The Becker Bulldog football team held their first home game of the season last Friday and they faced a familiar foe — the Hutchinson Tigers. 

Coming off a poor showing last week where they were shutout by Orono, the Bulldogs came into Friday’s match-up looking to get some sort of traction on the young season. They just needed a spark, a burst or a break to kick-start the club and they received that from Isiah Boyer late in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs were in the midst of a drive against Hutchinson when Boyer took the handoff from Travis Kowalkowski at the 40 yard line and was met up by Tigers near the line of scrimmage. It appeared Boyer was to be dragged down after numerous defenders piled on his back to drag him down but then he emerged from the stack and scampered down the right sidelines and into the end zone for a hard-fought TD.

The spark was lit.

From there, the Bulldogs appeared to have gained swagger, confidence and mettle for the rest of the contest.

Early in the second quarter, the Bulldogs defense thwarted the Tigers in their own end of the field and when — on fourth down — Hutchinson’s center snapped the football over the punter’s head and after a scramble, Cody Deters picked up the pigskin and rambled into the end zone for a 14-0 Becker lead.

Moments later, after getting the ball back, the Bulldogs marched the field again and Kowalkowski passed the rock to Nathan Weiss from six yards out and he scored easily to put the home team up, 21-0 at halftime.

In the second half, RJ Houle provided another big spark when he returned the kickoff 60 yards to pay-dirt to put the Bulldogs up 28-0.

Weiss put the game completely out of reach a short while later, scoring on another six yard run to put the ‘Dogs up 35-0.

The Becker defense was stalwart only giving up the one long drive and a one yard TD score to give the Tigers a crooked number on the scoreboard.

The Bulldogs finished the game off when Boyer notched his second TD of the game — this time from 12 yards out to cap the night at 42-6.

Kowalkowski finished four-of-six for 53 yards and no TDs and no INTs.

Boyer led all rushers with 78 yards on 10 attempts and two scores. Sawyer Brown had 50 yards on seven rushes and Weiss had 12 yards on two carries for two TDs.

On defense, Dalton Weisz had six tackles and one assist. Bennett Kujawa had five tackles and one assist and Weiss had four tackles including two tackles for loss.

Becker amassed 236 yards on the night while Hutchinson garnered just 145. The Tigers had two turnovers to zero for Becker.

The Bulldogs celebrated their “Mount Rushmore” players before the game which included Dillon Radunz, Shane Potter, Brandon Novak and Jarod Posthumus as the four best players in the history of the program. Only Shane Potter was available prior to Friday’s contest and he was congratulated by the fans as well as the team he helps coach.

The win puts the Bulldogs at 1-1 with their next game being on the road at Fergus Falls Friday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. They return home Sept. 19 to face Princeton for Homecoming.