ROLLA, Mo. – Another nip-and-tuck contest between Missouri S&T and Quincy Saturday night at Allgood-Bailey Stadium ended up in favor of the host Miners, as
Bryson Burns' (Nashville, TN/Davidson Academy) catch and run for a 59-yard touchdown with 5:14 was the difference in S&T's 31-24 win to open Great Lakes Valley Conference play.
Burns caught a pass along the sideline near midfield, then was able to elude a handful of Quincy tacklers before getting free and racing to the end zone for the go-ahead score. Following the score, S&T's defense had to fend off a late Hawk drive that lasted 15 plays and ended up at the Miners' four-yard line before
Nick Mattli (O'Fallon, MO/Fort Zumwalt South) forced Hawk quarterback Tionne Harris into throwing an incompletion in the end zone on a fourth down play to seal the win.
In a series in which seven of the last eight matchups have been decided by eight points or less, the Hawks (2-3, 0-1 GLVC) took the initial lead in the game when AJ Hardin hauled in a 45-yard touchdown pass from Harris late in the first quarter. S&T (2-3, 1-0 GLVC) answered right back when
Gideon Niboh (St. Charles, MO/Francis Howell) returned the ensuing kickoff to the Hawks' 20-yard line, setting up a 31-yard field goal from
Parker Boyce (Hartsburg, MO/Southern Boone).
The Hawks responded with a 75-yard drive that reached the end zone again, as they converted on fourth down at the S&T 13-yard line and then got a scoring run on the next play from Tremaine Lee to extend their lead to 14-3.
Midway through the second quarter, S&T quarterback
Staton King (Bixby, OK/Bixby) – who threw for a career-high 300 yards in the contest – and wideout CJ Jarmon connected on two big pass plays to get the Miners into the end zone for the first time. Jarmon hauled in a 31-yard reception in front of the S&T bench to move the Miners into Quincy territory, then two plays later made a 37-yard touchdown catch that was followed by a successful two-point conversion by
McKennan Starkey (Troy, MO/Troy Buchanan) to cut the Hawk lead to three.
The Hawks put together another scoring drive right before the half ended, when Harris threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Lawrence with 22 seconds to go in the half, but the Miners got good field position off a short kickoff. A pair of pass completions by King gave S&T a chance for a field goal before halftime and
Parker Boyce (Hartsburg, MO/Southern Boone) was able to get three on the board for the Miners when he connected from 50 yards away to make it 21-14 at the half.
S&T got the ball to begin the second half and Niboh had another big return into Quincy's side of the field to put the Miners in business. Behind the running of
Cameren Smith (Claymont, DE/Concord) and a 29-yard completion to Jarmon, S&T tied the game when Smith went in on a two-yard run.
When the Hawks got the ball back,
Kyle Viverito (South Elgin, IL/South Elgin) forced a fumble by Lee that
Matthew Hutson (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) recovered at the Hawks' 31-yard line and the Miners took advantage to get their first lead of the night when Boyce booted a 29-yard field goal.
Quincy came right back with a scoring drive to tie the game when Drew Lenzen hit a 37-yard attempt with just over seven minutes to go in the third quarter, then the defenses took over matters for the better part of the next 17 minutes of play.
S&T got into Hawk territory again early in the fourth quarter on another long completion to Jarmon, but was then stopped on a fourth-and-one at the 16-yard line. Quincy had to punt after picking up one first down, then the Miners embarked on their game-winning possession as they scored three plays into the drive on the Burns touchdown.
When the Hawks got the ball back after the kickoff, they moved from their own 25 to the Miners' 17 before converting a fourth down play to the five-yard line. Three running plays picked up only one yard, then the Hawks – after using their final time out – were unable to reach the end zone after Harris was forced into the incompletion.
King completed 17-of-27 passes for the 300 yards as the Miners accumulated a season-high 352 yards in the contest. Jarmon had five catches for 147 yards and Burns had 85 on his three catches that including the game-winning touchdown. Meanwhile, Niboh accumulated 172 yards on returns, including his two kickoff runbacks of 47 and 70 yards and a 35-yard punt return.
Viverito,
Cam Orr (Mansfield, TX/Lake Ridge) and
Keith Jackson (St. Charles, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles) all had seven tackles apiece for the Miners, who also finished the game with five sacks.
Missouri S&T will head to the road for the next two weeks, beginning with next Saturday's matchup against 3-1 Truman State in Kirksville, Mo. Kickoff will be at 2 p.m. in what will be the Bulldogs' GLVC opener.
