-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Grant Galles of St. Edmond makes the catche over Baxter Eli Dee on Friday inside Dodgers Stadium

Despite coming up on the short end of a thrilling overtime loss, St. Edmond head football coach Matt Dillon had plenty of positives to tell his players afterwards.

Baxter scored the game-winning conversion in the first extra session, escaping with a 36-34 victory here Friday night to remain unbeaten on the year.

The Gaels (2-1 overall, 1-1 in district) rallied back after seeing the Bolts (3-0, 2-0) erase a 20-6 deficit, sending the game to overtime when JT Laufersweiler hit Klay Baker on a 40-yard touchdown pass with 98 seconds remaining.

Laufersweiler and Baker connected for the two-point conversion and both teams were unable to take advantage of an extra possession before the clock ran out.

“I’m so proud of these kids,” Dillon said. “We could have folded and quit down 28-20 there in the fourth. Our offense struggled in the second half and it would have been easy to just pack it in.

“But we told JT to go out there and run whatever feels comfortable. He did that, hitting Klay on a perfect pass and we were able to give ourselves another shot at it.”

St. Edmond had the ball first in OT and Baker found the end zone for the fourth time on the night. The Gaels opted to attempt an extra-point but the Baxter special teams unit rushed Koleman Hanson.

The Bolts came back and scored on their first play in overtime when Perrin Sulzle found Cainan Travis. Sulzle proceeded to win it for his team with a conversion pass to Treyton Travis, setting off a wild celebration for the visitors.

“Baxter is a defending district champion who had Montezuma on the ropes last year in the second round of the playoffs,” Dillon said. “They understand what it takes to win games like this. They might have some new guys they are still trying to figure out, but they have that winning experience.

“Our kids are still working on that part of athletics. They showed that fight and determination to do it (Friday night).”

Laufersweiler followed up a six-passing TD performance last week at Collins-Maxwell with two more scores vs. Baxter. He finished 13-for-28 for 251 yards, hitting Baker and Grant Galles for touchdowns.

Galles led the way with four receptions for 93 yards with Leo Ehn adding 68 and Baker 64. Baker also had 81 yards rushing and Laufersweiler ran for 63.

St. Edmond took control of the first half on the heels of 20 unanswered points in the span of three minutes of game time. Baker ran in a 7-yard score, Laufersweiler found Galles for a 43-yard strike and Baker added a 1-yard plunge into the end zone.

“We felt good at the half, but we could have been up by more,” Dillon said. “We left some points on the table and when you lose a game like this, that hurts.”

It was all Baxter in the third, as the Bolts made some changes on both sides of the ball. Treyton Travis had TDs in the third and fourth with Cade Robinson also hitting paydirt for six.

Sulzle was 27 of 41 passing for 256 yards with Travis catching 11 balls for 103. Cainan Travis ran for 84 yards and had 46 yards receiving with Robinson adding 50 yards on the ground.

Baker, Quintin Jaeschke, Kinnick Henning and Koleman Hanson all had a sack for the St. Edmond defense, as Jakob Koopman picked off a pass.

The Gaels hit the road next week to face Audubon, who improved to 2-1 with a 62-34 victory over Exira-EHK last night.

SE B

First Downs 14 19

Rushes-Yards 34-143 37-110

Passing 251 256

Comp-Att-Int 13-28-2 27-42-1

Total Offense 394 366

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 3-0

Punts-Avg. 2-45.0 4-33.8

Penalties-Yards 7-60 10-75

St. Edmond 12 8 0 8 6– 34

Baxter 6 0 14 8 8–36

Scoring Summary

Baxter — Cade Robinson (8-yard pass from Perrin Sulzle), 3:22 left in first. Conversion failed.

St. Edmond — Klay Baker (7-yard run), 2:54 left in first. Kick failed.

St. Edmond — Grant Galles (43-yard pass from JT Laufersweiler), 1:45 left in first. Kick failed.

St. Edmond — Baker (1-yard run), 11:47 left in second. Laufersweiler run.

Baxter — Treyton Travis (10-yard pass from Sulzle), 7:14 left in third. Cainan Travis run.

Baxter — Robinson (17-yard run), 1:24 left in third. Conversion failed.

Baxter — T. Travis (5-yard pass from Sulzle), 5:28 left in fourth. Sulzle run.

St. Edmond — Baker (40-yard pass from Laufersweiler), 1:38 left in fourth. Laufersweiler-to-Baker conversion.

St. Edmond — Baker (2-yard run), overtime. Kick failed.

Baxter — C. Travis (10-yard pass from Sulzle), overtime. Sulzle-to-T. Travis conversion.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing — St. Edmond: Klay Baker 16-81, JT Laufersweiler 17-63, Kinnick Henning 1-(minus-1). Baxter: Cainan Travis 16-84, Cade Robinson 7-50, Jack Anderson 1-3, Perrin Sulzle 13-(minus-27).

Passing — St. Edmond: JT Laufersweiler 13-28-2-251. Baxter: Perrin Sulzle 27-41-1-256, Treyton Travis 0-1-0-0.

Receiving — St. Edmond: Grant Galles 4-93, Leo Ehn 2-68, Klay Baker 4-64, Jakob Koopman 2-13, Kinnick Henning 1-13. Baxter: Treyton Travis 11-103, Cainan Travis 4-46, Stadan Vansice 2-39, Cody Samson 4-34, Cade Robinson 4-23, Carter Smith 1-11.