Pirate Girl’s Soccer falls to East Grand Forks 7-0

The Crookston Pirate Girls Soccer team lost 7-0 to the East Grand Forks Green Wave in a Section 8A matchup at the Crookston High School Soccer Field Tuesday evening.

FIRST HALF –
East Grand Forks took the momentum from the opening kickoff. The Green Wave spent most of the first eight minutes in the Pirate defensive third, with the exception of occasional clearing shots from Crookston’s defense. In the 9th minute, Sophia Lukach scored off an assist from Camryn Adams, as her high shot bounced in off the inside of the crossbar. It was an offensive stalemate for several minutes, as Crookston was able to play solid defense in the middle third of the field. “We had to play smarter and tactically different than we would against other teams,” Reese explained. “We looked to have five to 10-minute spans of time where there would be no goal, and we succeeded in that.” East Grand Forks would break their scoring drought in the 23rd minute. Brooklynn Dronen of the Green Wave was challenged defensively by Crookston’s JoJo Wallace and Brooklyn Waldal following a corner kick. Dronen fed it to Skyla Rustad, who scored on a ground ball that was too low for the diving goalkeeper of Crookston. Crookston responded by moving into their offensive third, but shots on goal from Waldal and Lilli Bridgeford were off the mark. “One of the areas we wanted to have success in was that if we allowed a goal, we recovered quickly and kept a good attitude about it, and I think we did that,” commented Reese. East Grand Forks would strike again in the 28th minute with another goal from Sophia Lukach. She scored on a ground ball after the feed from Rustad. Lukach would return the favor in the 32nd minute, passing to Rustad for her second goal of the evening, as she beat the Crookston goalkeeper in close range one-on-one to add the score. At halftime, Reese’s message to the team was to keep playing hard despite a challenging opponent in an aggressive game. “We asked the girls to keep it in the game and focus on the success measures we established as a team,” Reese shared. “In life, you can always find something to keep working at, and that’s what we did.”

SECOND HALF –
The unrelenting Green Wave offense continued to roll in the second half. Crookston started Shyuh Burnette in goal for the second half, and East Grand Forks tested her early. Burnette made a save in the first minute of the half, but a high shot over her head went through a minute later off the foot of Sophia Lukach. Burnette was not rattled, though, as a save led to Crookston clearing the ball to the middle third. Jennika Reese and the Pirate forwards were able to play some keep-away until the 50th minute when Miryah Epema was called for tripping Skyla Rustad. Rustad would miss the ensuing penalty kick off the side of the goal. Crookston’s defense turned up the intensity, forcing another long stalemate with the Green Wave offense. Mady Knutson, JoJo Wallace, and Brooklyn Waldal were able to anchor the back end and keep the ball away from the net. Reese says the defense overall was more physical but brought the right mentality. “Something we talked about was patience,” she explained, “We need to wait on the player to make a bad move, and then we step in, rather than them just stepping around us.” East Grand Forks tried to capitalize off of another tripping penalty in the 57th minute, but the free kick missed high off the boot of Camryn Adams. The depth of East Grand Forks was apparent late, as several mass substitutions allowed the Green Wave to stay fresh. In the 74th minute, Skyla Rustad would re-enter the game late and pull off a hat trick, scoring her third goal on a crossing pass from Blake Schultz. Just 30 seconds later, the Green Wave tacked on an insurance goal from Geena Jordheim. Crookston’s defense finished strong, as they were able to keep the ball on the perimeter and in the middle third of the field. “We didn’t give up; we played all 80 minutes, and regardless of the scoring that happened, we kept working hard, and I’m really happy about that,” Reese said after the game.

Crookston drops to 0-5 on the season and will travel to Pelican Rapids on Thursday. East Grand Forks improves to 3-0-1.

	1st	2nd	Final
East Grand Forks	4	3	7
Crookston	0	0	0

Scoring –
8:22 – EGF – Sophia Lukach (Camryn Adams)
23:43 – EGF – Skyla Rustad (Brooklyn Dronen)
28:27 – EGF – Sophia Lukach (Skyla Rustad)
32:01 – EGF – Skyla Rustad (Sophia Lukach)
48:22 – EGF – Sophia Lukach (Jerzey Perkerewicz)
74:43 – EGF – Skyla Rustad (Blake Schultz)
75:27 – EGF – Geena Jordheim (Ainsley Swanson)