ROLLA, Mo. – For Missouri S&T's football team, it will be home sweet home for a couple of weeks after spending much of the first month of the 2014 season traveling all over the central portion of the nation.
The Miners begin a two-game homestand Saturday when they play host to Lindenwood-Belleville on Miner Athletic Hall of Fame Day at Allgood-Bailey Stadium. The 1 p.m. contest will be the first of four home games for S&T over the final six weeks of the 2014 season, after it spent four of the first five weeks playing away from home.
Following an 0-3 start to the campaign, Missouri S&T has won its last two games and can reach the .500 mark with a win Saturday in its final non-conference game of the season against the fourth-year Lynx program that brings a 1-3 mark into the contest.
The Miners drew closer to the .500 mark overall and improved to 2-1 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference after pulling out a 14-13 win at Saint Joseph's last Saturday. S&T got a six-yard touchdown run from Scott Hendricks (Kechi, Kan./Maize HS) with 9:11 left in the fourth quarter to take the lead, then after the Pumas closed to within a point with 3:20 remaining, freshman linebacker Dillon Bowman (St. Peters, Mo./Fort Zumwalt South) blocked the extra point to preserve the one-point lead and eventually, the victory.
On the strength of that play, Bowman was named Monday as the GLVC's special teams "Player of the Week", making him the third Miner player in the last two weeks and fourth this season to earn the league's weekly award. He was also part of a defensive effort Saturday that held Saint Joseph's to 239 yards of total offense and just 132 on the ground, less than half of what the Pumas were averaging on the season heading into the game.
Linebacker Zach Melber (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville) has recorded ten tackles in each of the last two weeks and has a team-high 32 tackles on the season. Safety Dawan Ferguson (St. Louis, Mo./Riverview Gardens) has recorded 30 tackles as has linebacker Nick Kruse (Cuba, Mo./Cuba HS). The Miners enter the week ranked second in NCAA Division II in quarterback sacks with 4.8 per game, led in that category by Daleroy Davey (Kansas City, Kan./Turner) with five.
S&T is averaging more than ten tackles per game for lost yardage on the season.
Hendricks finished the afternoon with 100 yards rushing, becoming the first Miner since mid-October of last season to reach the 100-yard mark on the ground. He has a team-high 209 yards through the first five weeks of the year, while Charles Bournes (Chicago, Ill./Morgan Park) has ran for 161 yards.
Wide receiver Melvin Stovall (Los Angeles, Calif./Lancaster) is tied for the GLVC lead in receptions with 31 for 504 yards and five touchdowns, while Nick Taylor (Wichita, Kan./Southeast HS) has 20 catches for 190 yards. Quarterback Lamar Wilkes (Maryland Heights, Mo./Pattonville), who made his second career start last week in less than ideal conditions in Indiana, has thrown for 420 yards and three scores.
Lindenwood-Belleville won its most recent outing, a 44-6 win over Missouri Baptist behind a school record 323 yards on the ground and 508 overall. Running back Kam Harris had 169 yards in the win and leads the Lynx with 294 yards for the season.
Quarterback Austin Rickhoff has completed just under 50 percent of his passes for 617 yards and seven touchdowns; his top target has been tight end Donnie Foster with 14 catches for 141 yards and two scores. Wideout Dylan Bradley has caught 11 passes, three of them for touchdowns, at an average of 17.5 yards per reception.
T.J. Onstott leads the Lynx on the defensive side of the ball with 36 tackles from his linebacker position, while defensive end James Brown has 4.5 tackles for a loss.
Saturday's game marks the first-ever meeting between the Miners and Lynx.
Game Notes: Miners vs. Lindenwood-Belleville
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