Photo by Dan Hisken Marshall defensive lineman JR Vierstraete (3) jumps up to try to deflect a pass from Becker quarterback Tristan Kowalkowski during a Class AAAA semifinal matchup at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Thursday morning. The top-seeded Becker Bulldogs defeated the No. 3 Marshall Tigers 28-7 to advance to next week’s state championship game.

MINNEAPOLIS — The third-seeded Marshall football team wasn’t able to make history in its Class AAAA semifinal matchup against top-seeded Becker at US Bank Stadium on Thursday morning. Seeking its first-ever Prep Bowl appearance, the Tigers fell into an early hole before Becker put the game away with a pair of third-quarter touchdowns en route to a 28-7 win.

“We knew Becker’s speed was going to give us issues. It’s something you can’t really simulate in practice,” Marshall head coach Terry Bahlmann said. “We were hoping our run game would control the clock for us a little bit. We left a couple of plays out there… We wanted to control the tempo and they got their tempo going early.”

While Marshall has been a consistently competitive football team in Class 4A, Becker held a significant experience advantage at the state level; this season gave Marshall its fifth state tournament appearance in program history, while Thursday’s win gave Becker its seventh state championship appearance since 2000.

“Tradition is huge. Everyone wants to play for [Becker head coach] Dwight Lundee,” Becker running back Landen Kujawa said. “It’s the culture. We all grew up with it. We were here even as little kids, coming down to watch the state tournament, watch Dwight coach, watch all the players, and that’s what we want to be. That’s where we want to be. Dwight’s done nothing but help us get here.”

The Tigers and Bulldogs exchanged punts on each of the game’s first five possessions, with Marshall going 3-and-out three times and Becker gaining just one first down on their first offensive play. Yet, Landen Kujawa got some momentum for Becker with five minutes remaining in the first quarter when he followed his blockers to pick up a 17-yard gain on third-and-1. The play advanced Becker to the Marshall 40-yard line, marking the first time either team found plus-territory.

On second down on the ensuing set of downs, Jack Meier ripped down Sawyer Brown by the hem of his shirt for a 10-yard sack. Facing a third-and-20, however, Isaac Daluge picked up a 17-yard run to set up a fourth-and-manageable and Tristan Kowalkowski hit Mitchell Soutal on a slant by the hash marks for a 10-yard first down.

Meier was a monster all day long for Marshall defensively, tying Kujuwa with a game-high 12 tackles while Josh Kraft recorded another eight. Meier’s 2.5 tackles for loss and two sacks were also both game-highs.

Prior to the conversion, Kowalkowski had not completed any of his first five completions of the day. Over the next pair of drives, Kowalkowski hit three consecutive completions for first downs to get his mojo back.

“I think just relaxing and getting in the game flow a little bit [allowed Kowalkowski to find his rhythm],” Bahlmann said. “It’s a big stage out there. You can talk about it, you can walk the field, but when the game starts going, you’ve got to make some plays. That’s what football’s about, making some plays, and they made more plays in the passing game than we did.”

Bahlmann noted that Marshall’s offense stalled out within the Becker 10-yard line twice in the fourth quarter, the first of which ended with a turnover on downs and the latter of which turned into a 71-yard interception from the 4-yard line on fourth down. Converting on big downs was a struggle for Marshall throughout the night, as they went 1 of 10 on third-down conversion attempts and 1 of 3 on fourth-down attempts. Becker, meanwhile, went 5 of 12 on third downs and 3 of 3 on fourth downs.

Carter Reckelberg caught a short pass from behind the line of scrimmage to get the ball all the way to the Marshall 4-yard line, but an illegal shift wiped out the gain. JR Vierstraete got a second-down stuff to set up a third-and-long, but Reckelberg again ran for 10 yards.

Brown, the Bulldogs’ more mobile quarterback, took the snap on fourth-and-1 in a heavy set with one wide receiver down the hash marks. With Marshall preparing to stop a run, Brown instead hit Soltau with a fade along the hash marks for a 14-yard go-ahead touchdown to cap off the five-minute drive.

Reckelberg led a well-balanced Becker rushing attack. While his four carries were fifth on the team, he still led the way with 47 yards. Kujawa and Owen Angell added 44 and 35 yards respectively while Daluge added another 26. As a team, Becker outrushed the run-heavy Tigers 154 to 38, averaging 3.9 yards per carry to Marshall’s 1.7, with their ability to run to the outside in particular hurting the Tigers.

