Wildcats Earn Third Top-25 Win, Knock Off No. 24 CMU, 3-2

FAYETTE, Mo. – Baker men's soccer notched its third top-25 win of the year after going on the road and knocking off No. 24 Central Methodist, 3-2 in an intense conference battle Wednesday night in Fayette, Mo.

Propelled by a pair of first-half goals and a crucial insurance goal in the second half, the Wildcats defeated the Eagles for the first time since 2017 to stay unbeaten through their first two conference matches after playing to a 1-1 draw against No. 14 William Penn on Saturday.

The Wildcats were outshot in the match, 19-10, but kept CMU from gaining too much traction by allowing seven of those shots to come on goal while keeper Michael Stӧger tallied four saves in his ninth start of the season.

It was a corner kick that led to Baker's opening goal in the 21st minute after Gyorgy Kamaras' shot deflected off a CMU defender and into the back of the net to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.

Then, right before halftime, Kamaras made it a two-score lead after the junior forward capitalized on an Eagles turnover in the backline and slashed his way to an open look to beat the keeper and put Baker on top, 2-0 heading into the break.

In the second half, CMU cut into the BU advantage with a goal in the 60th minute, but Baker responded quickly with a goal just a couple minutes later to stretch its lead back out to two goals. The Wildcats' goal came off of another corner set piece as Noah Tipene's entry found the head of Milan Nikolic and the Serbian defender was able to net the insurance goal for his first score of the season.

The Eagles matched BU's quick response with one of their own, scoring a goal in the 67th minute to cap an action-packed seven minutes of play that featured three goals scored in total by the two clubs.

Holding onto a 3-2 lead, Baker hunkered down defensively and held CMU to just three shots in the final 23 minutes to come away with a statement win on the road.

Moving to 5-1-3 overall, the Wildcats return home for a conference matchup against Clarke with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23 at Hartley Field in Baldwin City.

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