It was a game for the ages. In this reporter’s opinion...the best high school football game he’s ever seen. The Becker Bulldog football team traveled to Orono last Saturday night to play the Spartans in the Section 6AAAA championship game and came away with a one point win, 22-21.

 

Today, the Bulldogs are playing the Benilde-St. Margaret Red Knights in the first round of the state playoffs. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. at Osseo High School.

 

The Bulldogs won last Saturday’s game by scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter and punched their ticket to state when Beau Pauly slammed his way into the end zone on a critical two-point conversion with 51 seconds left.

 

But even after the Bulldogs took the lead with less than a minute left, there was still plenty of drama to the game when Orono managed to drive the ball to Becker’s 30 and with six seconds left, set up for the winning field goal.

 

Orono’s kicker, Kalvin Danielson had a strong leg and was seen making long practice field goals during warmups just a few hours before. And when the snap came to the holder and Danielson’s kick sailed in the air — the ball had the trajectory to squash Becker’s celebratory mood.

 

However, the kick — though straight enough and high enough — was not long enough as it fell just a few yards short of the crossbar.

 

Both teams looked evenly matched throughout the contest and field position was all the teams gained through much of the first half. The Spartans finally broke through with 4:50 left in the first half when QB Hank Seward handed the ball to RB Blake Leischow, who scored from 11 yards out.

 

Leischow was a beast all day as he scored all three of Orono’s TDs and rushed for 74 yards on 10 carries. His partner in the backfield, David McCuskey also had a big night, rushing for 110 yards on 22 carries against Becker’s vaunted defense.

 

With the Bulldogs down by seven at the half, the Becker coaches and players were looking for something — anything — to light a spark in the team that hadn’t caught fire in nearly 28 minutes of play.

 

Jake Fobbe was that spark.

 

At the 4:33 mark of the third quarter, QB Andrew Stanger stepped back from under center and fired a pass to Alex Meidt that fell incomplete. On the next play, Stanger threw a short, five-yarder to Fobbe along the far sidelines and Fobbe did the rest. Shedding the cornerback, Fobbe tip-toed the sidelines while shrugging off two, maybe three Spartan tacklers enroute to a 51-yard TD.

 

The players mauled Fobbe and the coaches patted rumps as Becker got back into the game at 7-7, thanks to Stanger and Fobbe.

 

Leischow put a damper on Becker’s parade a few minutes later when he scampered 17 yards for another score to put the home team’s crowd in a frenzy.

 

In impressive fashion, Stanger and the Bulldogs calmly played their kind of game and got the score even again just as the fourth quarter began. Gabe Dertinger was the hero this time as he did his own “Fobbe” impersonation — taking the ball from Stanger at the 34 and cut, shifted and slithered his way through the flailing arms of the Spartan tacklers to paydirt to tie the game.

 

The two teams then traded several possessions and field position until Orono’s Seward — on third and 28 — found Leischow once more — this time through the air to put the Spartans up 21-14 with exactly two minutes left in the contest.

 

Is It Over? Nah...

 

For most teams, that would have been the nail in the coffin. But for Becker, it created just another challenge for a team playing with so much heart and courage.

 

On the ensuing kickoff, Milan Kent picked up the squib kick at the 20 and rambled 17 yards to give the Bulldogs good field position and needing a TD to tie.

 

Stanger has shown tremendous poise throughout the year and that poise was on full display Saturday night as he began his team’s march against time and distance — 63 yards away with under two minutes left. On the first play, he scrambled for four yards, then on second and six, he took off around the left end for an eight yard gain and a first down.

 

More than that, as Stanger was heading out of bounds, Orono’s McCuskey laid out and hit him as he crossed the white line and the officials called an all-important penalty on McCuskey for a personal foul. That put the ball at Orono’s 36 with 1:44 left.

 

On the next series of plays, Stanger garnered three yards on first down, then pitched the ball to Dertinger for another three. On third and four, Dertinger took the ball again from Stanger and plowed forward for nine to set Becker up at Orono’s 21.

