BURNS Burns broke the game open in the second half Friday and went on to hand Baker a 40-23 defeat in the Greater Oregon League regular-season football finale for both teams.

Baker knew going into the game that it had to win, or have Ontario defeat Grant Union, to earn a berth in next weekends Class 3A state playoffs.

Even though Baker couldnt pull off the victory, Grant Union lost 49-14 at Ontario, and the Bulldogs will play in the post season for the first time in three years.

Baker, as the GOLs third-place team, will travel to The Dalles, tentatively at 1 p.m. Saturday, for a first-round playoff game.

Against Burns, the Bulldogs trailed just 14-7 at halftime. Ethan Bigelow scored Bakers only first-half touchdown on a 3-yard run.

But Burns scored twice in the third quarter and built a 34-7 advantage with six minutes left in the game.

Baker rebounded for two scores on a short run by Ty Nichols and a pass from Nichols to Jason Jacobs but Burns answered with one more TD to seal the win.

Bakers ground game was almost non-existent, totalling just 42 yards. Nichols was 13 of 27 passing for 186 yards.

Baker 0 7 0 16 23

Burns 6 8 14 12 40

BU Petersen 1 run (Kick failed)

BK Bigelow 3 run (Sullivan kick)

BU Garo 15 pass from Petersen (Thomas pass from Petersen)

BU Hoffman 28 run (Kick failed)

BU Root 23 pass from Petersen (Root pass from Petersen)

BU Johnson 63 pass from Petersen (Run failed)

BK Nichols 4 run (Jacobs pass from Nichols)

BK Jacobs 32 pass from Nichols (Merritt run)

BU Root 17 pass from Petersen (Kick failed)

Individual statistics

Rushing Baker: Sullivan 5-20, Merritt 4-10, Bigelow 9-10, Nichols 10-2. Burns: Hoffman 7-79, Mackey 14-78, Petersen 10-64, Thomas 1-(-6).

Passing Baker: Nichols 13-27-0-186. Burns: Petersen 14-27-1-163.

Receiving Baker: Goodenough 4-58, Mullins 3-58, Jacobs 2-57, Merritt 2-5, Justus 1-11, Bigelow 1-(-5). Burns: Garo 6-69, Johnson 3-82, Root 2-39, Mackey 1-19, Hoffman 1-4, Thomas 1-1.