ROLLA, Mo. – Eight consecutive weeks of Great Lakes Valley Conference play awaits Missouri S&T's football team as it gets its league slate underway under the lights Saturday evening when Truman State visits Allgood-Bailey Stadium.  Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.

S&T suffered its first loss of the 2025 season Saturday when it fell 27-10 at Missouri Western.  The Miners were held to 212 yards of total offense – well under its current average of 356.7 per game – and struggled to slow down the Griffons in the first half as Western got out to a 24-0 lead by the intermission.  S&T brings a 2-1 overall record into its conference opener.

Saturday's game will also open the GLVC slate for Truman State, who won for the first time in the 2025 campaign when it rallied for a 28-27 overtime win over Davenport.  The Bulldogs, 1-2 on the year, trailed 21-7 in the third quarter but got the game into overtime, then held off a game-winning two-point conversion attempt by the Panthers after scoring on its possession in the extra period.

Along with it being the GLVC opener for both teams, it will also be Miner Athletic Hall of Fame Night as four new inductees and a team will be honored during halftime.

ABOUT THE MINERS: Missouri S&T fell behind 24-0 in the first half last week and ended up on the short end of a 27-10 result at Missouri Western, sending the Miners to their first defeat of the season after they had won their first two contests of the year.

Quarterback Jake Farrell (Scottsdale, AZ/Notre Dame Prep) completed 19-of-30 passes in the game for 175 yards and threw his seventh touchdown pass of the season with he connected with Sheldon Butler-Lawson (Junction City, KS/Junction City) on a five-yard scoring pass.  Farrell has completed 58.4 percent of his passes on the season for 781 yards, with his top target being Reid Weber (St. Charles, MO/Francis Howell) with 15 catches for 193 yards and three touchdowns.

Butler-Lawson and Tyler Gioia (Huntington Beach, CA/Edison) have 12 catches apiece, with Gioia having two touchdown receptions to go with an average of 15.7 yards per catch and Butler-Lawson averaging nine yards per reception after getting his first scoring catch as a Miner last week.

AJ Harris (Wentzville, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles) leads the Miner ground game with 115 yards on the season, while Kai Martin (Clearwater, FL/Calvary Christian) has 93 yards in two games.

S&T's defense, led by Justin Gniedziejko's (Chicago, IL/Taft) 21 tackles on the season, has allowed 324.3 yards per game thus far on the year.  Cornerback Max Barnes (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest) and linebacker Seneca Bradley (Clarksville, TN/Rossview) Jr., have 19 tackles apiece, while Bentley Hart (Brookland, AR/Brookland) has a team-leading six tackles behind the line of scrimmage.  Christian Kemp (Madison, AL/Bob Jones), who has four tackles for a loss, is the S&T sack leader with two as the Miners have reached the quarterback nine times in the first three weeks.

The Miners have also blocked three kicks this season, a mark that leads all of NCAA Division II.

ABOUT TRUMAN STATE: The Bulldogs picked up their first win of the season Saturday, rallying from a two-touchdown deficit in the second half to down Davenport 28-27 in overtime.  The Bulldogs (1-2) got the ball first in overtime and got a touchdown pass from Dylan Hair to Parker Erickson, then after Davenport reached the end zone on its possession, the Bulldogs stopped a two-point conversion attempt to pull out the victory.

Hair threw two scoring passes in the win, as he completed 19-of-33 passes for 228 yards along the way.  For the season, he has gone 52-of-94 (55.3 percent) for 647 yards and six touchdowns, completing 11 of those throws to Nathan Ryan.  Ryan is averaging 18.4 yards per catch and has caught three of Hair's six scoring passes; his 18.4 yards per catch is the second-most in the GLVC among players with at least 10 receptions.

Denim Cook has rushed for 176 yards on the season – third-most in the GLVC – to lead the Bulldogs in that department, while Hair has added another 125 yards on the ground.  The Bulldogs, who are averaging 344.3 yards per game, have committed only one turnover across their first three contests.

Linebacker Connor Baxley leads the Bulldogs with 32 tackles on the season, while returning All-GLVC performer Jack Weltha has 27 stops.  Jaxin Patterson has made a team-high four tackles for a loss and Dominic Grand has the team's lone interception, which he returned 73 yards for a touchdown in last week's win.