“They’ve got four track kids basically running the football,” Bahlmann said of Becker’s rushing attack. “They throw a lot of things at you. Our run defense has been fantastic, I think going into the game that we’d given up two rushing touchdowns all year. So that’s been our strength, but they hit us on the edges with their speed.”

After forcing a Marshall punt halfway through the second quarter, Becker took over at their own 40-yard line. Kujawa started the drive strong with an 11-yard rush and Kowalkowski picked up his second consecutive completion by hitting Soltau on a 10-yard curl for a first down.

Meier tried to shift momentum back in the Tigers’ favor by bursting through the line of scrimmage for his second sack of the game and Marshall held Kujawa to four yards on a second-down flat, setting up third-and-15. Yet, Kowalkowski came up big again, hucking a deep ball to Brown down the seam for a 43-yard gain to the 1-yard line. A replay review maintained that Brown didn’t cross the plane on the big reception, but he found the end zone with a keeper up the middle on the next play to make the score 14-0 with four minutes remaining in the first half.

Kowalkowski finished the day with 15 attempts for 154 yards while Brown completed his lone attempt for 14 yards and a touchdown. Brown was more of a factor as a pass-catcher, where he racked up 105 yards on five catches, including 39 yards after the catch. Soltau and Reckelberg added another 34 and 29 yards respectively.

Mason Eickhoff faked out the defense by pretending to hand the ball to his teammate after receiving the ensuing kickoff. The Bulldogs bit on the fake and Eickhoff burned them as a result, taking the ball 48 yards to the Becker 45 before being tackled by the last defender.

After struggling to take advantage of the field position on the first three plays of the drive, Levi Levi Maeyaert hit Andrew Stelter along the sideline for a 14-yard gain on fourth-and-5 to keep the drive moving.

Two plays later, Maeyaert tossed a dime just past the outstretched hand of a Becker defensive back to Kieler Rhea for a 21-yard gain to the Becker five-yard line. Eickhoff picked up four yards on the next play and Gavin Schaefer punched in the run to make it a one-possession game with 90 seconds remaining in the half.

“We had a little heart-to-heart talk with our kickoff team that allowed them to run it back to the 40-yard line,” Lundeen said with a laugh. “[Marshall’s] good when they get it into four-down territory, they’re really hard to stop. It gave them halftime momentum and lifted their spirits, and had we shut that out, it would have made it a little better in that third quarter, possibly.”

Schaefer had another solid running day on Thursday, leading the backfield with 12 carries for 52 yards and a touchdown. Yet, often facing a stacked box, the rest of the Marshall backfield wasn’t able to get going. The rest of the team outside of Schaefer combined for -13 rushing yards with none of the other four players with a carry netting more than five yards.

“I am so confident that if they’re running the ball, we can take that away, and if they’re throwing the ball with the 11 guys that we have out there, I don’t think we have a weak spot that you could really consistently attack,” Lundee said. “We try to force them out there. I think they were 80% run and we had to stop number 24 [Schaefer]. He’s a great player, a hard runner, but if we could stop him for less than four or five yards, we thought we’d put them into passing situations and we have great D backs and great speed back there.”

At the end of the first quarter, Marshall had gone 3-and-out on each of its three possessions and was getting outgained 74 to -3. Still, they picked up some momentum on their first possession of the second quarter when Rhea ran a comeback route for a 20-yard gain on third-and-7 to get Marshall’s first first down of the day.

Rhea finished the day tied with Stelter for a team-leading three receptions and his 48 receiving yards trailed only Kraft’s 54. Stelter and Meier each also recorded 27 receiving yards in the loss.

Schaefer kept the ball rolling with another 10-yard run, bouncing off the scrum up the middle and cutting outside for the first down to the 47-yard line, getting the Tigers into Becker territory for the first time on the day. Still, Marshall was forced to punt after Cody Klatt sacked Maeyaert for 10 yards on third-and-8 on the ensuing set of downs.

Maeyaert finished the day for Marshall with 22 attempts for 137 passing yards and an interception. He was also sacked twice for 20 yards.

While Marshall’s late-half heroics gave some hope for the second, Becker quickly stomped out the Tigers’ sparks for a comeback. Becker marched down the field on a nine-play, four-minute drive to start the half. Brown picked up a pair of receptions for 21 and 14 yards to get the Bulldogs into the red zone and Klatt capped off the drive with a four-yard touchdown run.

