ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's football team will play for a berth in the Great Lakes Valley Conference championship game Thursday night as the Miners host Truman State in a 6 p.m. contest at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.

Thursday's game between the Miners and Bulldogs is essentially a GLVC semifinal contest as both teams come into the contest with 2-0 records following wins over William Jewell and Southwest Baptist in the first two weeks of the spring season.  The winner of Thursday's game will face the winner of Saturday's McKendree-Indianapolis game on April 24.

The Miners reached 2-0 by knocking off SBU 48-34 Saturday in their home opener, outscoring the Bearcats 21-0 in the third quarter after trailing by a point at halftime and then holding off the visitors in the fourth quarter.  As was the case in the win over William Jewell, it was the Miners' rushing attack that played a huge role in the win.

S&T rushed for 363 yards in the win, the sixth-most in a contest in school history and most by a Miner team in a game since 1993.  For the second straight week, the Miners also had a pair of 100-yard rushers in Payton McAlister (Decatur, TX/Decatur) and Aaron Moya (Canutillo, TX/Canutillo), who enter Thursday's game as the top two rushers in the GLVC.

McAlister earned GLVC offensive player of the week honors following a 190-yard performance that put his season total at 321 yards, while Moya has rushed for 292 on the season after he posted 149 against SBU.  The two backs – who each went over the 1,000-yard mark for rushing yards in a career during the game – have combined for eight touchdowns on the ground.

Quarterback Brennan Simms (Punta Gorda, FL/Charlotte) has completed 36-of-52 passes (69.2 percent) for 351 yards and two scores, with McAlister leading the way in receptions as well with 10.  Josh Brown (Gainesville, FL/North Marion HS) has eight catches on the season for a team-high 93 yards and Tate Nickleberry (Columbia, MO/Rock Bridge) has hauled in six passes.

Justin Onwugbufor (Wichita, KS/Northwest) leads the defensive unit in tackles with 18, while Ben Straatmann (Washington, MO/Washington) – this week's GLVC defensive player of the week – has made 17 tackles and has 1.5 for a loss.  Defensive end Jack Roush (Columbia, MO/Rock Bridge) leads S&T with 2.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for a loss, while CJ Hedgepeth (Evansville, IN/Harrison) has both of S&T's interceptions and Cameron Orr (Mansfield, TX/Lake Ridge) has a team-leading four pass breakups.

ABOUT TRUMAN STATE:  The Bulldogs, like the Miners, are 2-0 in the spring season with wins over Southwest Baptist and William Jewell.  In its 34-15 win over Jewell on Saturday, Truman got on the board when Peyton Carr recovered a blocked punt in the end zone and did the bulk of its damage from there on the ground, as it rushed for 302 yards as a team with Cody Schrader accounting for 142 of them and two scores, one coming on a 66-yard run.

Schrader is currently the third-leading rusher in the GLVC -- trailing S&T's Peyton McAlister and Aaron Moya (Canutillo, TX/Canutillo) -- with 263 yards in the first two games and has scored four touchdowns.  Wide receiver Jaylen Jefferson has 156 yards on 13 carries and has scoring runs of 56 and 58 yards thus far.

Quarterback Nolan Hair has completed 27-of-43 passes on the season for 347 yards and three touchdowns, with his top target being tight end Jake Ellis with six receptions.  Jacob Morris has made five catches from his wideout position, while Matt Hall and Schrader have four apiece; Hair has completed passes to eight different receivers.

On the defensive side, linebacker Isaiah Estes leads the Bulldogs with 10 tackles and five others have made seven stops on the season.  Defensive end Kendrick Scarbrough has two tackles for a loss and has 1.5 quarterback sacks along with Collin Bohnenkamp as the Bulldogs have recorded five sacks as a team.  Ben Thomas has Truman's only interception in the first two contests.