At last week’s annual Becker Bulldog football banquet, Head Coach Dwight Lundeen welcomed all the players, family and friends to a night of celebrating their 2016 team’s successes.

 

Mostly, Lundeen said he wanted to honor the team’s 25 seniors who gave it all this year.  

 

This year’s senior class of football players finished their varsity careers with a solid 31-4 record — with all the four losses coming on the very last play of each game. Lundeen’s seniors were conference or district champs all three years and twice were section champions and two-time state 4A champions.

 

Coach Lundeen proceeded to introduce his staff saying he is very blessed to have such a caring, hard working and football-smart staff.

 

“One of the most outstanding coaching staffs in the state,” he said.

 

Coach Tyler Niedfeldt  presented academic awards including a special honor to junior linebacker Blake Paulson, who was the team’s academic champ with a 4.0 GPA.

 

 Senior linebacker  Brett Reichle gave a speech about “what Becker football means to me”  and Coach Lundeen said it “was outstanding.”

 

The most dedicated plaque when to senior  Chandler Wiltsey, who did not get a lot of playing time, but never missed practice and was a great team player, Lundeen said.

 

Coach Brady Cobb presented 26 letters to the sophomore team and Coach Troy Robinson presented 27 letters to the juniors and gave update on how the JV team has done over the last few years. Robinson said in the last three years, their record  is 23 wins and one loss.

 

Jaylin Hildebrant and Travis Ferris’ mothers presented a video of this year’s team with a look back on all nine years of football for the seniors. The players and guests loved it!

 

Coach Lundeen gave a summary of the offense in which they outscored their opponents, 334 to 152  —averaging 400 yards a game. Lundeen said the six offensive linemen worked well as a unit and he was very happy with his top three quarterbacks in Josh Fobbe, Bryce Boser and Sam Ricker.  

 

The team’s leading rusher was Sidney Boros with 1,200 yards and 13 touchdowns, averaging 12 yards a carry.

 

Cale Macmillan was the Bulldogs’ hard-nosed runner, scoring seven touchdowns. Zack Fisher had 280 yards on the ground.

 

Lucas Dertinger was the go-to guy as a receiver where he scored 13 touchdowns on 31 receptions. Adam Bauman was Fobbe’s deep threat, pulling in 16 receptions for five TDs, averaging 28 yards a catch. Jack Conzemius was the main blocker on almost every play to the receivers and when the running backs gained the line of scrimmage.

 

On defense, Coach Hokan Bengtson said his squad was a much-improved unit from the first game to last with the leading point-getter being “Monster Man” Lucas Dertinger, who received a plaque from Bengtson.

 

Coach Brent Scheideman presented the fans-of-the-year to John and Kris Reichle

 

Coach Jason Pfingsten  presented the distinguished service award to statistician Jon Holm for all the work he does with video and stats.

 

Coach Andrew Hamilton presented Mitchell Johnston with the lineman of the year award.

 

Coach Denny Hansen presented Sidney Boros with the MVP award.

 

The players who garnered the honor of first team all district went to eight Becker players including  Fobbe, Bauman, Zach Halvorson, Frankie Baker, Dertinger and Boros.

 

Johnston and  Conzemius  received special awards and Fobbe   was named MVP at quarterback and Dertinger MVP at receiver.

 

The 2017 captains were named at the banquet and they include Boros, Dertinger, Brady Sheely and Jayden Gruba.

 

Niedfeldt was named assistant coach of the year  and Conzemius named to the Vikings All-State team.