The Crookston Pirate Football team had an amazing game from Freshman runningback Ethan Boll with 25 carries for 193 yards but it wasn’t enough as the East Grand Forks (EGF) Green Wave held on for a 27-19 victory in the season-opener played in Crookston. EGF’s junior quarterback, Sam Votava threw for three touchdowns and ran for one more to lead the Green Wave.
FIRST HALF-
Both teams started slow and were forced to punt on their first offensive series of the game. In East Grand Forks’ first drive they stalled at the Crookston 42-yard line and elected to punt. The Green Wave’s Tanner Campos had a beautiful punt that landed on the two-yard line and bounced sideways and was downed and Crookston had to start their second drive at their two-yard line. Crookston only recorded six yards on three plays and was forced to punt at their eight-yard line. The Pirate punt only went 26 yards and East Grand Forks took advantage of the excellent field position on the third play of the drive when Sam Votava passed to Julian Benson across the middle of the field, and he juked a Pirate and went in for a 20 yard touchdown to give the Green Wave a 7-0 lead with 4:43 left in the first quarter.
Crookston had a three and out on their next drive, and East Grand Forks followed with a turnover on downs when they weren’t able to convert a fourth down and 5-yard play.
Crookston got the ball back with 1:37 left in the quarter and the ball at their 36-yard line. Crookston Freshman runningback, Ethan Boll, didn’t start the game, but he showed he will be a starter the rest of the season when he sparked the Pirates with three carries for 37 yards and two first downs. After a run for no gain, Leyton Salentine found Walker Winjum for a six-yard pass and Crookston recorded another first down after a four-yard run from Joe Doda. Boll followed with two carries for 12 yards, and the Pirates were within striking distance at the EGF nine-yard line. After Boll lost two yards on a carry, he followed with a six-yard carry to the one-yard line, and Leyton Salentine scored on a quarterback sneak, and after a Brooks Butt extra-point kick, Crookston led 7-6 with 7:14 left in the first half.
East Grand Forks’ offensive struggles continued on the next series with a three-and-out. Crookston responded with another impressive drive when Boll had a run for 30 yards on the seventh play of the drive down to the East Grand Forks five-yard line. On the next play, Joe Doda scored on a five-yard run behind the right side of the offensive line to give Crookston a 13-6 lead after a missed extra point kick.
With 2:11 left in the first half, Crookston felt pretty comfortable with how they were playing, but East Grand Forks came out of their offensive slumber in a big way. After the first play was stopped, the Green Wave had back-to-back first downs. After an incomplete pass, Votava scampered 16 yards for another first down. Two plays later, Votava found Nathan Willets for a 24-yard pass and two plays later Votava scored from a yard out to tie the game at 13-13 going into halftime.
SECOND HALF –
East Grand Forks started the second half with the ball and used the momentum from the end of the first half to fuel a nine-play 67-yard drive for another touchdown less than four minutes into the half. The big play was a 23-yard pass from Votava to Willet, and the drive was capped by a 12-yard pass from Votava to Willet for a 20-13 lead. Crookston answered on the ensuing drive when Ethan Boll carried the ball four times for 86 yards, including a 67-yard run to bring Crookston within a 20-19 deficit after a missed extra point.
Neither team scored the rest of the quarter, and it looked like the Pirates were running out of gas. The Green Wave took advantage of another short field when they started a drive at the Crookston 30-yard line. On the fourth play of the drive, on a fourth and eight from the 28-yard line, EGF’s Votava found Willet open in the endzone for a 28-yard touchdown pass for a 27-19 lead three minutes into the fourth quarter. Neither team had a productive drive the rest of the game, and East Grand Forks held on to win 27-19.
Crookston drops to 0-1 on the year and will play at Pillager (0-1) on Friday, September 6 at 7:00 p.m., a game you can hear on KROX Radio. East Grand Forks improves to 1-0 on the year.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| East Grand Forks | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 27 |
| Crookston | 0 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 19 |
SCORING-
1st Quarter-
4:43 – EGF – Sam Votava 20 yard pass to Julian Benson (Kick failed)
2nd Quarter-
7:14 – Crox – Leyton Salentine 1 yard run (Brooks Butt kick)
2:11 – Crox – Joe Doda 5 yard run (Kick failed)
0:22 – EGF – Sam Votava 1 yard run (Justin Overgaard kick)
3rd Quarter –
8:06 – EGF – Sam Votava 12 yard pass to Nathan Willet (Overgaard kick)
6:43 – Crox – Ethan Boll 2 yard run (Kick failed)
4th Quarter –
8:58 – EGF – Sam Votava 28 yard pass to Nathan Willet (Overgaard kick)
TEAM STATS –
| TEAM STATS | CROOKSTON | EGF |
| Rushing Yards | 216 | 115 |
| Passing Yards | 46 | 148 |
| Total Yards | 262 | 263 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 1-0 | 1-1 |
| First Downs | 18 | 14 |
| Punts | 5-124 | 4-145 |
INDIVIDUAL STATS
| CROOKSTON | EGF | |
| Rushing | Rushing | |
| Ethan Boll 25-193 | Sam Votava 10-66 | |
| Leyton Salentine 10-12 | Carter Peterson 9-12 | |
| Joe Doda 3-13 | Micaiah Peterson 7-27 | |
| Jacob Hesby 2 – (-2) | Brody Schultz – 2-5 | |
| Passing | Passing | |
| Leyton Salentine 5-9-0 46 yards | Sam Votava 11-14-0 148 yards | |
| Nick Vargas 2-3-0 12 yards | ||
| Receiving | Receiving | |
| Joe Doda 3-32 | Nathan Willet 4-87 | |
| Jack Garmen 1-8 | Julian Benson 4-54 | |
| Walker Winjum 1-6 | Brody Schultz 3- (-1) | |
| Carter Vasek 2-19 |
