No. 25 Baker Falls for the First Time at Home in Top-25 Showdown against No. 22 Central Methodist

BALDWIN CITY - A late goal by Reilly Marlow-Jones wasn't enough to spark a last-minute comeback for the Wildcats in their top-25 showdown as No. 25 Baker fell to No. 22 Central Methodist, 2-1 here Saturday night at Hartley Field.

After a scoreless first half of play, the Wildcats played up a man for the entire second half, but it was the Eagles scoring a couple of goals in a span of six minutes to hand BU its first home loss of the season.

Baker outshot CMU, 9-7 and held a 5-2 advantage in corner kicks with all five of its corner kicks coming in the second half. Marlow-Jones finished with a team-high four shots for BU with two of his landing on target, including the lone goal.

It was a fairly quiet first half with the back-and-forth leading to a handful of opportunities for both sides. The two teams combined to tally eight shots in the opening 45 minutes with five of them coming from Baker's side.

The most impactful play of the first half came in the final five minutes as CMU's Giulian Medaglia was issued his second yellow card and the Eagles would have to play down a man for the rest of the match.

In the second half, Guilherme Pereira snapped the scoreless deadlock in the 58th minute with a turnover in the BU backline resulting in Pereira's fifth goal of the season to make it a 1-0 lead for CMU.

Then, just six minutes later, Pereira set up the next goal for the Eagles after he found teammate Ilhan Dervisevic in the box and Dervisevic delivered the crucial insurance goal for the visitors.

Marlow-Jones' goal in the 85th minute made for a frantic final five minutes of play as the Wildcats looked to notch the equalizer after the freshman forward made a few players miss and struck home his seventh goal of the year.

Allowing just three goals all season coming into the match, the CMU defense held on to come away with a tough 2-1 victory in a hard-fought matchup between the two top-25 teams.

It was the fifth time this season that the Wildcats faced a top-25 team with wins over No. 23 Union and No. 10 MidAmerica Nazarene and losses to No. 24 Cumberlands and No. 8 William Penn.

Baker entered the national rankings for the first time since 2021 earlier this week, rounding out the poll at No. 25 in Wednesday's updated rankings. CMU also made its top-25 debut, coming in at No. 22 in a poll that featured six Heart teams in the top-25.

After going 3-1 in its four-match homestand, Baker will travel up the road to take on No. 19 Benedictine on Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Atchison, Kan.

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