Baker wide receiver Clarence Clark yells out, 'Daytona!' following the Wildcats' 45-41 comeback win over Eastern Oregon Saturday in the NAIA semifinals at Liston Stadium. Clark caught a 77-yard game-winning touchdown pass with 38 seconds left to send the Wildcats to the NAIA title game for the second time in school history. Baker will play St. Francis on Dec. 17 in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Baldwin City ? After trailing by 17 points with 5:35 remaining in Saturday’s NAIA semifinal matchup against Eastern Oregon, the Baker football team’s dream of an undefeated season was in serious doubt.

Junior quarterback Logan Brettell had thrown three second-half interceptions, but a short-term memory proved to be his best friend. Brettell threw three touchdown passes in the final five minutes — including a 77-yard game-winning strike to Clarence Clark with 38 seconds left to clinch a 45-41 win in a barn-burner at Liston Stadium.

“The safety wasn’t really rolled over the top of him, and the corner was pressed up, so I figured I would go ahead and take a shot,” Brettell said. “Clarence is the fastest dude on the field at all times. That’s a proven fact.”

The Wildcats were out of timeouts when they got the ball on their own 23-yard line with 47 seconds left. Baker coach Mike Grossner was just hoping to get into field goal range to give Clark — who doubles as Baker’s kicker — a chance to send it to overtime. The BU coach told Clark after the game that he was much happier that he made a play with both of his legs in crunch time instead of one.

“As a receiver, you never know how close someone is behind you. I kind of peeked,” Clark, who earned offensive player of the game honors with eight catches for 217 yards and two touchdowns, said. “Get to the end zone, especially in that situation. We only had 40 seconds left in the game. I was just trying to make sure that no one was going to catch me from behind. It’s a very nice feeling when you can run down the field and get to the end zone like that.”

As a former member of the track and field team, Clark admitted that it’s never good to look back when the finish line or end zone is in front of you, but the only thing he cared about was sending Baker to the NAIA title game for the second time in school history.

“They weren’t too close after I looked back, but you never know. Sometimes that’s bad to look back because they might be right there, but they weren’t and we’re going to Daytona.”

Clark hauled in two of the six touchdown passes thrown by Brettell, who completed 27-of-46 for 406 yards. Brettell threw three touchdown strikes to Damon Nolan, and the other one went to Baldwin High product Cornell Brown to pull the Wildcats within three with 3:15 to play.

“I throw to the best receivers in the country. Period,” Brettell said. “Without them, this team would not be undefeated right now.”

Clark garnered offensive player of the game honors with eight catches for 217 yards and two touchdowns, and Nolan matched him with eight receptions for 109 and three scores. While Brettell lauded the efforts of his receiving corps, he made sure to give credit where it was due to the defense and special teams for keeping the game alive.

“It’s a team thing. It takes a lot of selfless guys to rally around each other, to be supportive of one another,” Brettell, who was named the CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year on Monday, said. “It takes a lot of self-discipline to get up and stay positive when stuff like that happens.”

Brettell threw three of his TD passes in the first half to help build a 24-17 lead going into the break, but he fumbled to set up a Eastern Oregon field goal just before half to give some of the momentum to the Mountaineers.

Little did the Wildcats know at the time, though, that the field goal would start a run of 27 unanswered points for the Mountaineers. Baker defensive tackle Josh Kock knew that the Wildcats were not out of it despite trailing by 17 with five minutes and change to play because of Brettell and the quick-striking offense.

“He’s a natural-born leader,” Kock said of Brettell. “I will follow that man through the depths of hell. He is a leader. He knows how to talk to the team, he knows what the team needs and he knows how to get us there.”

Kock has been one of the cornerstones of the Baker defense as the Heart of America Co-Defensive Player of Year, and he’s been used to winning the turnover battle throughout the season. The Wildcats entered Saturday with a NAIA-best turnover margin of plus-29, but they were unable to come up with a takeaway against the Moutaineers. Defensive coordinator Jason Thoren — who is a former Lawrence High and Kansas standout — was proud of his unit for sticking together down the stretch.

“Sometimes when bad things happen, you get negative feelings and it’s easy to stray away from the things that you do best,” Thoren said. “They were able to refocus and just play the down. They did that, and they were successful.”

The No. 2-ranked Wildcats improved to 14-0 going into the NAIA title game against No. 4 St. Francis (Ind.) on Dec. 17 at Daytona Beach. The last time Baker and St. Francis met, the Cougars clipped the Wildcats, 22-17, in the first round of the 2012 NAIA playoffs.

“It was a battle that anybody could have won. I’m sure he’s got a good football team. Kevin Donley is unbelievable,” Grossner said. “I know he’s got a good quarterback. Obviously today, they exploded. I think it’s going to be a great game.”

St. Francis (12-1) reached the championship game with a 42-24 win over Reinhardt (Ga.).