MENOMONIE, Wis. - Missouri S&T used a big second quarter Saturday to build a lead and held on to record a 31-24 victory over Wisconsin-Stout.

S&T scored 17 unanswered points in the second period to take a 24-7 lead, then withstood the Blue Devils' late comeback efforts to come away with its second win of the season.

The Miners wasted little time in grabbing the lead, scoring on their first possession by driving 83 yards on five plays for a touchdown. Two snaps after Jason Schlueter (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) completed a pass to Chad Shockley (St. James, Mo./John F. Hodge) to get a first down, David Shields (Florissant, Mo./Cardinal Ritter) dashed 54 yards for a touchdown to give S&T a 7-0 advantage.

However, the Blue Devils were able to tie the game after the Miners' second possession led to a punt that was blocked; Ryan Pearcy blocked the kick and then recovered it in the end zone to even the score.

UW-Stout then had a chance to move in front on its next trip down the field, but Kyle Martin's 44-yard field goal attempt went wide to the right and the Miner offense began to kick things into gear.

The Miners drove from their own 27 to the Blue Devil three before settling for a 20-yard field goal from Joe Drahos (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Washington) early in the second quarter, then Brian Jordan (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) picked off a Kyle Provos pass at the UW-Stout 41.

On the very next play, Schlueter connected with Mike Greaving (St. Louis, Mo./St. Mary's) for a 41-yard scoring pass to give the Miners a 17-7 lead. A little over four minutes later, Schlueter and Greaving hooked up again on another scoring pass, this one covering 14 yards, to put S&T up by 17. Martin booted a 30-yard field goal to draw UW-Stout to within 10 before the end of the half.

For the second week in a row, the Miners built a huge advantage in yardage in the first 30 minutes of the contest, outgaining the Blue Devils 263-119.

The Blue Devils got the first score of the second half when Trevor Fiege completed a 10-play, 73-yard drive with a five-yard scoring run. Fiege had a 35-yard run during the course of the drive to get the Blue Devils into scoring position.

However, S&T got its 14-point lead back by the end of the third quarter when Schlueter connected with Greaving for the third time for a 10-yard scoring pass as the Miner receiver wrestled the ball away from a UW-Stout defender. The touchdown pass came two plays after Greaving caught a pass on third down to keep the drive going.

The Miner defense continued to hold firm, especially at a point in the fourth quarter when a fumbled punt return gave the Blue Devils the ball at the S&T 11. The Miners forced an incomplete pass on a fourth down play with 6:39 to go to keep their lead at 14.

UW-Stout made one more run at the Miners late in the contest, completing four passes on fourth down plays along the way. The last of them resulted in a touchdown to tight end Patrick Mengelkoch with 56 seconds to go to make it 31-24, but the Miners' Justin Butler (Tulsa, Okla./Holland Hall) recovered the onsides kick and Shields picked up a first down on the ground to lock up the win.

Shields went over the 100-yard mark for the second week in a row with 113 yards on 21 carries, while Schlueter completed 23-of-33 passes for 249 yards. Bryan Crider (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias) caught seven passes for the Miners and Shockley had five catches, while Greaving caught four including three for touchdowns.

S&T outgained the Blue Devils by a 408-310 margin, rushing for 159 yards and passing for 249.