 

Following the team’s second timeout of the half, Beau Pauly gained two yards, then Stanger found Meidt for 14 to put the ball at Orono’s five yard line with 1:03 left.

 

On first and goal, Coach Mike Lundeen went for it all when he called for a halfback pass on first and goal and it paid off. Kent took the pitch from Stanger, then hesitated and flipped a short toss to Meidt to get the all-important TD for the Bulldogs.

 

On the ensuing PAT attempt, Special Teams Coach Jeff Zimmer called for a “double hands move” that drew an offsides on Leischow. Ordinarily, the Becker holder would nod to the kicker (Lucas Dertinger) to make sure he’s in position, then hold out his hands to receive the snap from center. When he flashes his hands, the ball gets snapped.

 

Orono knew that so the holder went with a double hands move that got the result they were looking for.

 

With the penalty, the ball moved from the three yard line to the one-and-a-half and without hesitation, Dwight Lundeen sent out the offense to try and win the game rather than tie.

It all worked to perfection as Pauly gathered in the ball from Stanger and plowed into the end zone to put Becker ahead.

 

Fifty-one seconds later following the field goal attempt that fell short, the Becker players and coaches were running around hugging and high-fiving each other like they just won another state tournament championship.

 

And in a couple weeks, this game may have been the springboard for that dream coming true.

 

“I don’t know what to say, I’m speechless,” said Pauly immediately after the game. “We just had to stick in there and just play Bulldog football.”

 

Stanger was equally flummoxed.

 

“It was one of the most fun games I’ve ever played in, that’s for sure,” he said. “They are a great team. Words cannot describe how excited I am right now.”

 

Coach Dwight Lundeen was all smiles too.

 

“We hung in there, we thought we could do this thing and it worked out great,” Lundeen said. “We beat a very, very good team tonight and I’m very, very proud of our kids.”

 

Lundeen was especially impressed with Orono’s quickness on both sides of the ball.

 

“They are very good. I think they could have gone to state in any of the other seven sections,” he said. “I am glad we do not need to play them again.”

 

Lundeen pointed out that he and his coaching staff need to coach a certain way that rubs off on the players and gives them the confidence they need.

 

“We talk about always coaching without fear, be aggressive in our calls,” he said. “I thought all of our coordinator coaches made outstanding calls during the game.”

 

Lundeen credits his son. Mike with calling the halfback pass for the third TD and Coach Chris Meidt for calling the two-point conversion play.

 

“Hoke (Coach Hokan Bengtson) made many great calls in holding them to only 21 points,” Lundeen said.

 

Gabe Dertinger finished with 102 yards gained on the ground in 16 carries and one TD. Fobbe led the receivers with 51 yards on three catches and one TD.

 

Stanger went eight-of-16 for 122 yards and one TD while Kent was one-for-one for five yards and one TD at the quarterback position.

 

Jaylin Hildebrandt led the defense with nine tackles on the night and Casey Vesledahl had two QB sacks for loss.

 

Today, the Bulldogs are playing the Benilde-St. Margaret Red Knights in the first round of the state playoffs. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. at Osseo High School with the winner of the game going on to play the winner of the Stewartville/Marshall game in Chanhassen on Nov. 6.

 

Benilde began their season slowly, losing their first two games of the year to Orono (47-14) and Robbinsdale Cooper (34-27) before reeling off three straight wins. They went into a tailspin at the end of September and early October, losing to Park Center (41-0), Spring Lake Park (42-18) and Robbinsdale Armstrong (28-7) before rebounding with a first round section win over Holy Angles (42-21) and a second round victory over Richfield (47-7) last week.

 

“We have never played Benilde before,” said Lundeen. “We love facing new teams. I’m hoping they will have trouble with our double wing offense in finding the ball. Defensively, we are playing better each week. It should be a great game again.” 

 

Benilde finished in fifth place in the Suburban Red Conference with a 3-4 record and are 5-5 overall.