ROLLA, Mo. – After struggling for three weeks to produce yards and points, Missouri S&T's offense came to life Saturday to put the Miners into the win column for the first time in the 2009 season.

 

With a 456-yard performance, their best showing since the second week of the year, S&T came away with a hard-fought 31-28 win over Northwestern Oklahoma State at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.

 

Quarterback Jason Schlueter (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) threw for 344 yards and three touchdowns – all of them to redshirt freshman Kevin Dillon (Plano, Texas/Plano East) – to help propel the Miners to that first win.

 

The defense came up with the first big play of the afternoon, however, as Mark Hopkins (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) halted the Rangers' opening drive with an interception at the S&T 21-yard line. That pick set up a 68-yard scoring drive that opened with a 31-yard run by Bobby Pettis (Hickory Hills, Ill./Argo) and ended with a nifty eight-yard scoring run by Marterricus Thomas, who took the snap out of the wildcat formation and zigzagged his way through the defense for the touchdown.

 

That touchdown marked the first time this season that S&T got a touchdown on its opening possession of the contest.

 

The teams then swapped punts for the next quarter before the Rangers got on the scoreboard on a 46-yard run by Nate Guillory at the 11:57 mark of the second quarter.

 

S&T was able to get the lead back before halftime with an impressive 12-play, 83-yard drive that ended with the first of Schlueter's three scoring passes. Thomas made a catch on a third-and-10 for 11 yards to keep the drive going, then a face mask penalty on the Rangers later in the drive got the Miner to Northwestern's 15-yard line.

 

On the following play after the penalty, Dillon made a one-handed grab of a Schlueter pass in the end zone to put the Miners on top 14-7 with 22 seconds remaining in the half.

 

The Miners extended their lead right away when the second half began, with a 47-yard run by Pettis setting up another 15-yard scoring toss from Schlueter to Dillon.

 

However, the Rangers -- who a week earlier knocked off the NAIA's eighth-ranked team -- drove for touchdowns on each of their next two trips down the field to even the score. The first came when quarterback Kyle Jech went over from the one on a quarterback sneak, then Guillory got his second touchdown of the afternoon on a seven-yard run with 5:39 left in the third period.

 

The Rangers were moving up the field again the next time they got the ball, but the S&T defense came up with another turnover when Brian Jordan (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) knocked the ball free from tight end Keith Barefield and Terry Robinson (St. Louis, Mo./McCluer South-Berkeley) recovered it at the Rangers' 49 to put the Miners in business.

 

S&T turned that into the touchdown that put them ahead for good. A play after Schlueter was sacked, he connected with Thomas for 47 yards to put the Miners inside the Rangers' 10-yard line. Three plays after that, Schlueter hit Dillon in the back corner of the end zone for the third scoring pass and a 28-21 Miner lead with 12:32 to play.

 

The Miners extended their lead to 10 when they capped a drive that took over five minutes off the clock with a 21-yard field goal by Joe Drahos (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Washington) with 2:26 remaining.

 

Northwestern Oklahoma drove 73 yards in 1:31 to draw to within three, scoring on Jech's seven-yard touchdown pass to Kent McDonald with 45 seconds to go, but the Miners recovered the ensuing onsides kick to wrap up the win.

 

Schlueter finished the day by completing 30-of-54 attempts for the 344 yards. Bryan Crider (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias) finished with 11 catches for 101 yards, while Thomas caught six balls for 121 yards and Dillon also had six receptions for 74 yards and the three scores.

 

Thomas, Crider and Pettis all finished with 100 all-purpose yards on the day, as Pettis had a team-high 93 yards on the ground.

 

Robinson and Justin Philpy (McKinney, Texas/McKinney) led the Miner defense with eight tackles apiece; S&T forced the game's only two turnovers as well.

 

Guillory rushed for 132 yards for the Rangers (3-3)  – six yards shy of his seasonal average – while Jech was 22-of-33 for 263 yards through the air.

 

Missouri S&T will play host to St. Francis (Ind.), the NAIA's fourth-ranked team heading into play this weekend, for Homecoming next Saturday at 1 p.m. The Cougars improved to 6-0 Saturday by blasting Trinity International 63-7 in Fort Wayne, Ind.