No. 20 Baker Scores 35 Unanswered, Advances to Second Round of NAIA FCS with 56-28 Victory over No. 21 Louisiana Christian

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - Trailing by a touchdown late in the third quarter, No. 20 Baker busted out 35 straight points to knock off No. 21 Louisiana Christian, 56-28 on Saturday afternoon in Liston Stadium and advance to the second round of the NAIA Football Championship Series.

After facing a 21-14 deficit at halftime, BU held the LCU offense to just one score in the second half while the Baker offense posted a 42-point effort to run away with the postseason game late and move on to the next round of the NAIA playoffs.

Rashaan Graves led a BU rushing attack that ran for nearly 300 yards (290), turning 18 carries into 149 yards and three touchdowns. Truman Juelsgaard and Kirby Grigsby each went for over 60 yards as well with Juelsgaard going for 72 yards and a touchdown, while Grigsby rushed for 69 yards and also added a touchdown.

The BU defense came through with another big performance on their end, forcing six total turnovers and holding LCU scoreless through the final 20 minutes of the game. Canon Karn, Jalen Nash and Thad Metcalfe each had an interception for Baker with Metcalfe taking his all the way to the house to seal the game for BU in the final seconds of the contest.

The postseason matchup started out with a bit of unfortunate deja vu for BU following its last outing at Liston Stadium where the Wildcats fell to conference rival Benedictine. A Baker fumble on the opening possession resulted in a scoop-and-score for LCU with their senior linebacker Andre Reed collecting a loose ball and taking it all the way in for a defensive touchdown to put the visitors on the scoreboard first.

After the rest of the opening period went scoreless, LCU padded its early lead following a BU fumble deep into enemy territory, scoring on the first play after the turnover on a 15-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0 midway through the second quarter.

Baker came back with a key response on the following possession with Juelsgaard taking off on a quarterback scramble to get them near midfield before Graves eventually ended up scoring on a 29-yard run to get BU within seven points.

With LCU going back up by two scores, Juelsgaard led a seven-play scoring drive for BU late in the second quarter with the Lawrence High product connecting with Austin Tabor for a 20-yard touchdown pass to bring the halftime score to 21-14 in favor of LCU.

The second half is where things started to shift BU's way with a quick turnover by the Baker defense giving the offense the ball in prime position before Juelsgaard ran one in on a 3rd and goal play to tie the game at 21-21.

Louisiana Christian would counter with a long scoring drive on the next possession with its quarterback Sal Palermo III punching one in at the goal line to put the visitors back in front, 28-21.

That would end up being the last time Baker trailed in the game as the home-sided Wildcats used a big 60-yard run by Grigsby to set themselves up in the red zone before Juelsgaard hooked up with Gavin Greenwood for a 23-yard touchdown pass to knot things up again at 28-all.

Late in the third quarter, Karn, the Heart's Defensive Player of the Year, came through with a huge interception to put the ball back into the hands of the suddenly-rolling BU offense. Right on cue, Graves took the first play following the turnover and bounced it for a 54-yard touchdown to give Baker its first lead of the game.

After a couple of stops by the Baker defense, including a fourth down stop in the red zone, Graves added another long touchdown run to give BU a 42-28 lead with 2:33 remaining in the game.

With Nash picking off a pass and taking it to within the LCU 10-yard line, BU would continue its scoring frenzy with Grigsby bulldozing his way for a goal line score to make it 49-28 with about 90 seconds remaining.

Baker would get one last score in though as Metcalfe snagged his fourth interception of the year and took it all the way to the house for a pick-six to put the cherry on top of BU's first postseason victory since 2020-21.

Juelsgaard fell a yard shy of going for 200 total yards after passing for 127 yards in his fifth game this season with three or more touchdowns. Greenwood was Juelsgaard's top target, hauling in five catches for 84 yards and a touchdown.

Racking up a game-high 16 tackles, Karn picked off his eighth pass of the year, which ranks second-best in the NAIA, and gives him a total of six interceptions in his past six games.

Moving to a 19-19 all-time record in the postseason, Baker will now square off against No. 4 Georgetown in the second round of the NAIA FCS on Saturday, Nov. 25 in Georgetown, Ky. with game time TBD.

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