ROLLA, Mo. – After putting an end to a three-game losing streak with a win over William Jewell, Missouri S&T will look to get back to the .500 mark both overall and in Great Lakes Valley Conference play Saturday when it heads to Lebanon, Ill., to take on McKendree in an 1 p.m. contest.

The Miners rode the right arm of quarterback Max Conard (Blue Springs, MO/Blue Springs South) and a solid defensive effort to post a 37-16 win over the Cardinals, as Conard threw five touchdown passes in the contest and the defensive unit held the visitors to 251 yards of total offense in the win.  S&T will bring records of 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the GLVC into Saturday's game.

Conard threw four of his touchdown passes in the first half to four different receivers and threw his fifth in the fourth quarter after the Cardinals had cut the margin to 14.  He completed 21-of-35 passes in the game for 249 yards and connected seven times with S&T's leading receiver, Breon Michel (Colorado Springs, CO/Vista Ridge), who leads the GLVC with 46 receptions and 820 yards and is second in the conference with 11 touchdown receptions after catching two on Saturday.

Payton McAlister (Decatur, TX/Decatur) has caught 23 passes for 189 yards and Josh Brown (Gainesville, FL/North Marion HS), who also had a touchdown catch against Jewell, has caught 22 balls for 260 yards.  McAlister is also the Miners' second-leading rusher on the year with 326 yards on the season, trailing only Aaron Moya's (Canutillo, TX/Canutillo) mark of 441 yards and five touchdowns and had 330 all-purpose yards in the last meeting between the Miners and Bearcats, which S&T won 51-50 on the final day of the 2019 season.

Defensively, the Miners recorded a season-high nine sacks in the win, 2.5 of them coming from Ben Straatmann (Washington, MO/Washington) who leads the conference with 10 sacks and 16 tackles for a loss among his 57 overall stops.  Justin Onwugbufor (Wichita, KS/Northwest) has made 51 tackles on the season and Dontay White (Florissant, MO/Hazelwood Central) has made 31 from his linebacker position, which also includes seven tackles for a loss.

Cameron Clemons (St. Louis, MO/Lutheran North) continues to rank among the conference leaders in passes defended with eight, as he has recorded seven pass breakups and has one of the Miners' six interceptions on the season.  In addition, the Miners have also blocked six kicks this year, including a punt that resulted in a safety and an extra point against William Jewell.
 
ABOUT McKENDREE:  The Bearcats trailed by 24 points in the third quarter Saturday at Quincy and by 20 early in the fourth period, but used a 30-point final quarter to pull out a 51-48 win over the Hawks to improve to 3-4 overall and 2-1 in the GLVC.  Ryan Kastl kicked a 25-yard field goal for the decisive points with 25 seconds left, but quarterback Turner Pullen threw three scoring passes in the final 11:37 and also ran for a touchdown that tied the game prior to Kastl's field goal.

Pullen accounted for 440 yards of total offense in the win, going 23-of-44 for 358 yards and four scores through the air and running for another 82.  For the season, he has completed 96-of-178 passes (53.9 percent) for 1,230 yards and 12 touchdowns.  Pullen, named as the GLVC's offensive player of the week following the Quincy game, has thrown for at least 300 yards in each of McKendree's two GLVC wins and had four touchdown throws in both games.

Jacob Bachman is second to Michel in receptions with 40 for 422 yards and two touchdowns, while Steven Towns has hauled in 27 passes for 402 yards and six scores.  Jace Franklin leads the Bearcat rushing attack with 491 yards and four touchdowns and Pullen has scored seven times on the ground to go along with 12 touchdown passes.

Michael Tucker has a team-high 44 tackles to pace the McKendree defense and has nine tackles for a loss and four sacks, both of which rank second on the team to the 10 tackles for a loss and 5.5 sacks recorded by Sidney Houston.  KeShon Spraggins has made 36 tackles on the year and Kenneth Garrett has 24 tackles with two of the Bearcats' five interceptions.