PIRATES RUN AWAY FROM CARDINALS FOR WIN ON SENIOR NIGHT

1st Quarter –

The Pirates received the opening kickoff and started their opening drive at their own 40. The Pirates began with all of their seniors on the field and burst out of the gate with a 37-yard run by Running Back Ethan Boll down to the Cardinals’ 24. The Pirates continued their running attack and just two plays later, the Pirates were set up at the Cardinals’ 1. Ethan Boll easily found the endzone a couple of plays later to get the first touchdown of the game and followed it up with another run into the endzone for the 2-point conversion to put them up early, 8-0. The Cardinals began their opening drive at their own 33 and tried to overwhelm the Pirates with a no-huddle offense, but the Pirates easily stood up the Cardinals and forced them to punt, but a Running into the Kicker Penalty pushed the Cardinals ahead 15 yards to give them a fresh set of downs right at midfield. The Pirates’ defense was able to hold the Cardinals off for another three downs but on 4th down this time, the Cardinals chose to go for it and fired a deep pass to the endzone, but Antonio Romero was able to break up the pass to turn the ball over on downs and give the Pirates the ball again at their own 32. Ethan Boll quickly got the Pirates on the move again with a strong 22-yard run to get them into Cardinals territory again. The Pirates continued to march down the field but on while searching for a target to pass to, Quarterback Jack Doda was hit by Linebacker Benjamin Tyrrell and causing him to fumble the ball which the Cardinals recovered to retake possession of the ball on their own 32. The Cardinals decided to reach into their bag of tricks with a screen pass that turned into a 64-yard pass to Elijah Blue who dove into the endzone to put the Cardinals on the board. The Cardinals quickly tied the game with their own two-point conversion with a pass to Wide Reciever Benet Robinson to tie the game 8-8. The Pirates began their next drive at their own 49 but answered the Cardinals immediately with a 51-yard run by Ethan Boll to put the Pirates back ahead again with a touchdown and another two-point conversion to go up 16-8. After a kick that went off the side of the Pirate’s foot, the Cardinals began their next drive at their own 45-yard line. The Cardinals chose to continue to play with their bags of tricks with many runs by Offensive Lineman Elijah Claussen pushing the Cardinals into the Pirates’ territory. But, on a screen pass, Jaren Bailey was not fooled and intercepted the pass from Eli Rutten and returned it 63-yards for a touchdown to put the Pirates up by two scores. However, Ethan Boll was stopped from entering the endzone for a third two-point conversion to only put the Pirates up 22-0. The Cardinals then began their next drive at their own 31 but the Pirates’ defense and a holding penalty took the wind out of them as they were pushed back to their own 21 to end the quarter trailing the Pirates 22-8.

2nd Quarter –

The Cardinals began the quarter punting the ball away to the Pirates, who received it at their own 48 to start their next drive. Ethan Bowman soon exploded out of the field with an explosive 49-yard run before being dragged down at the Cardinal’s 2, with a penalty on the Cardinals moving them down to the 1. Jack Doda finished the drive with a Quarterback sneak to find the endzone for the fourth time in the half, however, Ethan Boll was denied the endzone again to only give the Pirates six, and move them ahead 28-8. The Cardinals began their next drive at their own 27 and were able to get a first down, but were stood up soon after by the Pirates’ defense to force them to punt again. The Pirates began their next drive at their own 36, who continued to blast into the Cardinals’ territory with Ethan Boll dancing around defenders for 28 yards to make it to the Cardinals’ 36. But on a rolling pass by Quarterback Teagen Lubinski, he was intercepted by Linebacker Conner Kuhns to give the Cardinals the ball back at their own 29. With an unnecessary roughness penalty and a strong run by the Cardinals, the Cardinals were able to make their way into the Pirates’ half of the field, but Ethan Bowman was able to tip and intercept a pass by Eli Rutten to end their drive and get the Pirates the ball back at the 31-yard run. Ethan Boll took advantage of the turnover and sprinted 69-yards to find the endzone two more times for another touchdown and two-point conversion to give the Pirates a commanding lead of 36-8. The Cardinals began their next drive at their own 28 and chose to move through the air to make a 3rd and long conversion to move to midfield with less than two minutes left to play in the half. The Pirates were able to force the Cardinals to punt again, but the Cardinals faked out the Pirates with a fake punt to convert for a fresh set of downs inside the Pirates’ 35. The Pirates continued to travel through the air with a 24-yard pass to Elijah Blue, which set the Cardinals up for a 3-yard run by Connor Tappe to now trail 36-15. But on a squib kickoff, the Pirates answered right back with Carter Coauette scooping up the ball and finding an opening to break toward the endzone to get the Pirates another touchdown. The Pirates extended their lead further with Ethan Boll finding the endzone once again to end the half with the Pirates ahead 44-15. 

