ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's football team picked up a win in its Great Lakes Valley Conference opener on Saturday and will look to go to 2-0 in the conference Saturday when it travels to Kirksville, Mo., to take on Truman State in a 2 p.m. contest.

The Miners got a late touchdown pass from Staton King (Bixby, OK/Bixby) to Bryson Burns (Clarksville, TN/Rossview) and a late defensive stop to pull out a 31-24 win over Quincy on Saturday and will look to get back to the .500 mark on the year against a Bulldog team that has won three in a row since dropping its season opener.

King threw for a career-high 300 yards last week for the Miners (2-3) as he completed 17-of-27 passes in the victory.  King has thrown for 437 yards on the year as he has completed 59.3 percent of his passes, while the Miners have been lead in the receiving department by Isaiah Wright (Panama City, FL/Port St. Joe) with 13 catches for 187 yards and CJ Jarmon with 10 catches for 232 yards and two scores.  Jarmon had 147 yards on five receptions in Saturday's win.

The Miners have rushed for 83.4 yards per game and are led by Cameren Smith (Claymont, DE/Concord) with 170 yards and two touchdowns; he scored his second of the season to tie the game early in the second half on Saturday.  Gideon Niboh (St. Charles, MO/Francis Howell) has rushed for 128 yards and had a huge game with 172 yards in kick returns that helped earn him the GLVC's special teams player of the week award.

On the defensive side of the ball, Ben Straatmann (Washington, MO/Washington) continues to lead the Miners in tackles with 39 on the year and has also accumulated a team-high five quarterback sacks and 12.5 tackles for a loss.  The Miners have also received 34 tackles from Stefan Camplin (Raytown, MO/Raytown) and 30 from Wulfe Retzlaff (Truckee, CA/Truckee), while Peyton Shelton (Ventura, CA/Buena) – who has one of S&T's three interceptions on the year – leads the team with four pass breakups.

Parker Boyce (Hartsburg, MO/Southern Boone) continues to lead the GLVC in punting with his average of 43.2 yards per kick and has dropped a league-high 12 punts inside the opponents' 20-yard line.  Boyce's punting average ranks 14^th in NCAA Division II, while Niboh has the seventh-best average nationally of 18.3 yards per punt return.

ABOUT TRUMAN STATE:  The Bulldogs, who were idle during the opening week of GLVC play, are 3-1 with wins in their three games since a season-opening loss to Davenport.  Truman beat Tiffin 18-17 in overtime in its most recent outing, winning on a touchdown run by Shamar Griffith and two-point conversion pass from Nolan Hair to Zach Zerwig.  Truman has gone 31-9 in its last 40 games dating back to the 2018 season.

Truman's defense ranks as one of the top units in the conference, as they have held their opponents to only 326.5 yards per game and a league-low 17.5 points. Linebacker Isaiah Estes leads the way with 34 tackles and safety Ben Watson has made 27 stops and is one of three Bulldogs with two interceptions.  Ulysses Ross has a team-high 4.5 tackles for a loss.

As a team, the Bulldogs are averaging 271 yards per game offensively, putting them ahead of only the Miners in that category as well as scoring, as they have averaged 21.3 per game thus far.  Hair has completed 62.3 percent of his throws for 719 yards and five touchdowns and has four receivers with at least 10 catches, led by Matt Hall's 18.  Chris Kerr has a team-high 156 yards – averaging 14.2 yards per reception – and has two of the scoring catches.

Griffith ranks fifth in the GLVC in rushing with his 217 yards and has scored three times, but the Bulldogs have rushed for only 91.3 yards per game.  They did have a season-high 148 yards on the ground in their win over Tiffin on Sept. 24.