LIBERTY, Mo. – A sluggish first half put Missouri S&T in a hole it was unable to get out of Saturday afternoon, as the Miners suffered their first loss in Great Lakes Valley Conference play with a 40-16 loss at William Jewell.

The Miners and Cardinals were almost dead even in terms of yardage, but five turnovers by the Miners helped to seal their fate as they missed a chance to move to 3-0 in league play and instead fell to 2-3 overall and 2-1 in the GLVC.

For the second week in a row, the Miner defense recorded the first score of the game.  Two plays after WJC's Orlando Ward intercepted a Lamar Wilkes (Maryland Heights, Mo./Pattonville) pass deep in the William Jewell territory, Jeremi Ross (Valencia, Calif./Hollywood) picked off a Nick West pass just outside the goal line and scored to put S&T in front.

The Cardinals knotted the score early in the second quarter after getting the ball at the S&T 36-yard line following a punt, as West carried it in from the six.

S&T responded with a scoring drive that culminated with a 28-yard field goal by Nolan Mannino (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo), but the game turned when WJC's Anthony Mullins returned the ensuing kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown to give the Cardinals a 13-9 lead.  William Jewell would add to its advantage with another touchdown on a drive that started in Miner territory, ending with Thomas Cook's 17-yard run.

The Cardinals threatened to break the game open as the second half started when West ran 74 yards on a quarterback keeper to the S&T six-yard line, but the Miners held and made William Jewell settle for a 22-yard field goal by Brandon Womack.

Missouri S&T cut the lead in half on its opening possession of the second half, getting a 20-yard completion from Wilkes to Elrod to move near midfield; moments later, Wilkes and Elrod connected again on a 42-yard scoring pass to draw S&T to within seven.

The Miners missed two chances to draw even after the Elrod touchdown, first when Elrod got behind the Cardinal defense but couldn't haul in a Wilkes throw and later in the third quarter when Kolby Fennewald broke up a pass to the end zone on fourth down.

William Jewell proceeded to drive back down the field, getting two key pass completions to keep the drive going and eventually scoring on Trejuan Mask's six-yard run with 13:16 to play.  Then following an interception on a tipped pass, the Cardinals got a 35-yard field goal from Brandon Womack to push their lead to 17.

The Miners beat Saint Joseph's a week ago despite turning the ball over four times, but were done in by five turnovers Saturday, including an interception in the end zone that thwarted a late rally effort.

William Jewell (1-4, 1-2 GLVC) held a 348-347 edge in yards, but ran for 246 yards in the contest.  The Miners threw for 197, but completed only 16-of-46 passes and threw four interceptions.

DeSoto Dickson (Florissant, Mo./Trinity Catholic) ran for 91 yards to lead the Miner running attack, while D'Luis West (Troup, Texas/Troup) ran for 35.  Elrod caught six balls for 106 yards and the one touchdown.

Landon Compton (Lamar, Mo./Lamar) had 11 tackles on defense for the Miners, while Austin Truvillion (Kansas City, Mo./Park Hill) finished with eight.  S&T had two sacks in the game, which came from Josip Juric (West Des Moines, Iowa/Dowling Catholic) and Bret Curtis (Lombard, Ill./Glenbard South).

The Miners will host College of Faith in a 1 p.m. contest next Saturday at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.