LEBANON, Ill. – The McKendree University football team fell just shy of picking up a Homecoming win here Saturday afternoon as the Bearcats suffered a 37-31 defeat in Great Lakes Valley Conference action at the hands of Missouri S&T in front of a season high crowd of nearly 3,000 fans at Leemon Field.
 
Saturday's homecoming defeat was just the third for the Bearcats since they reinstated football in 1996 and the team's second consecutive Homecoming game loss as they fell 45-37 to Lindenwood in their most recent homecoming game in 2019. McKendree is now 22-3 in homecoming day games since 1996.
 
With Saturday's setback, the Bearcats fall to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the GLVC, while Missouri S&T moves to 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the league.
 
Saturday's loss came on a day when the Bearcats offense gained a season high 566 yards, including redshirt sophomore quarterback Turner Pullen (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville) passing for a school record 408 yards, but Pullen had three interceptions and those three interceptions led to 17 points for the Miners, who have now won three straight games in the series against McKendree.
 
For the game, Pullen, who was named this past week's GLVC Offensive Player of the Week, was 23-for-47 passing and along with the three interceptions, he also had three touchdown passes and gained another 32 yards on the ground and scored his eighth rushing touchdown of the season to finish with a career-high tying 440 yards of total offense. With his four touchdowns, Pullen is now second in school history in touchdowns responsible for as he has had a hand in 58 touchdowns, including 23 of McKendree's 30 touchdowns this season. 
 
Pullen's final interception with 2:54 left in the game allowed the Miners to drive 23 yards in three plays and take a 37-31 lead following a 12-yard touchdown run Gideon Niboh with 1:40 remaining in the game. The ensuing extra point was missed to keep the margin to just six points.
 
On the ensuing drive by the Bearcats, Pullen went 1-for-4 with that one completion being a 15-yard pass to redshirt sophomore receiver Jacob Bachman (Eureka, Mo./Eureka). Two the passes went downfield to redshirt junior receiver Steven Towns, Jr. (Normal, Ill./Normal Community) and on both of them their appeared to some contact that might warrant a pass interference penalty, but flags were not thrown.
 
Missouri S&T would get the ball back with 54 seconds left and need only to run out the clock, but after two straight kneel downs and two timeouts by the Bearcats made it third-and-12 from the Miners 38-yard line, Missouri S&T would make two curious play calls that resulted in losses and gave the ball back to the Bearcats on the S&T 24-yard line with one second left.
 
On the final play of regulation, Pullen tossed the ball towards Towns, Jr., and, but on the play, Stefan Camplin was called for a pass interference that gave McKendree the ball on the Miners 12-yard line and one more chance to tie or perhaps win the game. On that play, Pullen tossed the ball into the corner of the end zone, but pass was out of reach of redshirt senior tight end Jace Kennedy (Dwight, Ill./Dwight) to seal the Miners win.

Along with Pullen's school record 408 passing yards, Bachman and Towns, Jr., combined to catch 14 passes for 269 yards as Bachman caught nine passes for 141 yards and Towns, Jr., added five receptions for 128 yards and two touchdowns. It marked the second time this season that McKendree had two receivers gain 100 yards in a game as Bachman and Towns, Jr., combined for 12 catches for 246 yards against William Jewell. In that game, Towns, Jr. caught four passes for a career high 140 yards and added a school record tying three touchdowns, while Bachman caught eight passes for 106 yards.
 
A third receiver also caught five passes on Saturday as redshirt sophomore receiver Tyler Siever (Carlyle, Ill./Carlyle) added five receptions for 68 yards and one touchdown. Over the last three games, Siever has caught nine passes for 197 yards and has had two touchdown receptions.
 
McKendree's ground game finished with 158 yards rushing on 33 carries as second-year freshman Narkel Leflore (Chatham, Ill./Chatham) led the way with 69 yards on 12 carries, while redshirt freshman Brady Feldmann (Highland, Ill./Highland), who started Saturday's game at running back. Leflore also caught a pass for 28 yards and returned three kicks for 86 yards and recorded a career high 183 all-purpose yards. 
 
It appeared early on in Saturday's game that it wouldn't come down to the final play from scrimmage as S&T scored the first two touchdowns of the game in the first quarter to lead 14-0 after the opening 15 minutes. Aaron Moya gave the Miners their first score of the game on a 1-yard run with 10:14 left in the quarter. The Miners second score, which was a 1-yard dive by Miners quarterback Luke Hertzler with 2:11 left in the opening quarter. The scoring drive was set up by a interception by Pullen that was returned 21 yards by S&T's Payton McAlister.
 
