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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sawyer 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Tigerss 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.

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 Josh Kraft took a short second-down reception 28 yards to the Becker 40-yard line. Kraft then dropped back himself to hit Jack 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 Maeyert 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 Nicolas Kaden 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. He 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.

Becker couldn’t advance the ball on the possession after the pick, but Evan Norberg converted the 28-yard field goal with 36 seconds to play. Yet, a roughing the kicker call after Meister hit Norberg’s kicking leg moved the chains, negating the field goal and allowing Becker to kneel out the game’s final seconds.

Becker, now a perfect 12-0, will take on the winner of No. 3N Orono and No. 1S Totino-Grace’s 11:30 a.m. semifinal matchup. 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.