3rd Quarter –

The Pirates kicked off to the Cardinals to start the second half, but disaster struck for the Cardinals immediately with a fumble that was scooped up by Tanner Giese, who took it in for the Pirates first score of the half, but the extra point was blocked to only give them six points to extend their lead 50-15. The Pirates kicked off to the Cardinals again who started at their own 26. The Cardinals were stood up by the Pirates again, but the Cardinals decided to go for it again, and Elijah Claussen found Wide Receiver, Benat Robinson, for a 35-yard pass to the Pirates’ 20. The Pirates were able to stop the Cardinals for another three downs, so the Cardinals chose to go for a 35-yard Field Goal, but the kick was short of the uprights, which gave the Pirates the ball at their own 20. The Pirates tried to use their pass game to move down the field but ended up going three-and-out and had to punt for the first time, which started the Cardinals at the Pirates’ 45. The Pirates defense pushed the Cardinals backward to make them go three-and-out as well, but once again the Cardinals tried to go for it on fourth down but an incomplete pass gave the Pirates the ball again at their own 46. The Pirates went back to the ground game and ran out the clock for the quarter leading 50-15. 

4th Quarter –

The Pirates continued to try and use the ground to get a first down but were stopped short of the first down and were forced to punt again, which went back for a touchback to start the Cardinals at their own 20. The Cardinals countered with a run game of their own to get up into Pirates’ territory. The Pirates were able to stop the Cardinals for three downs and the Cardinals went for it again on fourth down, but the Pirates were able to contain the Cardinals again to have the ball turned over on downs to take the ball at their own 25. The Pirates returned back to the ground to eat the clock but were short of the first down with about a minute left to play. The Pirates punted the ball away with the seconds dwindling down to give the Cardinals the ball at their own 30 with about 12 seconds left on the clock. The Cardinals tried one final pass to midfield that was dropped for an incomplete pass to end the game with the Pirates winning with a commanding lead of 50-15. 

With the victory, the Pirates finish their regular season 3-5, and the Cardinals finish their season 0-8. Crookston will now await their seed for the Section 8AA Tournament. 

FOR PIRATES COACH NATE LUBARSKI’S COMMENTS, CLICK BELOW

1st Quarter –
10:22 – Crookston – Ethan Boll-1-yard run (Boll run)
3:31 – S-M – Steven Petrich 64-yard pass to Elijah Blue (Rutten pass to Robinson)
3:09 – Crookston – Ethan Boll-51-yard run (Boll run)
1:32 – Crookston – Jaren Bailey-63-yard interception return (run failed)

2nd Quarter –
10:49 – Crookston – Jack Doda-1-yard run (run failed)
2:36 – Crookston – Ethan Boll-69-yard run (Boll run)
0:19 – S-M – Colbe Tappe-3-yard run (kick successful)
0:04 – Crookston – Carter Couaette-65-yard kickoff return (Boll run)

3rd Quarter –
11:43 – Crookston – Tanner Giese-fumble recovery (kick blocked)

4th Quarter –
No scoring 

INDIVIDUAL STATS