After fighting back from a 10-point deficit at halftime, the Baker University football team scored 23 points in the second half to win at home against Lindenwood University in the last game of the season.
The ‘Cats started scoring with a pass from freshman Mack Brown to junior Marck Kabbany for a 13-yard touchdown.
“Second half we were able to make some plays offensively, and defensively they were able to cause turnovers and we capitalized on those,” head coach Mike Grossner said.
During the first play of the fourth quarter, sophomore Andrew Patch jumped on a fumble made by Lindenwood quarterback Ben Kisner. On the next play, senior Travis Viehweg knocked the ball loose from Kisner, recovered the fumble and scored a touchdown to put the game at 13-10.
“To be honest, (the touchdown) helped change the momentum of the game,” Viehweg said. “It gave the team confidence to know that we could win the game.”
Patch said coming into the second half, the defensive line knew it had to make some big plays.
“It’s just a matter of going as hard as we can every play, and if we can keep doing that, then we could find a weak spot,” Patch said. “In that situation we knew we had them backed up to their own goal line, and if the defense could execute, then we knew we could make a big play.”
The fourth quarter continued to be a scoring quarter for the ‘Cats when Brown threw to freshman Brad Fawcett for an 18-yard touchdown. Junior kicker Derek Doerfler finished the game off with a 47-yard field goal to finalize the score at 23-10.
“The thing I was most proud of was we finished the game,” Grossner said. “We’ve talked about this all year, and we did it.”
Brown finished his freshman year with a career-high throwing game, completing 24 of 36 passes for 210 yards, 105 of which were in the third quarter alone.
Fawcett ended with nine catches for 93 yards and a touchdown, while Kabbany had six receptions for 93 yards.
Senior Jeremiah Gress held the score at the end of the fourth quarter with an interception. He ended the game with six tackles.
Grossner said he is proud of the seniors and their leadership throughout the year.
“All of our seniors contributed to the win,” Grossner said.
After finishing his senior season at Baker, Viehweg said he will miss his teammates.
“(The season) didn’t really start out the way I wanted it to, but now that I look back on it, I wouldn’t change anything because of the camaraderie of the team, and that’s more important to me than anything else,” Viehweg said.
Grossner said he is looking for his upcoming seniors to step up during the off-season.
“We’re going to have good leadership with our seniors-to-be,” Grossner said. “We don’t have very many, but we’re going to have good leadership. This type of win gives them confidence that if they work hard, the sky is the limit with this group.”
The ‘Cats finished their season 4-6 overall and 4-6 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference.
