ROLLA, Mo. – After spending the last two weeks on the road, Missouri S&T's football team returns to Allgood-Bailey Stadium on Saturday for Homecoming as the Miners take on McKendree in a 1 p.m. Great Lakes Valley Conference contest.  Saturday's game is sponsored by Holiday Inn Express.

The Miners improved to 3-4 overall and 2-1 in the GLVC Saturday when they used a fast start to down William Jewell 41-14 in Liberty, Mo.  Missouri S&T jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to a long touchdown run by Cameren Smith (Claymont, DE/Concord) and two Staton King (Bixby, OK/Bixby) touchdown passes.  It was part of a day where the Miners had the biggest day in terms of yardage and points, as S&T finished the afternoon with 364 yards of total offense.

Smith had 107 of his game-high 114 yards on the ground in the first half, including a 40-yard touchdown run, as he cleared the 100-yard mark for the second week in succession.  Smith leads the Miners with 422 yards in the rushing department this season and has scored five times.

King, meanwhile, has completed 59.8 percent of his passes for 697 yards and six scores, with Isaiah Wright (Panama City, FL/Port St. Joe) leading the receiving corps with 22 catches for 256 yards.  CJ Jarmon has 13 catches for 271 yards and four touchdowns which included two in the win at Jewell, while Blaize Klossner (Rolla, MO/Rolla) and Paulvin Horton (Raleigh, NC/Garner HS) have 12 catches apiece.

The Miner defense also had its best day of the season statistically, as it held the Cardinals to just 141 yards in the game and to only 46 in the second half.  The 141 yards allowed were the second-fewest ever given up by an S&T defense in a GLVC contest and the defensive unit also got two interceptions, which came from Cam Orr (Mansfield, TX/Lake Ridge) and Ben Straatmann (Washington, MO/Washington).

Safety Stefan Camplin (Raytown, MO/Raytown) leads the Miners in overall tackles with 51, while Straatmann has 49 that includes seven sacks and 16.5 tackles for a loss, both of which are tops in the GLVC heading into the eighth week of action.  Carson Prenger (Jefferson City, MO/Blair Oaks) led S&T with seven tackles on Saturday and has 42 on the season along a team-high three forced fumbles.

Parker Boyce (Hartsburg, MO/Southern Boone) continues to lead the GLVC in punting with an average of 42.1 yards per punt and has dropped 12 of his 37 kicks inside the opponents' 20-yard line.  Boyce is ranked 13^th in punting with his average, while Gideon Niboh (St. Charles, MO/Francis Howell) continues to excel on special teams as he ran his second punt of the season back for a touchdown.  Niboh ranks fourth in NCAA Division II with his average of 19 yards per punt return and is one of only nine in all NCAA divisions that has returned two punts for touchdowns this season.

ABOUT McKENDREE:  The Bearcats opened the season with wins in four of their first five games – the only loss in that span to Delta State, who is currently ranked eighth in NCAA Division II – but have dropped their last two contests and come in Saturday at 4-3 overall and 1-2 in the GLVC.  McKendree dropped a 63-62 decision in overtime to Quincy after leading 49-28 at halftime, as the Bearcats missed a two-point conversion after scoring a touchdown in the extra period.

McKendree has the top-ranked offense in the GLVC and 12^th-ranked in Division II, averaging 461.7 yards and 39.9 points per game.  Quarterback Turner Pullen leads all of NCAA Division II with 2.456 yards passing, 25 touchdowns and a completion percentage of 73.3 percent.  Pullen has thrown for at least 300 yards in six of McKendree's seven games this season and had a career-high 408 through the air in last year's meeting with the Miners.

Jacob Bachman is third nationally in receptions with 59, while Yogi Flager Jr. has the 10^th-most receiving yards in Division II with 747 and has caught nine touchdown passes.  Narkel Leflore has rushed for 452 yards, which ranks fifth in the GLVC.

While the Bearcat offense ranks first in the GLVC, McKendree's defense is at the bottom of the rankings in the conference as it has given up 505.4 yards and 37.7 points per outing; the yardage mark is exceeded by only one other team in Division II.  Safety Andrew Sherry leads the unit with 38 tackles, while Luca Gualdoni and Logan Turbyfill have 28 apiece.  Ethan Young has made three interceptions which is tied for the GLVC lead.  McKendree is a plus six in turnovers this season.

The last two games between the Miners and Bearcats have come down to the final play of the game and both ended up in S&T's favor.  The Miners won 51-50 in 2019 in Rolla after stopping a two-point conversion try by McKendree with no time left on the clock, then took last year's matchup in Lebanon, Ill., 37-31 after Pullen's throw to the end zone for a tying score fell incomplete.