Metro East Sun

The McKendree University football team rallied from a 21-point deficit after three quarters here on a wind and blustery fall Saturday afternoon by scoring four touchdowns in the final quarter as the Bearcats picked up a 42-35 come-from-behind victory over Missouri S&T in Great Lakes Valley Conference action on Homecoming at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.

 

With the win, McKendree snaps a two-game losing skid and improves to 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the GLVC, while Missouri S&T falls to 3-5 overall and 2-2 in the league. In addition, the victory snapped a three-game win streak by the Miners in the series as McKendree hadn't defeated S&T in football since a 39-31 road win in 2017.

 

S&T used big five plays that took a total of just 114 seconds off the clock to score its 35 points as they their touchdown scores came on plays of 73 yards, 75 yards, 70 yards, 63 yards and 80 yards. On those five plays, S&T gained 361 of their 487 yards of offense but was held to just 26 yards on 21 plays in the fourth quarter.

 

Meanwhile, McKendree was methodical on offense in Saturday's game as they ran a season high 86 plays and gained 564 yards of offense, which was one shy of its season high of 565 yards last week against Quincy. The Bearcats rushed for a season high 244 yards and passed for 320 yards.

 

In the fourth quarter, the Bearcats ran 15 plays and gained 139 yards as they passed for 88 yards and run for 51 yards.

 

The final big play of the game for the Miners was an 80-yard touchdown run by Gideon Niboh with 10:29 left in the third quarter to give S&T a 35-14 lead.

 

McKendree would take advantage of a strong 25-mile wind in the fourth quarter as they had the ball going into the wind in the period and began their comeback with a 7-yard touchdown run by redshirt sophomore Turner Pullen (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville) that capped a 10-play, 90-yard drive. The drive began in the third quarter as the Bearcats had moved to their 45-yard line when the clock expired and then on the third play of the fourth quarter, Pullen scored his fourth rushing touchdown of the season to bring the Bearcats within 35-21 just a little over a minute into the final quarter. The big play on the drive was a 35-yard pass from Pullen to redshirt junior receiver Jacob Bachman (Eureka, Ill./Eureka).

 

On the ensuing S&T possession, the Miners were held to minus-4 yards on three plays and forced to punt into the wind. The punt by Parker Boyce traveled just 16 yards and went out of bounds at the S&T 37-yard line.

 

The Bearcats would take advantage of that field position as they needed two plays to pull within seven points at 35-28 following a 37-yard rushing touchdown by sophomore running back Narkel Leflore (Chatham, Ill./Glenwood).

 

S&T would be held to minus-5 yards on three plays on its next possession and Boyce once again was forced to punt into the wind and this punt traveled 19 yards to give the Bearcats the ball at the S&T 39-yard line.

 

McKendree would then three plays to drive 39 yards and tied the game on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Pullen to sophomore receiver Yogi Flager, Jr. (Belleville, Ill./Butler University) to make the score 35-all with 9:43 left in the game.

 

S&T would mount a drive on its next possession as they run nine plays and got to midfield, but on a fourth-and-sixth play, sophomore defensive back Brandon Wilson, Jr. (Chicago, Ill./St. Laurence) sacked S&T quarterback Staton King for a 19-yard loss.

 

The Bearcats would take over the ball on the S&T 31-yard line following the fourth-down sack and would drive 31 yards in four plays and cap the drive with an 18-yard rushing touchdown by Leflore, who finished the game with a career-high 180 yards rushing to become the 23rd Bearcat football player to gain 1,000 rushing yards in a career. He averaged 7.3 yards on 23 carries in Saturday's contest. Leflore's score gave the Bearcats its first and only lead of the game at 42-35 with 3:05 left in the game.

 

S&T would get one last chance to force overtime as they moved the ball to the Bearcat 46-yard line, but on a fourth-and-1 play, King threw the ball into a crowd and the pass was picked off by redshirt junior linebacker Luca Gualdoni (Johnston City, Ill./Johnston City) at the Bearcats' 36-yard line to seal McKendree's comeback win.

