CROOKSTON SAILS PAST WARROAD IN SECTION 8AA FOOTBALL QUARTERFINAL

The Crookston Pirate Football team scored early and often in the first half to build a commanding 43-0 lead at halftime and cruised the rest of the way for an impressive 43-8 victory over the Warroad Warriors in the first round of the Section 8AA football playoffs. 

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1st Quarter
Warroad started the game with the ball on their 30-yard line. The first play would be a quick pass to the right-side flats, and Crookston’s Carter Coauette would read it perfectly for a loss of 3 on the play. The next play, the Warriors, would try a run up the middle, and multiple Pirates would get in the backfield clean for another loss to force a 3rd and 17. A short pass for a gain of 2 would force the Warriors to punt. A 17-yard punt would give the Pirates the ball on Warroad’s 41-yard line. The Pirates would go to Ethan Boll on the first play on offense, and it would be a run to the left side for a gain of 3. Another pitch to Boll would be to an open right side of the field for an 11-yard run and Crookston’s first first down of the game. Fullback Tanner Giese would get the ball on the next play for a gain of 6. A play-action pass from Jack Doda would find Carter Coauette on the right side for a gain of 6 to make it first and goal from the 10-yard line.
Ethan Boll would get the ball again and find the endzone on the right side for his 20th touchdown to make it 6-0. The Pirates would go for the two-point conversion from the wildcat formation, and Ethan Boll would take it himself to make it 8-0 Crookston with 7:33 left in the first quarter. Warroad would start their second possession on their 19-yard line after a great Jake Erickson kickoff. The Pirates’ run defense would show strong play after the first two plays of the Warriors’ drive, forcing a 3rd and 8. After a holding call on Warroad, it forced third and 15 from their 14-yard line. An incomplete pass by Zachary Rose would force the Warriors to punt.
The Pirates’ discipline issues would come into play with a roughing of the kicker penalty to allow the Warriors to continue their drive, this time from their 29-yard line. A couple of runs by Gabi Boucha of 4 and 7 yards gave the Warriors a first down on their 40-yard line. A short run of Boucha would make it 2nd and 7. A play-action pass would fall incomplete to make it 3rd and 7. A Boucha run would get blown up in the backfield for a loss of 4 yards to make it 4th and 10 and force the Warriors to punt. Antonio Romero would field the Benjamin Norris punt, and they rattled off a couple of tackles for a 15-yard return to give the Pirates the ball at their own 44 with 2:07 left in the quarter. Boll gets a wide-open right side for 20 yards down to the Warriors 34 yard line. Tanner Giese would get the ball up the middle and muscle his way for a 17-yard run for another first down for Crookston down the 17-yard line. The pitch to Ethan Boll to the right would get a gain of 6. An offside call against the Warriors would make it 1st and goal from the Warriors 9 yard line. Ethan Boll would find the hole on the left side and just about get the ball in the endzone, but three Warriors were able to drag him down at the 1-yard line. With time running down, Jack Doda was able to sneak the ball in and get the score to make it 14-0. Ethan Boll would punch it in on the two-point conversion to make it 16-0 with 01.2 seconds left in the quarter. A high Jack Erickson kickoff would allow the Pirates to rundown to surround Warroad’s returner, Liam Grover. Layton Fuentes would get his hand in to strip the ball with Tanner Giese to recover the ball on the Warriors 18 yard line.

