The Becker Bulldog football team travels to St. Cloud State University today (Saturday) to take on the Rocori Spartans in the first round of the Class 5AAAA state tournament.

 

Rocori is coming off its fifth straight win, beating Detroit Lakes last Friday at home 21-6. Becker is coming off their ninth straight win since their opening loss to Minnetonka back on Aug. 29.

 

Becker is coached by Dwight Lundeen and features the mighty arm of Michael Veldman at QB, Eric Blomgren, Dawson Brown and Matt Conzemius at WR and C.J. Schwintek, Milan Kent and Alex Meidt at RB.

 

Rocori is coached by Mike Rowe and their offense is predicated on the arm and feet of senior QB Alex Budde. 

 

“He has been their leading rusher in each of their games,” says Lundeen. “Their best plays are when he just takes off and runs when a pass play has been called. “We have both our middle linebackers assigned to take his running away but we have to stop him first.”

 

Budde has RBs Victor Schleppenbach and Hunter Ahrens to drive the ground game and has targets Sam Schwagel, Sam Mackedanz and Matt Soldner to reel in his passes.

 

“After watching a number of films on Rocori, the best comparison I can make is that they are very similar to Orono,” said Lundeen. “A good running quarterback - always in gun,  run read option, throws well and their coach plays a lot of kids and they are from a good conference. So we think this will be a great match up for our team.

 

Lundeen added he is excited to see his team playing on the turf at SCSU Husky Stadium.

 

“We have had a number of games at SCSU,” he said. “Very close (games). It is like a home game for us. We love playing there. One of our strengthens is our quickness both on offense and defense so we will play fast on this field.”

 

Becker averaged 43 points a game on offense while giving up an average of 11 points a game.

 

The defense is led by Brown, Kent, Beau Pauly, Jake Fobbe, Dillon Radunz, Nathan Voigt and Blake Barthel.

 

Rocori averaged 23 points a game scoring while giving up an average of 17 points a game on defense.

 

After getting starting lineman Casey Vesledahl back for last week’s game, this week the team may be without versatile backup QB and cornerback Andrew Stanger, who suffered a high ankle sprain last week against Orono.

 

“It does not look like Andrew will be ready by Saturday,” said Lundeen on Thursday. “We will miss him. I always feel bad for these kids that they work so hard for the whole year, then playoff time when they can really shine they have to sit out. He really wants to play.”

 

Another concern for the Bulldogs all year has been the struggle to convert extra points after scoring touchdowns. Becker has been in only one game this year that the score has been close and that was the first game of the year against the Skippers, where they lost by one point. Lundeen and his coaches have been working hard with their kickers, holders and linemen to get it to be not such a concern.

 

“We work on it everyday,” he said. “Here’s hoping we can be six-for-six on Saturday.”