 

Pullen, who entered the game leading NCAA Division II football in completion percentage, passing yards, passing touchdowns, points responsible for and total offense, completed 56 percent of his passes as he was 24-for-43 for 320 yards and had two touchdown passes and an interception. In addition, he added 22 yards rushing for a total of 342 yards of total offense in the win. Pullen has now thrown for 300 yards in five consecutive games and seven times overall on the season.

 

With his 320 yards passing, Pullen pushed his passing yard total to 7,996 yards, which is now just 512 yards shy of Isaac Fisher's school career mark of 8,506 yards. In addition, he set a new single season record for touchdown passes with 28 and is now just 16 yards shy of Isaac Fisher's single season school mark of 2,792 passing yards. Pullen has thrown for 2,776 yards this season.

 

Along with his 180 yards rushing, Leflore also caught one pass for 27 yards, returned one kick of 17 yards, recorded 224 all-purpose yards and scored three rushing touchdowns. It marked the first time since Shayeen Edwards scored three times against Quincy in 2017 that a Bearcat scored three or more rushing touchdowns in a game.

 

Bachman and Flager, Jr, combined to catch 14 passes for 218 yards in the game as Bachman, who was targeted nine times on the day, caught eight passes for 116 yards, while Flager, Jr. was targeted 17 times and caught six passes for 102 yards and pushed his season touchdown reception total to 10, which is two shy of Matt Cole's single season school mark of 12 set in 2019.

S&T opened the game's scoring on a 73-yard pass from King to Isaiah Wright on the sixth offensive play of the game.

 

The Bearcats, though, had a chance to put points on the board on its third offensive possession of the game as they drove 72 yards in 15 plays and took nearly seven minutes of the clock, but the Bearcats failed to score when a 38-yard field goal attempt by junior kicker Ryan Kastl (Washington, Ill./Washington) was blocked by the Miners.

 

McKendree would finally find the end zone on its fourth possession of the game as Pullen connected with sophomore tight end Jordan Sprycha (Oak Lawn, Ill./Oak Lawn Community) on a 5-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 7-all with 8:14 left in the second quarter. Sprycha's score capped an eight-play, 72-yard drive for the Bearcats. The big plays on the drive were a 31-yard pass to sophomore receiver Diontay Griffin (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington) and a 27-yard pass to Leflore.

 

S&T, though, came right back and needed one play to retake the lead at 14-7 following a 75-yard touchdown run by Kai Martin.

 

On the following drive, the Bearcats drove the ball 46 yards in eight plays, but failed to come away with any points after a 33-yard field goal attempt by Kastl just missed to the left.

 

The Miners would take advantage of that miss as they used an 70-yard touchdown run by Cameren Smith to take a 21-7 lead with 4:28 left in the quarter.

 

On the opening play of the third quarter, S&T pushed its lead to 28-7 thanks to a 63-yard touchdown run by Smith, who finished the game with 10 carries for 176 yards and averaged 17.6 yards per carry.

 

McKendree, though, would come right back and score on its opening drive of the third quarter as Leflore scored from eight yards out to pull the Bearcats with 28-14 with 10:48 left in the quarter.

 

S&T would come right back and use Nbioh's 80-yard touchdown run on the first play of the Miners' next possession to push out to a 35-14 lead.

 

For the game, S&T finished with 487 yards as they rushed for 359 yards on 30 carries and passed for 128 yards and King was 7-for-16 passing with a touchdown and an interception.

 

In addition to Smith's 176 yards rushing, Niboh added 102 yards rushing and Martin had 91 yards on the ground. Wright caught three passes for 85 yards in the loss.

 

The Bearcats defense finished with six tackles for a loss and two sacks and was paced by freshman defensive lineman Dameion Hatten (Sedan, Kan./Sedan) with six tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. Gualdoni and sophomore defensive lineman Arman Oshana (Chicago, Ill./Lincoln Park) each had a sack in the game.

 

The Miners sacked Pullen three times and had five tackles for a loss in the game, including Ben Straatmann leading the way with eight tackles, one sack and one tackle for a loss.

 

McKendree will look to make it two wins in a row as they close the home portion of its 2022 schedule next Saturday, Oct. 29 as the Bearcats host Southwest Baptist for Homecoming and Senior Day 2022. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. at Leemon Field in Lebanon, lll.

Original source can be found here.