Wildcats Halt Skid, Break Through with Crucial Road Win at Missouri Valley

MARSHALL, Mo. – After an 0-3 start to the year, Baker football earned a huge win on the road, defeating Missouri Valley, 38-28 on Saturday afternoon in the first matchup of the Heart South season.

The Wildcats came out ahead of a high-scoring second quarter to lead, 24-17 at half and held in the second half with MVC cutting it to a one-score game twice in the third quarter. Truman Juelsgaard was able to finish off the game with a quarterback sneak on the goal line to seal BU's first win of the season.

Baker's offense came alive in Marshall, Mo., totaling a season-high 406 yards with 214 of that coming on the ground. Gabe Martin (87) and Gavin Fellingham (83) led an efficient rushing attack for BU and each finished with over 80 yards on the ground. Martin scored a pair of touchdowns to give him a total of four this year, while Fellingham found the end zone for the first time this season.

Along with his game-sealing score, Juelsgaard added a touchdown through the air, connecting with Colton Hawkinson in the back of the end zone for Baker's first touchdown of the game. Juelsgaard went 13-for-18 with 192 yards passing.

With five touchdowns in the last three quarters, the Wildcats' scoring started off with a 29-yard field goal from Seth Simpson late in the first quarter. It was the 46th career make for Simpson, who sits two field goals shy of tying the program's all-time mark.

After recording Baker's first interception of the year last week, Elijah Porter came down with a second pick today, following up Caden Donovan's interception on MVC's first drive of the game to give the BU secondary a pair of takeaways.

A 3-0 BU lead in the first quarter quickly turned into a shootout in the second as the two teams put up 38 points in the final 15 minutes of the first half with the touchdown pass to Hawkinson sparking the scoring.

The Vikings followed with a field goal to make it 10-3 before Fellingham bulldozed his way down the field on the following possession with five straight rushes that culminated in a one-yard punch-in to push BU in front, 17-3.

MVC found the end zone for the first time to make it a one-score game again with less than five minutes left in the half.

Then, Juelsgaard used a couple of chunk pass plays to Adrion Seals and Noah Hastert to get the Wilcats in the red zone again. Martin finished off the drive this time with a score from five-yards out to extend the lead back out to a 14-point margin.

An impressive two-minute drill from Missouri Valley saw the hosts score on the final play of the half to cut it to a 24-17 lead for BU at the midway point.

The scoring didn't settle down much after halftime either with the Vikings going down on their first possession and getting a huge 53-yard field goal to get within four points.

BU responded with a big set of plays on its first drive of the second half. Juelsgaard connected with Seals for a 45-yard pass on the first play and Martin helped finish off from there as his second touchdown of the game gave the Wildcats a 31-20 lead.

The back-and-forth continued with the Vikings scoring on their next possession and converting the two-point conversion to make it a three-point game heading into the fourth quarter.

With their first win on the line, the Wildcats put together their best drive of the night with a 14-play drive that carved out nearly nine minutes off the clock and ended in some retribution for Juelsgaard, who was snuffed on a goal line stand against top-ranked Grand View last week.

After going winless in their first three games for the first time since 2010, the Wildcats are looking to mimic the turnaround from that year, which saw them win seven of their last eight games. With a conference-opening win tonight, Baker's next five opponents will all be Heart South teams.

Baker will be back in action at home next Saturday, Oct. 4, hosting William Woods for a Homecoming matchup set for 1 p.m. in Liston Stadium.

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