Despite a pair of losses, the Becker Bulldog boys soccer team has shown some tough defense through its opening pair of games. Head Coach Nick Crowley is hoping to find a few more players to come out for the team to help reinforce the solid lineup he is able to start each game.  While the Bulldogs are able to start strong, fatigue has caused a few lapses down the stretch. 

Last Friday, Becker opened the season with a road game in Delano and dropped a 4-2 contest.

“Traveling to Delano wasn’t ideal, but we got the game in amidst all the rain and storms,” Coach Nick Crowley said.  

Delano took the lead early, scoring in the first minute of the game due to some miscommunication on the Bulldog side of the ball. Crowley said that the turf surface was also problematic for Becker, as the Bulldogs took a few minutes to adapt to the speed of the ball and the intensity of the bounces. The Tigers added a goal in the 26th minute of the opening half.

“We had some good passing combinations and hustle to win the ball back in Delano’s half of the field which led to our first goal of the season to bring us within one,” Crowley said.  “Junior Captain, Micah Boyer noticed the keeper was off his line and scored from about 30 yards out.”

Crowley described Boyer’s shot as perfectly placed over the keeper.

“We were happy to score, and score like that, in the first game of the season,” Crowley added.

Right before half Delano struck again to make it 3-1 at the break. 

About 12 minutes into the second half Delano scored their 4th of the game on a cross that was mishandled by Becker’s keeper. 

Crowley credited his team for their quick answer, describing the Bulldogs next goal as “Micah Boyer drove the ball up the middle and passed it out wide to Freshman Evan Norberg, who crossed it in to Junior Kevin Vogl, who then chested it down for Junior Ander Alzaga to score our second goal of the game.” 

Becker had a couple other opportunities that they couldn’t capitalize on, but overall, Crowley said he was pretty happy with the way his team played in their first game of the season. 

“Having a small squad, and with some of my varsity starters having played some of the JV game, we defended well but got tired... which led to mistakes,” Crowley said, noting the efforts of Evan Norberg, Junior Kevin Vogl and Junior Captains Micah Boyer and Brekken Klug. “And if it wasn’t for the heroics of Junior GK Nick Gruber, who is new to the sport and the position, we would have let a lot more in.” 

CMC 2, Becker 0

Becker took on Central MN Christian last Saturday morning for the first home game of the season and came up just short of the win. Crowley initiated some tweaks and changes from the first game and Becker put up a great performance in the first half. 

“On the whole it was a very even contest, as both teams created a similar number of scoring chances,” Crowley said.  “Both defenses were pretty solid and both keepers came up with some great saves.”

After a scoreless opening stanza, the second half was a different story as Becker got tired, and started making some mistakes, especially on the counter attack.  

“We just didn’t have the legs to make our recovery runs and stop them from scoring,” Crowley said. 

CMC was able to notch a pair of goals before the Bulldogs had a few late chances that didn’t find the back of the net.

“Again, we got tired, with only having 19 players at the high school level, I have to ask six of my varsity starters to play a half of JV,” said Crowley.  “We have too many athletes who need that valuable developmental time on JV to just cut it... but it’s clearly affecting our varsity team, and the scoreline. Are there any athletes out there interested in playing soccer?”