The Becker Bulldog boys’ soccer team found its offense last week and picked up a pair of wins courtesy of Micah Boyer’s hat-tricks in both contests.

Last Tuesday, the team traveled to Brooklyn Park to take on Maranatha Christian Academy and came away with a 6-2 win.

Becker fell behind early, as Maranatha opened the scoring in the fourth minute of the game and then followed that up with another goal on a floated cross pass that went into the box for a two goal advantage. However, the Bulldogs battled back and managed to score right before half on a set piece by junior captain Micah Boyer. 

“I was happy we didn’t put our heads down. We kept battling and finally it clicked. The floodgates opened,” said Coach Nick Crowley.

Twenty minutes into the second half, Junior centerback Kyle Vogl stepped up to take a freekick from 40 yards out, and placed the ball perfectly into the bottom left corner to score his first varsity goal and to tie the game up for the Bulldogs. 

Becker played with confidence from then on, as Boyer scored two more (assist to freshmen Evan Norberg  on his second and unassisted for his third goal) to secure a hat trick.

Junior captain Brekken Klug then stepped up to convert a penalty to make it 5-2 in favor of the Bulldogs. Boyer managed to score one more (assisted by Klug) to top off the scoring and make it 6-2 on the day. 

“It was a good game for us as we played well - we played with energy and heart,” said Crowley. “It was good to get the first win of the season and a convincing win at that.”

Saints

Last Thursday, Becker took on conference opponent Saint Francis and came away with a 4-2 win. This time the Bulldogs struck first, with Klug playing the ball out wide to junior Kevin Vogl who passed it back to Norberg, who then found Boyer in the box with his cross to make it 1-0. 

Then, at the 26 minute mark, Saint Francis leveled the score at one, but the Bulldogs answered less than a minute later with their own goal. This time, Junior Ander Alzaga found the back of the net, assisted by Micah Boyer, as Becker took a 2-1 lead into halftime.

About 10 minutes into the second half, Kyle Vogl passed the ball up to Boyer, who took a touch to pull the keeper out of the net and shot it into the upper corner to pull Becker ahead 3-1. Five minutes later, Boyer scored again, with an assist by freshman Tate Salvevold and it was 4-1 Bulldogs. It was Boyer’s second hat-trick in as many games and seventh goal overall for the week.

An unfortunate challenge in the box led to a PK for Saint Francis with 10 minutes to go in the game, and the Saints converted to make it 4-2. 

But the bulldogs rounded out the last 10 minutes with some excellent defending and managed to secure a second win in as many games. 

“That was a great conference win - solid defending, except for that challenge in the box,” said Crowley. “We passed well and had plenty of shots on net. Hopefully we can duplicate this performance against the rest of the conference season.”