The cold, the rain, and the slippery turf played a factor in both teams’ style of play. 

 

Monticello started the scoring off in the 25th minute with a hard dipping shot from (junior captain) Jacob Keller. that skidded off the turf right past junior goalkeeper Parker Lahr. 

 

Five minutes later, Monticello used their speed, and the speedy turf, to slot another one in on a through ball. 

 

The Bulldogs came out in the second half with energy, and about 25 minutes in scored on a corner from senior Christian Hanowski, which Giuliani Merino flicked in with his heel. This gave the Bulldogs life and for the next 10 minutes they dominated play. 

 

However, Monticello received a corner kick and capitalized with about seven minutes left of the game.

 

The remaining minutes were a cold, wet battle for possession. The Bulldogs couldn’t push for another two goals and their season ended in defeat to their rivals to the south.

 

Although the season ended in the first round of section play, the team had a fantastic year under Coach Nick Crowley. They had a six game win streak in the middle of the season to push their school record breaking season to 10-5-2. 

 

After falling to Little Falls at home in the first half of the season, the Bulldogs traveled to Little Falls and picked up one conference point with a 0-0 draw. They held Cathedral to a 2-0 conference loss (against conference opponents, Cathedral scored an average of 6.7 goals per game). 

 

The Bulldogs got their first-ever sweep of St. John’s Prep — 2-0 and 4-0. Becker ranked ninth in the 6A section of 18 teams. Section 6A has eight of the top 30 teams in the state in class Single A, arguably the toughest section to play in.

 

Season stats/influences:

 

• 10-5-2 - overall;

• 7-2-2 – conference play;

• Jordan Gruenes had six goals, eight assists;

• Guliano Meirino had four  goals, three assists;

• Cale McDowel had two goals, four assists;

• Christian Hanowski had two goals, three assists;

• Gavin Murphy had four goals, one assist;

• Carson Makarrall had four goals, one assist;

• Parker Lahr had eight shutouts, 1.2 GAA and 115 saves on the season.

 

Senior backline defense consisted of Connor Eickhoff, Cale McDowell, Hunter Buckentine and Jack Belde.

 

The solid defense combined with Lahr’s spectacular play in net produced eight shutouts. Against conference opponents they conceded eight goals, had a .7 GAA and six shutouts.

 

They also received dominant central midfield play from Guliano Meirino, Noah Fakhreddine and Jordan Gruenes.

 

They also got sophomore support from Riley Boyer, Carson Makarrall, Ray Lyon, and Max Rositas, who combined for seven goals and two assists.

 

Set piece experts Cale McDowell and Christian Hanowski combined for five assists and three goals off of set pieces.

 

“This was a fun and exciting first season for me,” said Coach Crowley. “I’m looking forward to next year.

 

The 11 seniors will be hard to replace – skill, energy, commitment. But I think we have a solid group of juniors and we have the young talent. I believe they’ll step up to fill those shoes next season.”