ROLLA, Mo. – The best offensive night for Missouri S&T in nearly two years led to the Miners' second straight victory in Great Lakes Valley Conference play Saturday night, as the Miners knocked off Saint Joseph's 39-27 on Miner Hall of Fame Night at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.

The Miners entered Saturday's game averaging just 317 yards of total offense per game, but exploded for 569 Saturday as they ran 98 plays from scrimmage – 59 coming in the first half as they built a 25-14 lead as S&T led from start to finish.

Before the Miner offense could go to work, it was the defense that got S&T on the scoreboard on the very first play after the opening kickoff.

On the kickoff, SJC's Blake Faus fielded the ball near the goal line and his foot hit the pylon, putting the ball at the one-yard line.   Braxton Shelton was then hemmed in on a sweep and brought down in the end zone by Shaun Williams (St. Louis, Mo./DeSmet Jesuit) for a safety to give S&T the early lead.

The Miners extended the lead later in the opening period on a 23-yard field goal by Nolan Mannino (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) and a six-yard touchdown pass from Lamar Wilkes (Maryland Heights, Mo./Pattonville) to Ray Mullen (Palm Springs, Calif./Palm Springs).

Saint Joseph's got on the scoreboard on its next possession with a 65-yard drive that ended with a two-yard scoring run by Derrick Python, then after an exchange of punts – the latter of which had S&T starting on its own one-yard line – the Miners mounted a 99-yard scoring drive to extend the lead.

Wilkes completed a 39-yard pass to Braxton Graham (Seneca, Mo./Seneca) on third-and-12 to midfield to keep the drive going and later hit Graham again for 20 yards to reach the Puma 16.  Following short pass completions to Spencer Elrod (Lancaster, Calif./Eastside) and Mullen, Wilkes finished the drive off with a 10-yard scamper to make it 18-7.

The Pumas went three-and-out and punted the ball back to S&T, who appeared poised to break the contest open.  However, on the Miners' first play, Jacque Harris (Jacksonville, Fla./Stanton) caught a pass from Wilkes but had the ball stripped by Cedric Turner, who brought it back 64 yards for a touchdown to get SJC back into the game.

That was followed by the Miners having to start another drive on its own one on the ensuing kickoff and a fumble on the first play that gave the Pumas the ball as the Miners' three-yard line.  However, the defense held firm – pushing the Pumas back four yards – and SJC came up empty as Gavin Voss missed a 25-yard field goal attempt.

Late in the first half, the Miners marched 80 yards for a touchdown to extend the margin to 11, as Wilkes connected with Mullen on a 29-yard scoring pass with just under a minute to go in the half.

The Miners had six possessions in the first 30 minutes in which they had the ball for at least eight plays.

S&T added to its advantage just over five minutes into the second half when Wilkes connected with Elrod for a 75-yard scoring pass, as the Miner receiver got behind the secondary and outran the Puma defenders to the goal line.

However, the Pumas closed the gap with two quick scores, the first a 43-yard scoring pass from Wade Burtron to Jose Esquivel and – shortly after a Miner fumble – a 14-yard run by Burtron that cut the lead to 32-27.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Miner embarked on a time-consuming drive – one that lasted 5:39 – to add to the lead as Dalton Major (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bishop McNamara) closed a 12-play drive that included nine running plays with a one-yard scoring.  On the play prior to the score, Major had an 18-yard carry through traffic that ended up at the one.

The Miner defense got a fourth down stop on the Pumas' next possession, then the offense chewed up another five minutes to all but run out the clock.

S&T got big nights from several players on the offensive end, led by Wilkes who threw for a career-high 354 yards on 23-of-39 passing; he ended up with 386 yards of total offense in the game.  Major ran for a career-best 120 of the Miners' 215 on the ground, while Graham and Elrod each finished with over 100 yards in receptions.

Elrod had six catches for 129 yards and had 185 all-purpose yards, while Graham had 208 all-purpose yards that included 101 on seven catches in the receiving department.

S&T's 569-yard output was its largest since Sept. 22, 2012, when it had 570 against Kentucky Wesleyan and the first 500-plus game for the Miners since the middle of the 2013 season when they had 551 in a win at KWC.  The 98 plays fell one short of the Miners' single game record set in 2003.

Meanwhile, the Miner defense held the Pumas (2-2, 1-1 GLVC) to 276 yards on the night, the bulk of which came via the air.  S&T also recorded a season-high five sacks, three by defensive tackle Josip Juric (West Des Moines, Iowa/Dowling Catholic).

Jeremi Ross (Valencia, Calif./Hollywood) and Landon Compton (Lamar, Mo./Lamar) led S&T with eight tackles apiece and each had two pass breakups as well among the nine made by the Miners, who knocked off the Pumas for the sixth consecutive season.

The Miners (2-2, 2-0 GLVC) will hit the road next week to face William Jewell in a 1 p.m. contest in Liberty, Mo.