The Becker Bulldog football team shut down the Rocori Spartan offense and scored three TDs in last Saturday’s Class 4A quarterfinals at Husky Stadium in St. Cloud to advance to the semifinals against Stewartville today.
Hokan Bengtson’s defense has been stellar all season long and the boys made their jobs look easy Saturday as they held Rocori to 164 yards on 59 plays. They also held the rushing game to just 73 yards and intercepted QB Alex Budde three times.
Becker (10-1) went to their patented ball-control style of offense on a cold day where passing was difficult.
Senior Bulldog C.J. Schwintek rushed for 147 yards on 32 carries. Beau Pauly bulled his way for 37 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries.
QB Michael Veldman managed the game with precision and when he did step back to throw, he found WR Eric Blomgren eight times for 104 yards.
The Bulldogs finished the game gaining 314 yards on 72 plays.
Becker started off well, taking the opening kickoff 66 yards on 15 plays, capping it off with Pauly plowing in from one yard out. A successful two-point conversion had the Bulldogs up 8-0 just 5:43 into the game.
In a game that was expected to see a lot of Rocori’s running game (especially from QB Budde), the Spartans attempted to throw the ball on their first three plays of the game and failed to gain a yard. Budde would finish the game with eight completions on 30 attempts for just 84 yards.
He was only able to muster 29 yards on the ground on 12 attempts including three rushes for losses.
Pauly would later score again, this time from a dozen yards out to put Becker up 16-0 at 7:30. The drive was set up by a 28-yard punt return by Alex Meidt and by halftime, Becker was pitching a shutout and feeling comfortable with their game schemes on both sides of the ball.
In the third quarter, Veldman scored on a one-yard quarterback keeper, then hit Matt Conzemius for the Bulldogs’ third straight two-point conversion, to make it 24-0 with 4:27 to play.
Rocori’s Budde didn’t complete a pass until there was 1:18 to play in the third quarter. Matt Soldner caught a 12-yard pass and a short time later, Alec Anderson had a 28-yard reception. But that drive disintegrated when CB Jake Fobbe pulled down Becker’s third interception of the game to seal the shutout win.
Veldman finished with 109 yards on 11-of-23 passing with one interception. Budde was 8-og-28 for 91 yards and three INTs.
Fobbe, Dawson Brown and Meidt had the three interceptions on defense. Nathan Voigt led the team in tackles with six.
Next Up: Stewartville
The Bulldogs are taking on the Stewartville Tigers today at noon at Osseo High School. Stewartville is also 10-1 after beating So. St. Paul last weekend by a score of 34-33.
Stewartville’s only loss this year was to Rochester Lourdes on Oct. 3 by a score of 32-14. Rochester Lourdes is undefeated and is playing Pierz today for the chance to play at TCF Bank Stadium next weekend.
Becker has never played Stewartville before but Head Coach Dwight Lundeen and his staff has seen a lot of tape on them this week.
“They are athletic and they have a very good quarterback,” Lundeen says. “They run an offense similar to Orono and Rocori, that should help our defense react to the plays they run. We must play very well to win.”
The weather for today is forecast to be cloudy and about 25º and will be played on a turf field in Osseo. The Bulldogs will have several large heaters on the sidelines to keep the players warm.
“We have played in games that were colder, but this might make the top five coldest games,” said Lundeen. The turf helps a lot. That never freezes.”
The Bulldogs are relatively healthy for the matchup against the Tigers with just Andrew Stanger out because of a high ankle sprain. Lundeen hopes to have him bak on the field should the Bulldogs prevail and make it to TCF Stadium to likely face Hutchinson.
That’s not to say the Bulldogs are looking past Stewartville, who is a very formidable foe and could surprise a lot of people.
“They have never seen us play and our game plan is to run our base (offense),” said Lundeen. “Teams usually have trouble with that the first few times they face us.”
Lundeen also says his team must run their plays very well and eliminate some of the penalties that have hurt them in the last two games.
“If we can do that, we should be okay,” he said. “I think our defense is playing the best it has played all year. We will be fast again on this good surface.”
