry for five yards giving the Pirates a first down. On the next play, Hawley’s Brevin Stoa intercepted a pass to give the ball back to the Nuggets. Nelson completed two straight passes to Lelm for 12 yards. Two plays later Nelson kept it himself and ran for 39 yards and a touchdown. Nelson also ran in the two-point conversion and Hawley took a 14-0 lead.
Crookston got the ball back, went three and out and had to punt. Hawley got the ball back and ended the quarter with an 11-yard run from Lucas Shank.
2nd Quarter –
Hawley had a third and nine three plays into the quarter when Crookston’s Rylie Helgeson penetrated the line and made the sack to force a punt. Crookston got the ball back and went three and out.
Hawley started their next drive with a pass from Nelson to Lelm for 12 yards. The Nuggets went to the ground for the next three plays, with Shank getting two carries for 19 yards and Nelson getting a carry for seven yards. After a holding penalty, Nelson got another carry for 13 yards to get most of those penalty yards back. Two plays later, Nelson kept it himself and ran for an eight-yard touchdown. Brevin Stoa caught the two-point conversion giving the Nuggets a 22-0 lead.
Crookston got the ball and Coauette got two carries for three yards. On third down, Coauette threw a pass to Tate Hamre to 34 yards, putting the Pirates in the redzone. After an incompletion, Lubarski got a carry for three yards and Coauette got a carry for a yard. That brought up fourth down, but the Pirates were unable to convert, and Hawley got the ball back with 44 seconds left in the half.
The Nuggets elected to stay aggressive with two pass plays, the second of which was intercepted by Crookston’s Antonio Romero. On the next play, Coauette hit Lubinski for a 41-yard touchdown to cut the defecit to 22-6. Hawley ran out the rest of the clock and the game went into the half with the Nuggets ahead 22-6.
3rd Quarter –
Crookston received the second half kickoff and Lubinski got a carry for five yards. Two plays later, Parker Kelly caught a pass for 16 yards, but Hawley recovered a fumble to give the Nuggets the ball back.
Nelson got a carry for 14 yards. Nelson went out with an injury and two plays later, Kelly intercepted a pass to give it back to the Pirates.
Crookston went to the ground to start the drive as Coauette got two carries for 25 yards. After a defensive penalty gave the Pirates a first down Coauette got two more carries for 23 yards. Hawley got a sack on the next play and Crookston committed a holding penalty to put them behind the chains. Antonio Romero caught a 19-yard pass to get some of those yards back. Two plays later on fourth down, Hawley’s Stoa intecepted a pass to end the promising Pirate drive.
Hawley went to the ground to close out the quarter with Shank getting two carries for six yards and Mark Schauer getting a carry for six yards.
4th Quarter –
Hawley started the quarter with two pass plays, one to Lelm for 12 yards and a first down, the other to Grady Hines for eight yards. After an incompletion and a run play, the Nuggets went for it on fourth down, and Helgeson made the tackle for a loss to give the ball back to the Pirates.
Crookston started the drive with a Coauette run for five yards. After a seven-yard loss and an incompletion, the Pirates had fourth down. Crookston was unable to convert, and Hawley got the ball back.
Hawley got the ball back and gained no yards on the first three plays. The Nuggets went for it on fourth down and the Pirates forced an incompletion to get the ball back. Crookston quickly fell behind the chains on their next drive with two plays resulting in losses. Two more incompletions lead to a turnover on downs for the Pirates and the Nuggets got the ball back.
Hawley started their next drive with run from Shank for seven yards. The Pirates were able to stop the next three run plays to force another turnover on downs and get the ball back with just over three minutes remaining.
Crookston leaned on Coauette to start the drive as he got a carry for 13 yards. After an incompletion Coauette kept it three more times and gained 11 yards and got the first down. The Pirates went to the air on the next play when Hamre caught a pass for 16 yards. Lubinski got a carry for four yards and then Coauette hit Romero for 16 yards to give the Pirates first and goal. Coauette kept it for two straight plays, the first for four yards and the second for a two-yard touchdown. The Pirates need the two-point conversion to make it a one score game, and it was Coauette looking like he was going to run it in before he hit a wide-open Romero for the successful conversion to make it 22-14.
It all came down to an onside kick attempt from the Pirates. The onside kick did not travel the necessary 10 yards, Hawley took over and kneeled out the game to preserve the 22-14 victory.
Crookston falls to 0-8 on the season and takes on Barnesville in the first round of the Section 8AA playoffs. Hawley improves to 3-5.
TO LISTEN TO COACH NATE LUBARSKI’S POST-GAME COMMENTS, CLICK BELOW
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| Crookston | 0 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 14 |
| Hawley | 14 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 22 |
SCORING
1st Quarter –
7:54 – Hawley – Noah Nelson 12-yard pass to Levi Lelm (kick failed)
3:27 – Hawley – Noah Nelson 39-yard run (Noah Nelson run)
2nd Quarter –
3:53 – Hawley – Noah Nelson 8-yard run (Nelson pass to Brevin Stoa)
0:21 – Crox – Carter Coauette 41-yard pass to Teagen Lubinski (run failed)
3rd Quarter –
No ScoringÂ
4th Quarter –
1:24 – Crox – Carter Coauette 2-yard run (Coauette pass to Antonio Romero)
| TEAM STATS | CROOKSTON | Hawley |
| Rushing Yards | 82 | 142 |
| Passing Yards | 141 | 66 |
| Total Yards | 223 | 208 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 1-1 | 0-0 |
| First Downs | 13 | 10 |
| Penalties-Yards | 4-40 | 7-65 |
| Punts | 2-48 | 2-73 |
INDIVIDUAL STATS
| CROOKSTON | Hawley | |
| Rushing | Rushing | |
| Carter Coauette- 21-70 | Lucas Skank- 13-52 | |
| Rylan Lubarski- 7-14 | Noah Nelson- 8-78 | |
| Teagen Lubinski- 6-6 | Grady Hines- 3-7 | |
| Antonio Romero- 1-3 | Mark Schauer- 3-5 | |
| Daniel Jaime- 1-(-11) | Levi Lelm- 1-0 | |
| Passing |
Passing |
|
| Carter Coauette 6-12-2 141 yards | Noah Nelson 5-8-1 46 yards | |
| Mark Schauer 2-5-1 20 yards | ||
| Receiving | Receiving | |
| Tate Hamre- 2-50 | Levi Lelm- 6-58 | |
| Antonio Romero- 2-35 | Grady Hines- 1-8 | |
| Teagen Lubinski- 1-41 | ||
| Parker Kelly- 1-15 |
