ROLLA, Mo. – A week after pulling off a rally from a 17-point deficit to win a key Great Lakes Valley Conference game over McKendree, Missouri S&T succumbed to Southwest Baptist's second half comeback Saturday as the Bearcats scored the game's final 23 points in a 46-42 win at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.

The Miners led 42-23 early in the second half following a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Spencer Elrod (Lancaster, Calif./Eastside), but behind the arm of freshman quarterback Trent Edwards and mistakes on the part of the Miners, the Bearcats stormed back over the final 21 minutes to come away with the victory on a rainy afternoon.

Edwards, who accumulated 324 of his 385 passing yards in the second half, threw two long touchdown passes to cut into the Miner lead and threw another long pass to set up Bubba Jenkins' go-ahead touchdown with exactly six minutes to play.

The first of the long scoring passes came after S&T's Nolan Mannino (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) pinned the Bearcats at their own two-yard line following a punt.  On the next play, Kendrick Payne raced down the sideline and made the catch as a Miner defender got turned in the wrong direction, leading to a GLVC-record 98-yard touchdown catch to make it 42-31 after Payne completed a two-point conversion pass to Edwards.

S&T drove to the SBU 10-yard line when it got the ball back, but quarterback Lamar Wilkes (Maryland Heights, Mo./Pattonville) fumbled during the course of a sack and the Bearcats recovered at the 16.

The Miners missed two more opportunities to score after that, first when Edwards was hit when he threw the ball out of his own end zone and the ball floated into the flat, but two S&T defenders collided and the ball fell incomplete on what could well have been a touchdown.  S&T's next possession, which started at the SBU 13 following a punt, ended with another lost fumble in the red zone.

With just over five minutes gone in the fourth quarter, Edwards hit Nathan Mourik on a pass as two Miner defenders collided, allowing Mourik to easily reach the end zone on a 63-yard scoring pass; another successful two-point try put the Bearcats within three.

S&T went three-and-out on its next possession, after which SBU drove 78 yards for the go-ahead score.  Edwards hit a wide open Scottie Wilson for 26 yards on a second-and-25 play to get into S&T territory, then hit Wilson for 34 more to the Miner one to set up the go-ahead touchdown by Jenkins.

The Miners were unable to get a first down on three possessions in the final six minutes, including one where they were stopped on fourth-and-one at their own 29-yard line.

S&T opened the scoring on the game's first possession when Dalton Major (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bishop McNamara) scored from five yards out.  The Bearcats tied the score – taking advantage of a fumble on a punt return – on a three-yard run by Jenkins, then got a safety due to a bad snap on a Miner punt that went out of the end zone.

But the Miners took charge for most the final 20 minutes of the first half behind Wilkes, who had a hand in all four touchdowns S&T scored in that stretch.

First, he hit Spencer Elrod (Lancaster, Calif./Eastside) for a 50-yard scoring pass, as Elrod had to hold up for a pass being thrown into the wind and and worked his way through the SBU secondary to the goal line. 

In the second quarter, following a fumble by Jenkins that was recovered by Isaac Williams (St. Louis, Mo./DeSmet Jesuit), Wilkes finished the drive by going over from the one to put S&T up 21-9.  After the Bearcats cut into the lead with two big plays in succession – a 57-yard pass to Mourik followed by a 38-yard touchdown run by Jenkins – S&T answered back when Wilkes hit Major for a 40-yard touchdown pass.

A fumble by Edwards late in the first half set up another Miner touchdown before halftime, as Wilkes connected with Ray Mullen (Palm Springs, Calif./Palm Springs) for a 20-yard score -- only 21 seconds after the scoring pass to Major -- to give S&T a 35-16 halftime lead.

The Miners outgained the Bearcats by a wide margin in the first half, racking up 279 yards to SBU's 118.  The second half, however, was a different story as the Miners had only 89 offensive yards to the Bearcats' 350; SBU had a 468-368 advantage in total yards and had no turnovers in the second half while the Miners finished with five for the game.

Major had 98 yards to lead the Miner rushing attack as S&T ended up with 158 net yards, while Wilkes threw for 210 in the game but completed only 10 of his 30 pass attempts.

Elrod finished with 92 yards on three receptions and had 224 all-purpose yards in the game, the third straight week the Miners have had a player with over 200 all-purpose yards.

The Miners, who were led defensively by Landon Compton (Lamar, Mo./Lamar) with nine tackles and Gabe Marcantonio (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson CIty) with eight, recorded seven sacks in the contest and broke up eight passes.

Missouri S&T will take on league leader Indianapolis at 6 p.m. (Eastern time) next Saturday in Indianapolis.