2nd Quarter
On the quarter’s first play, a jet sweep to Ethan Bowman would use his jet-like speed to find the seam and sprint into the endzone to make it 22-0. Ethan Bowman would punch in the two-point conversion to make it 24-0 with 11:52 left in the second quarter. A Jack Erickson kickoff would go out of bounds to allow the Warriors to start at their 35-yard line for their best starting field position so far in this game. A quick 5-yard run for Warroad would make it 2nd and 5. A chop block penalty on the next Warriors run would back them up 15 yards to their 25-yard line for a second and 20. A quick pass to Boucha for a gain of 4 yards would bring it 3rd and 16. A Zachary Rose pass to Logan Gustafson would fall incomplete and force the Warriors to punt again. Benjamin Norris’s punt would be fielded and returned to the Warriors’ 38-yard line. On the drive’s first play, the Pirates would go to Ethan Boll, but Shanx Stricker would meet him in the backfield for a loss of 2 yards. A play-action pass to the left side to Tanner Giese, who would find open space and make some Warriors miss some tackles, cut back to the right side of the field for 30 yards down to the 10-yard line. A quick 3-yard run from Ethan Boll would make it 2nd and 7. The next play, the Warriors would meet Boll in the backfield to make it 3rd and 8. On the next play, Boll would cut back to find the endzone with an 8-yard run to make it 30-0. Jake Erickson would kick it right down the uprights to make it 31-0 with 7:23 left in the half. After another great Erickson kick, the Warriors would start their next drive at their 25-yard line. A botched snap would find the football on the ground, and luckily for Warroad, they were able to recover for 2nd and 11. Gabi Boucha would get a short run of 3 yards to make it 3rd and 8. Murray Marvin-Cordes would get a gain of 3 to make it 4th and 5. Warroad would go for it on 4th down, but the Warriors would drop the snap, and  Ethan Boll picked it up to return it to the endzone to make it 37-0. Jake Erickson would not connect on the PAT, and it is 37-0 with 4:48 left in the half. The Warriors would start their drive on their 19-yard line. A quick hook and ladder for Warroad would go for 5 yards. Zachary Rose would run up the middle and find open space for a 26-yard run down to midfield for their biggest run of the game. The Warriors would go to Boucha, and Ethan Boll would stop this in the backfield for a loss of 3 yards. Zachary Rose would go back to the middle of the field, and on the end of about a 5-yard run, the ball would pop loose again, and the Pirates would recover with 2:27 left in the half. Jack Doda’s pass on the drive’s first play would go behind Carter Coauette for 2nd and 10. The Pirates would go back to Ethan Boll. Boll would bounce it to the outside on the right side, and he used his speed to get past a few Warriors.
A stutter step and a huge stiff arm would allow Boll to tip-toe down the sideline for a 54-yard run to make it 43-0. The Jake Erickson PAT kick-off, a bad snap, was no good, and the score was 43-0 Crookston with 2:08 left in the half. The Warriors would start their next drive on their 27-yard line. A Zachary Rose pass to Benjamin Norris for a gain of 7 to make it 2nd and 3. Gabi Boucha would get a gain of 5 for a Warrior first down. A quick run for 2 yards and an incomplete pass would make it 3rd and 8. Boucha would get the ball to the left side, but three Pirates were able to drag him down for a 3rd and 6 with 22 seconds left in the play. The Warriors would let the clock run down to end the half, with the score 43-0 in favor of Crookston.

3rd Quarter
The third quarter would be a shortened, eight-minute quarter with stoppage time, as agreed upon by the Crookston and Warroad coaches.
The Gabi Boucha kickoff would go out of bounds to give the Pirates ball on their 35-yard line to start the half. The first play of the half would be a Jack Doda pass that the Warriors would almost intercept. On 2nd and 10, a facemask on Warroad would move the chains and make it 1st and 10 from the Warriors’ 48-yard line. Jack Doda would roll out to his right and find Tanner Giese, and he would find some open space for a 19-yard reception down to the Warriors’ 29-yard line. A short Jack Doda pass to Ethan Boll, and he would find the endzone, but a holding penalty would bring this back. The penalty makes it 1st and 20 at the Warrior 38-yard line. Jack Doda would get the snap, and in a collapsing pocket, the Warriors would strip the ball and recover the bouncing ball on the Pirates on the 49-yard line. A facemask penalty would give the Warriors the ball on the Pirates’ 46-yard line.
A couple of runs from Gabi Boucha and Murray Marvin-Cordes would make it 3rd and three on the 39-yard line with 4:33 left in the shortened quarter. On the next play, Jaren Bailey and Hunter Knutson would find Boucha in the backfield to force a 4th and 5. The Warriors go for it, a screenplay to Boucha for a gain of 4. A holding penalty on the Warriors and a facemask on the Pirates would offset the play and make it 4th and five again on the Pirates’ 41. A flea flicker would have Zachary Rose throw to Gabi Boucha on the left side, and Boucha would launch a deep ball to Murray Marvin-Cordes, which would fall incomplete. The Pirates would start the drive on their 41-yard line with 3:15 left in the quarter. A Connor Muruska would lose his footing on his first run of the game to make it 2nd and 12. George Widman would get the sweep and fight for the 7-yard gain to make it 3rd and 5. Maruska would get the ball again, making positive yards for a gain of 4. On their first 4th down conversion, Tanner Giese would get the run up the middle for a gain of 6, down to the Warriors’ 44-yard line with less than a minute to play in the quarter. A short Mursuka gain of 2 yards would finish the quarter with the score still 43-0 in favor of Crookston. 

