ROLLA, Mo. – With a chance to make its final argument for a post-season berth, Missouri S&T used two rallies to overtake Truman State Saturday afternoon at Allgood-Bailey Stadium as it came away with a thrilling 34-33 win in the regular season finale.

The Miners overcame a 14-point deficit in the first half and a nine-point difference in the second half – taking the lead on Tyler Swart's (Dickinson, TX/Dickinson) 11-yard touchdown pass to Braxton Graham (Seneca, MO/Seneca) in the fourth quarter – to claim second place in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and improve to 9-2 on the season.

Missouri S&T will now wait to see if it will get an opportunity to continue its season, as the NCAA Division II championship field will be announced at 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon.  If the Miners – who were ninth in last week's Super Region 3 rankings – are not selected, a bid to a bowl game could be in their future as well.

Seven of the eight teams that were ahead of the Miners in last week's regional rankings won Saturday, with the only loss coming from Southern Arkansas as it fell at Arkansas-Monticello.

Saturday's game started out with plenty of offensive fireworks.  The Miners were stopped on the game's opening possession, but Spencer Newell muffed Jonathan Banowetz's (O'Fallon, MO/Fort Zumwalt North) punt and S&T's Bo Blomenkamp (Columbia, MO/Rock Bridge) recovered the loose ball a the Truman 36-yard line.  Eight plays later, Swart went over from the one to put the Miners into the lead.

However, the Bulldogs (6-5, 5-2 GLVC) answered right, as Jordan Salima raced 63 yards for a touchdown on their second play from scrimmage to tie the game.   After an S&T punt, Truman grabbed the lead when Jaden Barr connected with Dante Ruffin on a 34-yard scoring pass.

Ben Styron (Harrisonville, MO/Harrisonville) kicked a 23-yard field goal after the Miners' drive stalled inside the Truman 10 to draw the Miners closer, but the Bulldogs scored on their next two possessions, first on a seven-yard run by Barr and then on Josh Scheiderer's 34-yard field goal following an S&T fumble that put Truman up 24-10.

The Miners' next possession ended with an interception, but after the S&T defense forced a three-and-out, Swart went back to the air and hit a well-covered Justin Vaughn (Houston, TX/George Bush) for a 48-yard scoring pass to cut the Bulldogs lead in half.  S&T got the ball back with 2:42 to go in the half and drove 77 yards for the tying score, which came on an 11-yard touchdown pass to Payton McAlister (Decatur, TX/Decatur).

While the first half saw each team put 24 points on the scoreboard, the second half started out as a defensive battle.  Truman regained the lead on a safety after a punt snap sailed over the head of Banowetz and into the end zone, then following the free kick, the Bulldogs drove 59 yards for another touchdown as Barr hit Ruffin for a 17-yard scoring pass to make it 33-24.

S&T got three of the points back as Aundray Henley (Miami, FL/Flanagan) returned the ensuing kickoff into Truman territory to set up a 39-yard field by Styron, then the Miner defense forced a punt to begin the eventual game-winning drive.

The Miners got a first down early in the drive when Graham fumbled the ball following a reception on third down and was recovered by Logan Armontrout (Centralia, MO/Centralia) past the first down marker.  S&T converted two more third down passes on the drive, one to Vaughn for 18 yards in front of the S&T bench and another to Graham to reach the Truman 11-yard line.

On the next play, Swart went to Graham again for the touchdown that tied the score, before Styron's extra point put S&T into the lead.

Truman had to punt on its next possession and downed the ball at the S&T one-yard line with 10:17 left to play, but the Miners moved the ball up the field and even though the drive ended without points after a long field goal into the wind fell short, S&T was able to run over seven minutes off the clock and forced Truman to use all of its timeouts.

When the Bulldogs got the ball back, Barr was able to run for a first down on a third-and-10, but moments later on fourth-and-15, his pass downfield was intercepted by Stefan Camplin (Raytown, MO/Raytown) with 1:30 remaining to lock up the win for S&T.

The Miners finished with 420 yards of total offense, most of which came through the air as Swart went 30-of-44 for 381 yards.  In the process, Swart became the all-time passing yardage leader in GLVC history, passing McKendree's Isaac Fisher as he ended the day with 8,584 yards.

Graham had 11 receptions for 126 yards and his fourth quarter touchdown moved him into a tie with Indianapolis' Reece Horn for second in career receiving touchdowns in GLVC history with 31, while Armontrout had 81 yards on seven receptions.

The Miner defense, which held Truman to 302 yards, got a game-high nine tackles from Bo Brooks (Canutillo, TX/Canutillo), while Tershawn Wharton (University City, MO/University City) had 2.5 sacks out of the five recorded by S&T.   Brooks moved into the top 10 on the Miners' career tackle list in the process while Landon Compton (Lamar, MO/Lamar), who had eight tackles, moved into fourth place on that same list.

Saturday's win also ended a 13-game home losing streak to Truman State, as the Miners had not defeated the Bulldogs at Allgood-Bailey Stadium since winning the season finale over the Bulldogs in 1983.  S&T also posted its first wins over Truman in back-to-back seasons since the 1980 and 1981 seasons.