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Crookston crashes Homecoming

Golden Eagles unravel MSU football to snap a 26-game losing streak

Sean Arbaut/MSU Athletics Minot State junior wide receiver Lavante Bushnell catches a pass leading to the Beavers first touchdown Saturday afternoon against Minnesota Crookston at Herb Parker Stadium. The Beavers lost 29-21.

An empty water cooler was flung into the air as the University of Minnesota Crookston football team rushed the field at Herb Parker Stadium in pure jubilation. They hugged, they cheered and they snapped pictures of the scoreboard, which read 29-21 in favor of the visitors.

The Golden Eagles were acting like they had never won a Division II college football game before. And, for some of them, that was actually a true statement.

With an eight-point road win over Minot State (1-3) on Saturday, Crookston (1-3) finally put an end to a 26-game losing streak. The demoralizing drought lasted 1,050 days without the Golden Eagles getting a win.

“This feels pretty darn good,” said Crookston coach Mark Dufner, who earned his first win with the program (1-14). “It’s not just about myself, but the entire team. We got some guys here in their fourth year with the program and they have battled through some adversity. I’m proud for those guys. It’s a good win for them, the entire team and the coaching staff.”

The Golden Eagles triumph came at the expense of spoiling MSU’s Homecoming game.

“I don’t know if I would say we underestimated them,” MSU head coach Mike Aldrich said. “I’d say we didn’t come out with a whole lot of fire and energy to play a football game. I don’t feel embarrassed that we lost this game. I feel embarrassed about how we played in that first half.”

Crookston jumped on the Beavers early with two first-quarter touchdowns. It took the Golden Eagles four plays to go 58 yards on their opening drive to strike first.

Quarterback Jalin Scott plowed his way up the middle for a 3-yard run to reach the end zone. It was his first of three rushing touchdowns in the contest.

Tight end Mohamed Mahmoud walked in for six more points later in the quarter when he found himself wide open in the middle of the field for a 12-yard reception for a score. The extra point was blocked, 13-0.

The Beavers were held to 40 yards of total offense in the opening quarter. They eclipsed that mark with one play in the second quarter to get on the scoreboard. Sophomore quarterback Ben Bolinske hit Lavante Bushnell streaking up the sideline for a 42-yard touchdown reception.

Crookston answered back with a 10-play, 83-yard drive with Scott scoring on an 11-yard quarterback scramble with 27 seconds left in the first half to give the Golden Eagles a 20-7 halftime lead.

“Defensively, we closed the playbook and we called about three plays the whole second half,” Aldrich said. “That was until it was right at the end when we were scratching and clawing to get the ball back. We had some success that way. We just gave them too much, too early and that forced us to battle back on them.”

Senior defensive back Kywan Owens anchored the defense for MSU with a game-high 14 tackles. Nonetheless, Crookston still put up 401 yards of total offense.

Scott scored Crookston’s fourth and final touchdown in the third quarter on a quarterback sneak. He rushed for 53 yards on 19 carries while going 12-for-17 through the air for 213 yards. Crookston running back Elijah Todd rushed for a season-high 130 yards on 26 carries.

The Beavers, unable to get a running game going with 75 total rushing yards, went to the air in the fourth quarter to chase after a comeback attempt.

A scrambling Bolinske hooked up with Bushnell again for 29-yard touchdown pass with 14:16 remaining to cut Crookston’s lead to 27-14.

“We regrouped in the second half a little bit,” Aldrich said. “We are still young enough on this team that we have to create our own success for us to believe in it. We are not strong enough yet to believe that we can just go out there, no matter what the situation, and know that we can have some success.”

The Golden Eagles questionably called a halfback pass on their next drive. The trick play backfired badly and was picked off by Chris Rivers. The Beavers, however, couldn’t capitalize on its only turnover forced and punted the ball back.

A muffed punt by MSU allowed Crookston to kill some more time, but the Beavers weren’t going to let that deter them from making one final push.

MSU marched 91 yards, using 11 plays in just 3:39, with Bolinske throwing his third touchdown of the game to Connor Beeston.

Utilizing their timeouts, the Beavers got the ball back with under two minutes play, down by six points and on their own 8-yard line.

Bolinske, however, didn’t have another lengthy drive in him to steal the victory.

Instead, linebacker Ali Alkhatib blitzed off the right side and blindsided Bolinske in the end zone. Bolinske got the ball out of his hand before hitting the ground, but the whimsically last-ditch pass dropped at the feet of his offensive linemen for an intentional grounding call to award Alkhatib a safety, 29-21.

Bolinske went 16-for-27 with 159 passing yards and three touchdowns. Converted wide receiver Lane Torgerson led the Beavers in rushing with 49 yards on eight carries.

“They did a good job of blitzing and getting a lot of pressure on Ben,” Aldrich said. “He couldn’t really set up back there. When they got some pressure to him early, then that had an effect on him later. So, even when there wasn’t some pressure there, he was feeling some phantom pressure.”

Minot State nearly recovered an onside kick to stay alive, but none of the Beavers could jump on the loose ball. Crookston ran out of the rest of the clock to stun the MSU faithful on Homecoming.

“We can’t say that we ran out of time,” Aldrich said. “Because we killed too much time in the first half. But, I did like how we battled. We finished much better this week than we did last week. We fought right until the end, but we shouldn’t have put ourselves into that type of hole.”

After splitting the two games on this homestand, the Beavers hit the road to face the University of Sioux Falls (3-1) next Saturday.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.

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