4th Quarter
The fourth quarter would be twelve minutes long with running time. On the quarter’s first play, the Warriors would jump offside to make it 2nd and 5. On the next play, a personal foul against the Pirates would back up to their side of the field, on their 48-yard line. On 2nd and 18, Connor Muruska would get a 7-yard gain to make it 3rd and 11. A Teagan Lubinski rollout pass was dropped to force the Pirates to punt. Jake Erickson’s first punt of the night would be a 26-yard punt to the Warrior’s 19-yard line with 8:45 left in the game. Gabi Boucha would get the ball to the right side with a 10-yard gain for a Warrior first down. Boucha would get the ball again with a hard-fought 8-yard run up the middle to make it 2nd and 2.
A short run for the Warriors would get the first down. From their 45-yard line, the Warriors would get a low snap handled by Rose to hand off to Boucha, who found a hole on the right side for a 25-yard. Another low snap would force Zachary Rose to run up the middle and gain 5 yards for 2nd and 5. Another Gabi Boucha run would reach the 16-yard line for another first down. A great pass from Zachary Rose to the corner of the endzone to Gage Thompson was broken up by Teagan Lubinski to prevent the score. On 2nd and 10, the Warriors would return to Boucha for a run to the left side for a gain of 5. The Warriors would take their first timeout of the half with 2:18 left in the half. Boucha would get the ball again and tripped up just short of the first down marker for a 4th and 3. A quick play call and another Boucha run would allow the Warriors to get a first down. Gabi Boucha would get the ball from the 4-yard line and punch it in to make it 43-6 with 1:30 left. The Warriors would go for two, and Zachary Rose would convert on the two-point conversion to make it 43-8 with 0:52 left in the game. A short kick would go out of bounds to give the Pirates the ball on their 37-yard line with 0:52 left in the game. The Pirates would kneel the ball twice to wrap up this game, with Crookston winning 43-8.

With the win, the Pirates will advance to the Section 8AA semi-finals on Saturday, October 29th, at the #2 seed Pelican Rapids at 2:00 PM and it will be on KROX RADIO starting at 1:20 PM.

FOR PIRATES COACH NATE LUBARSKI’S COMMENTS, CLICK BELOW

1st Quarter –
7:33 – Crookston – Ethan Boll – 10 yard run (Boll run)
0:01 – Crookston – Jack Doda – 1 yard run (Boll run)

2nd Quarter –
11:52 – Crookston – Ethan Bowman – 18-yard run (Boll run)
7:23 – Crookston – Ethan Boll – 8-yard run (Jake Erickson PAT is good)
4:48 – Crookston – Ethan Boll recovered fumble (Jake Erickson PAT is no good)
2:08 – Crookston – Ethan Boll 54-yard run (Jake Erickson PAT is no good)

3rd Quarter –
No Scoring

4th Quarter
1:30 – Warroad – Gabi Boucha – 4-yard run (Zachary Rose run)

INDIVIDUAL STATS