ROLLA, Mo. – A disastrous stretch in the third quarter sent Missouri S&T into a valley it couldn't quite climb out of Saturday night, as McKendree ended the Miners' five-game winning streak with a 39-31 Great Lakes Valley Conference win at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.

The Miners held a 9-7 lead at halftime, but missed a chance to add onto the lead right before halftime when Jordan Osborne picked off a Tyler Swart (Dickinson, TX/Dickinson) in the end zone with 36 seconds left in the half.  McKendree would take the lead early in the third quarter as it scored 22 points in a span of 1:41, which included interceptions returned for touchdowns on back-to-back possessions.

S&T took the initial lead in the contest when Ben Styron (Harrisonville, MO/Harrisonville) connected on a 29-yard field goal, then after the Bearcats fumbled the ball away on the ensuing kickoff, Styron closed that possession by making a field goal from 27 yards away.

McKendree took its first lead late in the first quarter when Reece Metcalf connected on a 26-yard scoring pass to Josh Revay, but the Miners took the advantage back when Styron made his third field goal of the half from 45 yards away.

Late in the first half, S&T got the ball following a McKendree punt at its own one-yard line and got out of the shadows of its own goal posts thanks to a personal foul penalty on the Bearcats after a third down pass had gone incomplete.  The Miners then moved the ball down the field with Swart completing all four of his pass attempts and Deshawn Jones (Olympia Fields, IL/Rich Central) running for 38 yards on the drive as the Miners reached the McKendree five-yard line.

However, Osborne jumped in front of S&T wideout Logan Armontrout (Centralia, MO/Centralia) in the back corner of the end zone to pick off a pass to halt that scoring threat and keep the Miner lead at 9-7 at the break.

After each team punted to open the second half, the Bearcats got possession after the S&T punt at the Miner 37 and scored five plays later on a four-yard touchdown pass from Metcalf to Zach Bobos.  The score was the first against the S&T defense in the second half of a game since Sept. 16.

On the next play after the kickoff – when a big return by Roderick Chapman (Los Angeles, CA/Jefferson) was brought back due to a penalty -- McKendree linebacker Austin Weltha picked off a Swart pass and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown to extend the Bearcat lead.  Weitha did it again when the Miners got the ball back when he brought an interception back 43 yards for a score.

Following a field goal by Josh Lazaro that gave McKendree a 32-9 lead late in the third quarter, the Miner offense came to life in the fourth quarter.

S&T got its first touchdown of the night on the opening play of the fourth quarter when Swart crashed over the goal line from the one, but McKendree added to its lead on another Metcalf-to-Revay scoring pass that covered 30 yards.  But the Miners came back again, with Swart scoring again on a one-yard run to make it 39-23 with 4:14 to play.

The Miners then got the ball back after a McKendree fumble following on an onside kick and drove for another touchdown – a 15-yard scoring pass from Swart to Armontrout and a two-point conversion pass to Justin Vaughn (Houston, TX/George Bush) – to make it a one score game with exactly a minute to play.  However, the onside kick that followed went off a Miner before it went 10 yards and the Bearcats ran the clock out.

Missouri S&T (5-3, 3-1 GLVC) had 456 yards of total offense to 244 for the Bearcats (5-3, 3-1 GLVC) and had the ball for 40:49 of the contest, but was done in by its four turnovers, three of which led to scores.

Jones had another huge outing for S&T Saturday night, tying a school record with his sixth consecutive games with 100 or more yards as he rushed for 221 in the game, the fourth-most in a contest in school history.  The 221 yards also put Jones – the leading rusher in the GLVC – over the 1,000-yard mark for the season with three games still to play.

Swart did throw for 254 yards as he completed 24-of-39 passes, but was sacked eight times by the McKendree defense.  Josh Brown (Gainesville, FL/North Marion HS) had seven of those receptions for 92 yards, while Armontrout hauled in six.

Landon Compton (Lamar, MO/Lamar) and Austin Truvillion (Kansas City, MO/Park Hill) had seven tackles apiece to lead the Miners on the defensive side.

Missouri S&T will play at home again next Saturday as it hosts Southwest Baptist at 1 p.m. at Allgood-Bailey Stadium for Homecoming.