The Moorhead Spuds came bursting out of the gates to start their season Thursday with a nine-goal first half, including the first six goals of the game. Crookston's Hayley Epema scored two goals and assisted on another as the Pirates dropped their season opener 10-3 to the Spuds.
"In the first half we were frustrated and not working together," said Pirate head coach Sarah Reese. "When you have 11 players on the field communication, positive attitude and going to the ball are key concepts. At times we did these well, but not for the full 40 minutes."
Moorhead got on the board at the 1:32 mark of the game and added goals at the 8:21 mark, 15:43 mark, 20:34 mark, 21:59 mark.
The Pirates got on the board at the 25-minute mark when Jessica Broekemeier scored on an assist from Epema.
The Spuds closed out the first half with four more goals at the 29:00 mark, 30:06 mark, 33:38 mark and 39:31 mark.
"At half time we talked about letting the frustrations go and improving our attitude (a team goal for the year is good attitude and communication)," said coach Reese. "We also switched to a man-on-man defense similar to basketball, a challenging thing in soccer, but truly puts on a lot of pressure."
Reese's halftime talk with the team must have registered because they came out and performed admirably.
"The second half was like a whole different game," Reese said. "We talked more, we supported our players, took advantage of scoring opportunities and got a few goals, marked up aggressively on defensive creating pressure."
Epema posted back-to-back goals in the 66th and 73rd minutes with Mandie Persson assisting on the first and Ciara Brewster on the second to make it 9-3.
Moorhead closed out the scoring in the 76th minute to make it 10-3.
A total of seven different Spuds recorded goals in the contest.
Sydney Luckow recorded nine saves in the first half, while Carly Welter posted five saves in the second half for Crookston.
Cate Cavalier turned away eight shots in net for the Spuds.
"Unfortunately we didn't get the win but we talked to the girls after and said it is important that we learned something today," said Reese. "I think we learned that we have to be positive and communicate better. With this we will mark up better, cover space better and create more opportunities all around. We have four challenging games to start the season, but that will only make us better."
Moorhead won the junior varsity game 3-1.
The Pirates will host Visitation this evening with the game time set at 5:30 p.m.
