BOLIVAR, Mo. – Last November, Missouri S&T denied Southwest Baptist a chance at finishing with a winning record by beating SBU in its season finale. 

 

The Bearcats turned the tables on the Miners Saturday, avenging last year's 40-point loss to S&T with a 54-13 win at SBU's Plaster Stadium to end the Miners' three-game winning streak.

 

After the teams traded touchdowns in the first quarter, the host Bearcats rattled off 48 unanswered points to secure their first winning season since 2001. They got the win largely on the performance of quarterback Steve Gachette, who racked 570 yards of total offense by himself of the 696 accumulated by SBU Saturday.

 

SBU broke on top midway through the first quarter when Gachette connected with Johnnie King for a 34-yard scoring pass, the first of his five touchdown tosses in the contest.

 

S&T answered right back, traveling 60 yards on six plays and evening the score on a 41-yard touchdown pass from Jason Schlueter (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) to Smook Thomas (Quincy, Fla./East Gadsden). The extra point was blocked to leave the game tied at six as the Bearcats also missed their conversion try after the King touchdown.

 

The Bearcats regained the lead with 28 seconds to go in the first quarter on a one-yard touchdown run by Thaddeus Everson, then busted the game open in the latter stages of the second quarter on a pair of Gachette touchdown throws, the first covering 32 yards to Elon Paige and then a seven-yard pass to Jameson Manuma with 1:22 left to take a 27-6 lead to the locker room.

 

SBU tacked on two more third quarter touchdowns and two more in the fourth period before the Miners scored on a 14-yard run by Mike Wilson (Valrico, Fla./King) with 3:21 to play.

 

Gachette completed 31-of-39 passes in the game for 407 yards and also ran for 163 yards, as SBU finished with 289 yards on the ground.

 

The Miners finished the afternoon with 341 yards of total offense, including a 176-yard performance on the ground that was one yard shy of their single-game high this season. Bobby Pettis (Hickory Hills, Ill./Argo) led S&T on the ground with 91 yards on 13 carries.

 

Schlueter threw for 136 yards, with three different receivers – Thomas, Clay Kinman (Carthage, Mo./Carthage) and Curterris Golden (Chicago, Ill./John Hope) – making four catches apiece for S&T.

 

The Miners will wrap up the 2009 season next Saturday at Kentucky Wesleyan at 1 p.m. The Panthers won for the second time on the year today with a 21-6 victory at Lincoln.