The Crookston Pirate Football team’s Brady Butt, an offensive lineman converted to quarterback, ran for 96 yards and two touchdowns to lead his team to a 14-6 come from behind victory over the Frazee Hornets in a Section 8AA game played in Crookston.
Crookston started the game with the ball and had the ball on their own 35-yard line after Frazee kicked the ball out of bounds. Crookston ran a handful of plays before they punted the ball. Crookston’s defense forced Frazee to a three-and-out and started the second drive at their own 21. “That was a good way to start defensively to force a three-and-out,” said Pirate Coach Scott Butt. “We came out strong and that seemed to carry the rest of the game.” On the second play of the drive, Brady Butt ran the ball 11 yards for a first down but three plays later Frazee’s Broden Fleisher picked off the first Pirate pass of the game and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown for a 6-0 lead. “Not bad, his first pass was for a touchdown,” said Coach Butt, talking about his sons first pass. “He got nervous and didn’t read the defense and tried to make a play. That hurt.” The two-point conversion run failed. Neither team moved the ball much the rest of the first quarter and Frazee led 6-0.
In the second quarter, Crookston had an eight-play drive and got down to the Frazee 15-yard line, but they turned the ball over on downs. “We weren’t built tonight to score points in a hurry,” said Coach Butt. “The kids got things going on the drive, but I thought it gave us some confidence that carried over the rest of the game.” Neither team scored the rest of the half and Frazee took a 6-0 lead into halftime.
Frazee started the second half with the ball and on their first play they were called for a penalty and the second play they threw a pass and Crookston’s Quinn Westlake intercepted a pass after it was tipped, and Crookston had the ball. “That was huge. It gave us a spark,” said Coach Butt. “We needed a spark and it was nice to see Quinn get that because he works hard in practice and has been getting a lot of tackles, but to get the interception was huge.” Crookston wasn’t able to get the offense going and Frazee got the ball back after a punt. Frazee ran five plays and had to punt, and the snap was low and the ball rolled through the punter’s legs. The punter grabbed the ball and tried to run with the ball, but Crookston hit him for a loss of 21 yards and the Pirates had the ball at the Frazee 22-yard line. Crookston started the drive with a Brady Butt 13-yard run, which was followed by a Butt run of 4 yards, a three-yard gain for Joe Doda down to the two-yard line and on the fourth play of the drive the Pirates scored on a Butt two-yard run to tie the game at 6-6 with 4:32 left in the third quarter. “That was huge. If we don’t stick it in there, I’m not sure if we win the game,” said Coach Butt. “I told the boys up front that we are going behind you and we are going to stick this in. Our line did great and all five of the guys up front did a great job.” The two-point conversion failed, and the game was still tied at 6-6.
The teams took a lot of time off the clock in the fourth quarter with their drives and Crookston got the ball late in the fourth quarter at their own 13-yard line and needed to move the ball quickly, which was something they hadn’t done all game. After a run play, Crookston went to the air for the first time in the second half and Brady Butt found Jaden Lubarski down the Pirate sideline for a 48-yard passing play in Frazee territory. Two plays later Brady Butt found Lubarski down the sideline again and Jaden leaped in the air, over the Frazee defender, for a 35-yard reception and Crookston had the ball first and goal. A few seconds later, Butt ran the ball five yards into the end zone for a 12-6 lead. “Jaden did a really good job and he had a height advantage, but my first initial thought was we weren’t going to throw the ball again after the pick-six, but we were backed up to the 13 and I figured it was worth a try,” said Coach Butt. “Jaden is an athletic young man and went up to get the ball and he has really come into his own during his senior year.” Crookston went for two and Butt found Lubarski in the end zone to complete the two-point conversion for a 14-6 lead. “That was big,” said Coach Butt. “All of a sudden Jaden was in the second window and there he was. I thought Jaden did a great job on the play to get open.”
Frazee moved the ball down the field and had a fourth down and 10-yard play and threw an incomplete pass and Crookston got the ball back and took a couple knees to run out the clock to preserve the 14-6 victory. “That was huge. We won ugly, but a W is a W and I will win ugly after a long week. I am so happy for our kids because we were pretty down in the dumps and for them to battle and work for the win, this is big,” said Coach Butt. “We didn’t do much offensively and we have to work on being more consistent and moving the ball more. We will get back to practice and get ready for a tough game at Barnesville.”
Crookston improves to 2-3 on the year and will travel to Barnesville on Friday. Frazee drops to 0-5 on the year.
Brady Butt on one of his 25 carries Brady Wisk makes one of his tackles
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | FINAL | |
| Frazee | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| CROOKSTON | 0 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 14 |
Joe Doda pulls away from a Frazee player Easton Tangquist looks for run on a run
1st Quarter
4:48 – Frazee – Broden Fleisher 47 yard interception return (run failed)
2nd Quarter
No Scoring
3rd Quarter
4:32 – Crookston – Brady Butt 2 yard run (pass failed)
4th Quarter
2:57 – Crookston – Brady Butt 5 yard run (Brady Butt pass to Jaden Lubarski)
Lukas Meier on one of his three carries
| CROOKSTON | Frazee | |
| First Downs | 11 | 7 |
| Rushing-Yards | 53-132 | 15-2 |
| Passing | 2-5-1 | 8-16-1 |
| Passing Yards | 83 | 131 |
| Total Yards | 215 | 133 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 2-0 | 2-1 |
| Penalties-Yards | 5-40 | 5-30 |
| Punts-Yards Ave. | 3-85 | 4-123 |
Rushing
| Crookston | Frazee |
| Brady Butt 25-96 | Micah Hanebuth 9-15 |
| Joe Doda 20-42 | Cole Fleisher 2-17 |
| Easton Tangquist 5- (-16) | Luke Tweeton 1-2 |
| Lukas Meier 3-10 | Joby Giefer 1- (-1) |
| Brandon Carpenter 1- (-10) | |
| Vincent Helmers 1- (-21) |
Passing
| Brady Butt 2-5-1 83 yards | Cole Fleisher 7-15-1 90 yards |
| Brandon Carpenter 1-1 43 yards |
Receiving
| Jaden Lubarski 2-83 | Broden Fleisher 3-51 |
| Brandon Carpenter 2-25 | |
| Mason Newling 2-12 | |
| Joby Giefer 1-43 |