After being held to 93 yards in the first quarter, the Bearcat offense woke up in the second quarter as they scored points on all four of their second quarter possessions to take a 24-21 lead at the half.
 
In the second quarter, the Bearcats capped a seven-play, 54-yard drive with a 29-yard field goal from redshirt freshman kicker Kaleb Berry (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) just five seconds into the quarter. Berry was kicking in place of redshirt sophomore Ryan Kastl (Washington, Ill./Washington) who was injured in last Saturday's win at Quincy.
 
The Bearcats cut S&T's lead to 14-10 following a 17-yard touchdown reception from Pullen to Towns, Jr. with 11:11 left in the half and then on its next possession, Siever caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from Pullen to take a 17-14 lead with 7:23 remaining in the opening half.
 
S&T, though, would respond on its next possession as they needed two plays to drive 70 yards and retake the lead at 21-17 following a 54-yard touchdown pass from Hertzler to Josh Brown with 6:31 left in the half.
 
Following that scoring drive by the Miners, the Bearcats would respond as they drove 76 yards in 11 plays and took a 24-21 lead following a 1-yard dive into the end zone by Pullen, who leads the Bearcats with eight rushing touchdowns. The big play on the drive was 21-yard pass reception by Bachman on a second-and-12 play.
 
In the second quarter, the two teams combined for 31 points and 303 yards of offense, including the Bearcats tallying 211 yards of offense.
 
Midway through the third quarter, S&T retook the lead on a 1-yard dive by Hertzler with 8:44 left in the third quarter. On the ensuing possession, Pullen would throw his second interception of the game and that interception led to a 27-yard field goal from Zach Glaess to give the Miners a 31-24 lead with 2:02 left in the quarter.
 
The Bearcats once again would respond as Pullen was 3-for-3 passing for 79 yards on the next drive and capped the drive with a 54-yard touchdown pass to Towns, Jr. with 24 seconds left in the quarter. The touchdown by Towns, Jr., tied the game at 31.
 
Neither team would get many scoring chances in the fourth quarter, but the Bearcats defense snuffed out a chance by the Miners with a little under five minutes left in the game. On the drive, S&T has driven 71 yards in 12 plays and had the ball on the McKendree 6-yard line, but on a third-and-1 play, Hertzler would be tackled for a 3-yard loss and on the play, he fumbled the ball and the ball was recovered by Bearcat senior linebacker Michael Tucker (Chicago, Ill./North Lawndale Prep).
 
On its ensuing possession following Tucker's fumble recovery, the Bearcats had driven 28 yards in six plays and on a third-and-10 play, Pullen was pressured and he threw his third and final interception to Cameron Clemons at midfield and Clemons returned it 23 yards that would set up Niboh's go-ahead score with 1:46 left in the game.
 
While McKendree finished with 566 yards of offense, S&T recorded 397 yards of offense on 75 plays as they gained 257 of those yards on the ground with Niboh leading the way with 173 yards on 19 carries. Niboh averaged 9.1 yards per carry in the game.
 
Hertzler was 12-for-22 passing for 140 yards and had one touchdown pass and one interception with Brown catching six of those 12 passes for 90 yards.
 
The Bearcats held Breon Michel to just one catch for 19 yards as he entered the game second in Division II with 11 touchdown receptions and was averaging 17.8 yards per catch and 117.1 receiving yards per game.
 
After turning the ball over just four times through its first six games, the Bearcats offense has turned the ball over 10 times in last two games as they had four turnovers in Saturday's loss. The Bearcats now have just a +2 turnover margin on the season.
 
Second-year freshman linebacker Luke Pisoni (Pevely, Mo./Fox), who was making his first start of the season and sophomore defensive lineman Sidney Houston (Cahokia, Ill./East St. Louis) paced the Bearcat defense with 10 tackles each, including Pisoni having seven solo stops and a tackle for loss. The Bearcats also recorded four sacks in the game as freshman defensive lineman Samuel Amponsah (Romeoville, Ill./Plainfield East) and redshirt junior defensive lineman Jamari Johnson (Chicago, Ill./Goode STEM Academy) each had 1.5 sacks in the game.
 
The Bearcats will look to get back on track next Saturday, Oct. 30 as they travel to Bolivar, Mo., for a 1 p.m. GLVC game against Southwest Baptist University. SBU comes into the game with a 3-5 overall record and are tied for third in the league with a 2-2 record following its 48-24 loss Saturday at Lindenwood University.