(RV) Baker Caps 2025 Season with Thrilling Last-Minute Win over Yellowjackets

LAMONI, Iowa – Facing a do-or-die fourth down, Gaige Warren hauled in a Truman Juelsgaard pass and took it the distance for the game-winning touchdown in Baker's incredible 41-38 victory at Graceland on Saturday in the final game of the 2025 regular season.

Warren's game-winner capped a wild fourth quarter in Lamoni, Iowa, where the teams combined for 27 points and traded the lead three times in the final five minutes before BU's late-game heroics landed the final blow.

The two teams almost completely matched each other punch for punch in scoring in every quarter except the first, but the Wildcats held a two-score advantage for most of the first half before settling for a 21-17 halftime lead.

Both offenses put up over 420 yards, with the hosts carrying a slight 478-423 edge. Baker did most of its damage on the ground, outrushing the Yellowjackets by almost a 200-yard margin (248-68).

Juelsgaard, BU's senior quarterback, carved through the GU defense with 135 yards on the ground, while adding 175 through the air on 18-of-28 passing. Gabe Martin finished with 17 carries for 71 yards and two touchdowns, wrapping up a senior campaign in which he scored 12 total times and posted multiple touchdowns in four different games.

After forcing Graceland to punt on the opening possession, Baker went right to work on the ground with Juelsgaard ripping off a couple big gains before reeling off the game-opening score on a 23-yard run.

The Yellowjackets connected on a chip-shot field goal and the two teams traded fumbles to close out a low-scoring first quarter. Linebacker Zac Kramer retrieved a fumble by the GU offense for the first of his two takeaways on the day.

Fellow senior Zach Schneider came up with a second straight fumble for the BU defense to set the Wildcats up in the Graceland red zone. Martin punched in his first rushing touchdown on a five-yard burst to make it a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter.

Each side busted off long touchdown runs with Martin supplying a second 23-yard score to keep Baker out in front at 21-10. The Yellowjackets added another score to cut it to a four-point ballgame at the break.

Scoring on a couple of big plays in the first half, Baker came out with a long scoring drive that proved key in chewing up over eight minutes of clock. Bruiser Gage Greer finished off the marathon march by bulldozing his way into the end zone on a third-down play to push the Wildcats' lead back out to 11 points.

Graceland continued to respond and made it a one-score game yet again before forcing the Wildcats to send out kicker Seth Simpson for the first of his two field goals. The Yellowjackets capitalized and quickly tied the game on their ensuing possession at 31-31 with 11:05 remaining in the game.

Simpson drilled a go-ahead field goal, cementing his four-year mark at a program-best 51 career field goals made.

The Yellowjackets completed their big home rally with a touchdown pass to take their first lead of the game at 38-34, giving the ball back to Juelsgaard and the Baker offense with 1:46 left to work with.

The Wildcats made the most of back-to-back foot-shooting penalties from GU to set up Warren's game-winning catch-and-run on fourth-and-six to spoil Graceland's comeback. Fittingly, it was Kramer, the senior All-American, to come up with the game-sealing interception, finishing off a stellar career that saw him force a total of 15 turnovers in his four years at BU.

For the Baker defense as a whole, they racked up 19 takeaways this season, with 13 interceptions and six fumbles, after uncharacteristically going without one through their first two games.

Juelsgaard capped his career by scoring once through the air and once on the ground, tallying 74 total touchdowns in his three-year stint as BU's starting quarterback.

Baker closes out the 2025 season with a 6-4 overall record, while going 5-1 and finishing with just one loss in Heart South play for the third straight year. After starting 0-3, the Wildcats won five straight and completed an impressive midseason turnaround to challenge for the conference title in last week's pivotal matchup against Benedictine.

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