LEBANON, Ill. – A slow start, coupled with some key mistakes later in the contest, put Missouri S&T into a hole it couldn't escape from Saturday afternoon as the Miners dropped a 40-7 Great Lakes Valley Conference decision to McKendree.

The Bearcats scored the first two times they got the football to take a 14-0 lead before five minutes had elapsed, starting with a 65-yard drive that ended with a 20-yard touchdown run by quarterback Brandon Wildman. 

S&T went three-and-out on its opening drive that started deep in its own territory, allowing McKendree – starting its drive on the Miners' side of the 50 – to take advantage of the field position to score again on Wildman's 33-yard touchdown pass to Darius Crochrell.

The Miners had just 11 yards of total offense in the first quarter, then on S&T's first play from scrimmage in the second quarter, Tobias Cook picked off a pass from Tyler Swart (Dickinson, TX/Dickinson) and returned it to the Miners' 11-yard line, leading to Preston Thompson's touchdown run on the play that followed to give McKendree a 21-0 advantage.

S&T's best scoring chance of the first half came on its final possession, when with the Miners starting at their own 16, Swart completed six straight throws to move them to the Bearcat 12-yard line. However, a sack pushed S&T back and forced a field goal attempt with just seven seconds to go in the half and that effort went wide to the left.

Two mistakes on special teams by the Miners at the start of the second half allowed the Bearcats to add to their lead.

The first came on the opening kickoff of the half, when the ball hit the turf well in front of the Miner deep men and the Bearcats recovered at the S&T 22-yard line.  McKendree got three points out of the possession on a 35-yard field goal from Steven O'Block.

On the kickoff that followed, Braxton Graham (Seneca, MO/Seneca) lost the ball when he went into a crowd of players and McKendree recovered that one as well, leading to another O'Block field goal from 31 yards away.

Late in the third quarter, the Miners got on the scoreboard on a drive that saw Swart complete three passes to open it, including a 35-yard throw to Ray Mullen (Palm Springs, CA/Palm Springs); a tack-on penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct moved the ball to the six-yard line.  Swart eventually took it over from the one to give S&T its first points of the afternoon.

The Bearcats responded with a scoring drive – that ended with O'Block's third field goal of the game – that took up over five minutes of the clock.  O'Block added his fourth field goal of the day after the Miners lost possession on downs, a drive that took up another four-plus minutes, to push the lead to 33-7.

S&T finished the afternoon with 255 yards of total offense – 232 of which came in the middle two quarters – with Swart completing a career-high 26 passes in 39 attempts for 249 yards, but he was also sacked eight times in the game.  The Miners had a net total of six yards rushing.

McKendree (5-3, 3-2 GLVC) ran for 264 yards in the contest, including 105 by Thompson as the Bearcats ended the day with 320 yards of offense.

Mickey Sarner (Murrieta, CA/Murrieta Valley) finished with 15 tackles and Bo Brooks (Canutillo, TX/Canutillo) had 11 for the S&T defense

The Miners (4-4, 3-2 GLVC) will be back on the road next Saturday when they face Southwest Baptist in a 1 p.m. contest in Bolivar, Mo.  The Bearcats (7-1, 5-1 GLVC) stayed on the heels of GLVC leader Truman State with a 61-37 win Saturday at Saint Joseph's.