ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's football team will look to close out a season with a winning record for the fifth straight season Saturday when it heads to Bolivar, Mo., to face Southwest Baptist in the 2021 season finale at Plaster Stadium.  Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.

The Miners come into the contest at 5-5 overall and 3-3 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference after losing 43-16 Saturday to conference champion Lindenwood at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.  S&T fell behind 19-0 after one quarter of play and was unable to make up much ground on the scoreboard, despite outgaining the Lions by a 478-to-449 margin.

In Saturday's game, the Miners rushed for 203 yards – 134 of them coming from Payton McAlister (Decatur, TX/Decatur) -- and had 325 yards of total offense in the second half of play.  McAlister is second on the team in rushing with 460 yards on the season, trailing only Aaron Moya's (Canutillo, TX/Canutillo) total of 611 yards after he picked up 77 on the ground Saturday.

Quarterback Luke Hertzler (St. Louis, MO/Parkway North) has completed 55.4 percent of his passes on the season for 1,539 yards and 13 touchdowns; along with fellow senior Brennan Simms (Punta Gorda, FL/Charlotte) and Max Conard (Blue Springs, MO/Blue Springs South), the trio has combined to throw 26 scoring passes this season.  One-half of them have gone to Breon Michel (Colorado Springs, CO/Vista Ridge), who has 60 receptions for 1,062 yards on the year as he became the fifth Miner to reach the 1,000-yard mark for receptions in a season against Lindenwood.

Michel is chasing the Miners' single-season record of 1,198 yards held by Chad Shockley and can reach that mark with 136 yards in the season finale.  Josh Brown (Gainesville, FL/North Marion HS) has hauled in 42 passes for 616 yards and five scores, while McAlister has 25 receptions for 203 yards on the year.

Michel is not the only Miner trying to reach a school record this weekend, as linebacker Ben Straatmann (Washington, MO/Washington) is within reach of two defensive marks heading into the season finale.  Straatmann, who leads the Miners with 79 tackles on the year, has 19.5 tackles for a loss which is 2.5 behind the single season mark set by Bo Brooks in 2018 and his 11.5 quarterback sacks – which is the most of any linebacker in NCAA Division II -- is two from Tershawn Wharton's total of 13.5 set in 2017.

Fellow linebacker Dontay White (Florissant, MO/Hazelwood Central) has been in on 56 tackles and has 11 stops behind the line of scrimmage, while safety Justin Onwugbufor (Wichita, KS/Northwest) has 54 tackles and Stefan Camplin (Raytown, MO/Raytown) has 50 from his safety position.  Cameron Clemons (St. Louis, MO/Lutheran North), one of three Miners with two interceptions, has recorded 15 pass breakups.
 
ABOUT SOUTHWEST BAPTIST: The Bearcats come into Saturday's game at 4-6 overall, but can finish above .500 in the GLVC for the first time since 2017 with a win as it is 3-3 in league play.  SBU rode another big day from quarterback Cooper Callis to beat Quincy 47-31 on Saturday, as he completed 30-of-42 passes for 408 yards and four touchdowns.

Callis ranks second in NCAA Division II in passing yards with 3,349 on the season and has 31 touchdown passes, the eighth-most in the nation this year.  He has completed 69.5 percent of his passes (fourth nationally) and has a slew of receivers with big numbers, led by Preston Carson's 58 catches for 835 yards – both second in the GLVC to S&T's Breon Michel (Colorado Springs, CO/Vista Ridge) – and seven scores.  Jordan Kent has 628 yards on 38 catches and Cassian Foreman has 589 on 37 receptions.

The Bearcats have rushed for a league-low 64.7 yards per game, but are coming off a game at Quincy where they ran for a season-high 152 yards.  Abel Carter leads the ground game with 327 yards and four touchdowns, while Eric Knight has 202 yards and three touchdowns.  No other Bearcat has reached the 100-yard mark for the season in the rushing department.

Defensively, the Bearcats are led by linebacker Coleton Smith with 139 tackles of which 54 are solo stops.  Aaron Harris has made 65 tackles and Brenden Smith has been in on 53 stops.  SBU has intercepted only five passes all season – two apiece by Chris Fuzeme and Omari Oggs – and has allowed a league-high 218.2 rushing yards per game.  The Bearcats have allowed 40 or more points on five occasions, but also own a win over an 8-2 Truman State team this season.