The Baker football team will have to wait a week to go for its first winning streak of the season.
The Wildcats have a bye week after defeating Avila University 41-17 Saturday at Liston Stadium for their first win of the season. The win comes after three losses to open the season against top-10 nationally ranked teams.
Head coach Mike Grossner was glad to see the team get its first victory, but still thinks there is plenty of room for improvement.
“We are still making a couple of errors on offense that are hurting us,” Grossner said. “As far as fumbles are concerned, we need to clean that up and make that a point.”
The offense was rolling early by scoring 20 points in the first 17 minutes of the game, but was inconsistent after that. The Wildcats had three fumbles in the game, two of which resulted in turnovers.
“I think we kind of hit a bump in our execution,” freshman Jake Morse said. “We got down to the goal line and turned it over right before halftime and that can’t happen. If that wouldn’t have happened, I think we would’ve kept rolling. We got going in the second half a little bit, but have to learn from our mistakes and move forward.”
One of the fumbles occurred on the Avila 1-yard line at the end of the first half. A touchdown would have given BU a 34-10 lead at halftime.
The defense and special team play helped the offense with some big plays.
After Avila cut into the Wildcats’ lead, sophomore Xavier Lewis returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown to give BU a 27-10 lead.
The kick return tied a school record for the longest kick return in Baker history. Lewis was named HAAC Special Teams Player of the Week after piling up 146 return yards against Avila.
“I think it changed the momentum of the game a lot because Avila had just scored,” Lewis said. “They had the momentum on their side and me scoring kind of switched the momentum going into halftime.”
Grossner has been pleased with the special team play and the defense for most of the season and was encouraged to see progress from the offense against Avila.
Although the Wildcats came away with their first win Saturday, Grossner isn’t upset with the timing of the bye week and isn’t worried it could stop any momentum from the win.
“You know, I think we are ready for a little break to heal up,” Grossner said. “We play a (junior varsity) game a week from Monday against a good Central Methodist (University) team, so that will be good for the young guys to see them in action. They’ve been practicing hard for five or six weeks.”
BU will go for its second win of the season at Culver-Stockton College at 2 p.m. Oct. 2 in Canton, Mo.
