Wildcats Close Out Regular Season with 2-0 Win over Pirates

PARKVILLE, Mo. - (RV) Baker scored a goal in each half and posted its second straight shutout to earn a 2-0 win at Park on Saturday in the regular-season finale.

Iwan Roberts recorded his second career goal to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead before halftime, while Jim Hendrix scored in the 79th minute to seal BU's 11th victory of the season.

With a 5-5-1 conference record, the Wildcats clinched the No. 5 seed for the Heart Conference Tournament and will face No. 4 MidAmerica Nazarene in a quarterfinal match on Wednesday.

Park outshot BU, 12-10 with eight of them coming in the second half, while the Wildcats held a slight 5-4 favor in corner kicks. BU keeper Christian Villegas registered the only saves in the match with one in each half to earn his sixth shutout of the fall.

After a handful of shots through the first part of the first half, Baker tallied back-to-back corner kicks in the 36th minute with the latter one resulting in Roberts' game-opening goal. Reilly Marlow-Jones entry found Roberts at the front post and the Welsh defender knocked in the header to put Baker on top, 1-0 with less than 10 minutes left in the half.

In the second half, the Pirates put up three shots in the first 18 minutes, but none of them landed on target.

Then, it was a Park turnover near the midline that allowed Marlow-Jones to find Hendrix on a breakaway and Hendrix hammered home his fourth goal of the season to make it a two-goal lead for BU with just about 10 minutes left to play.

After starting the year 7-2, Baker wrapped up its 2024 regular season by winning its final two matches to climb up the conference standings and finish with its most wins in a regular season (11) since the 2019 team went 13-7-3.

The fifth-seeded Wildcats will take on No. 4 MNU in the first round of the 2024 Heart Men's Soccer Conference Tournament, presented by WinWon, on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 1 p.m. in Olathe, Kan.

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