Becker’s defense forced a Marshall 3-and-out and the offense again took advantage. A 12-yard run followed by a 15-yard personal foul on Marshall advanced Becker to the Tigers’ 31-yard line. Becker nearly coughed up an unforced fumble but, after surviving the scare, Kowalkowski dropped another deep ball into the arms of Reckelberg for a 29-yard touchdown, extending the Bulldogs’ lead to 28-7.

Stelter gave the Marshall offense possession of the ball at the 41-yard line after a 37-yard kickoff return to start the game. Yet, the Tigers were stopped at the line of scrimmage on each of the next two plays and an errant third-down throw forced Marshall to punt.

Reckelberg took an outside pitch and bounced off three tacklers for a gain of more than 30 yards on the Bulldogs’ first offensive play of the day, but an illegal block in the back from the spot of the foul negated some of the yardage. While the play still resulted in a first down, the Tiger defense shut Becker down from there and a third-down hit on Kowalkowski as he threw forced a punt.

Trailing by three touchdowns with three minutes remaining in the third quarter, quarterback-turned-wide receiver Kraft took a short second-down reception 28 yards to the Becker 40-yard line. Kraft then dropped back himself to hit Meier for a 27-yard gain into the red zone.

Kraft had also connected with Meier in the Tigers’ quarterfinal win over Byron, catching the ball on a backward pass from Maeyaert before throwing deep to Meier for 35 yards on a fourth-down double pass to set Marshall up at the 3-yard line before they went up 14-0 on the Bears.

This time, however, the connection didn’t lead to a score. The Tigers were held to 3 yards on a pair of run plays to close out the third quarter and consecutive incompletions from Kraft and Maeyaert left Marshall with a turnover on downs at the 10-yard line.

Jayden Meister picked off Kaden Nicolas with six minutes left in the fourth quarter, returning the ball 10 yards to the Marshall 29-yard line.

Facing a fourth-and-8 on the ensuing set of downs, Maeyaert completed a pass to Rhea at the sticks. As Brown was bringing Rhea to the ground, Kujawa led with helmet-to-helmet contact on Rhea, who was taken out of the game after the play. Kujawa was charged with a targeting penalty to give Marshall the ball in Becker territory at the 46-yard line.

Marshall capitalized on the penalty with Maeyaert connecting with Stelter for a 14-yard gain before hitting Kraft over the middle for a 26-yard gain to the Becker 6-yard line. Maeyaert was stuffed for a loss on first down and threw an incompletion on second, and had his pass deflected at the line of scrimmage by Aiden Golley on third.

Maeyaert tried to target Stelter on the fourth-down flat, but Daluge jumped the route to intercept the ball at the 4-yard line and returned it to the Marshall 25, effectively icing the game with the 71-yard return. An unnecessary roughness foul on Maeyaert after the interception cut the distance to the goal in half, giving Becker first-and-10 from the 12-yard line.

Marshall finishes its season at 10-2. While the Tigers weren’t able to end their season with a win, as only seven teams in the state do, they still put together a season to remember with their first section title since 2017 and first state tournament win since 2016.

“We had a good year overall, but it doesn’t feel good to leave it on the table and come up short of our goals to win the state tournament,” Schaefer said. “It felt good to get over that hump and complete some of our goals, but like I said, still left a big one on the table.”

The Tigers graduate 18 seniors, many of whom were starters or key contributors to the team’s success. The loss marked the last prep game for Schaefer, Kraft, Rhea, Eickhoff, Meier, Jake Allex, Derek Hisken, Braylon Podratz, Aidan Mattison, Ethan Kennedy, Robert Quasius, Owen Wilts, Malachi Carrasco-Storm, Mason O’Donnell, Kannon Depyper, Braylon Timmerman, Carter Link and Gaerick Hill.

“It was a strong season for us. Last year we were ahead of Hutch at halftime in the section finals and came up short in the second half, so that was our goal all year was to play Hutch in the section finals,” Bahlmann said. “We succeeded there, beat a good Byron team 21-oh [in the state quarterfinals], came up short today but it’s not lack of effort or hard work by these guys there. They’ve done everything we’ve asked, we just lost a football game.”

Bahlmann added that he wanted to thank everyone in the Marshall community for their support of the team throughout the season.

Becker, now a perfect 12-0, will take on the winner of today’s 11:30 a.m. semifinal matchup between No. 3N Orono and No. 1S Totino-Grace’s 11:30 a.m. The title match between Becker and the opponent yet to be determined will be held at US Bank Stadium on Friday, Nov. 22 at 1 p.m.