Blaine senior quarterback Ben Beckman, already tasked with powering the Bengals’ spread offense, added an additional duty to his plate.
An injury sidelined Blaine’s kicker before the season, and Beckman casually mentioned to coaches, “Hey, I can kind of kick.”
Fast-forward to Friday’s Class 6A, Section 5 quarterfinal game at Centennial. Blaine trailed all game before coming back to tie the score. Then Beckman was asked to win the game late with a field goal — on his first attempt since the season opener.
Turns out he could kind of kick.
Beckman’s 22-yard field goal with 8.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter cemented No. 6 seed Blaine’s 24-21 upset of No. 3 seed Centennial. Just two weeks ago, the Bengals were clobbered 56-26 by the Cougars.
With the victory, Blaine heads to Mounds View, the No. 1 seed in Section 4, for the crossover game on Friday to decide the state tournament field.
“We have a really special group of guys here,” Beckman said. “No matter what the score is, if we really put our minds to it, we can win a game.”
Score one for persistence. Centennial’s ground game, led by Tyler Iaquinto, chewed up big chunks of yards for three quarters. The Cougars defense, meanwhile, turned over Blaine on downs three consecutive times.
The last stop seemed to cut the deepest. Centennial took the ball and completed a 94-yard touchdown drive, using all running plays, for a 21-6 lead in the third quarter.
“They thought they had your number, but we kept fighting back,” Blaine coach Tom Develice told his players after the game.
Beckman said: “We had to get the ball back, do what we’ve been doing the whole time and just finish it — punch it in.”
Blaine cut the lead to 21-13 late in the third quarter on Nathan Kroutil’s second touchdown of the game. A fourth-down conversion pass set up Chase Harper’s touchdown with 2:16 to play in the game. Harper also caught Beckman’s two-point conversion pass to tie the score 21-21.
Blaine’s defense, which allowed a total of 148 points in the last three weeks of the regular season, turned Centennial over on downs and got the ball back at its 47-yard line. Beckman heaved the ball downfield on the first play, and Logan Nelson caught it at Centennial’s 9-yard line.
Two plays later, Beckman was called upon to win the game with his leg. He admitted thinking for a moment about the point-after attempt Centennial blocked in the third quarter.
“I was a little nervous but as confident as I could be,” Beckman said.
