Perfect storm of miscues, injuries sends QU football team home with loss in GLVC opener

ROLLA, Mo. — Although far from insurmountable, the 11-point lead the Quincy University football team established by the midpoint of the second quarter Saturday night had the Hawks on the right trajectory for a road victory

Then came the perfect storm.

“That’s a good way of describing it,” Hawks coach Gary Bass said.

Special teams mistakes, a myriad of injuries and a few did-you-really-not-see-that missed calls created a vortex the Hawks couldn’t escape as Missouri S&T rallied for a 31-24 victory in the Great Lakes Valley Conference opener at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.

“I was befuddled,” Bass said.

That’s because the Hawks’ game plan worked for a majority of the time.

They rushed for 152 yards and 4 yards per carry, while limiting the Miners to 52 rushing yards. Quincy (2-3, 0-1 GLVC) had 24 first downs, converted 6 of 19 third downs and 3 of 4 fourth downs and owned a four-minute edge in time of possession. Missouri S&T (2-3, 1-0 GLVC) had just 13 first downs and converted just 3 of 13 third downs.

But the one stat that changed everything was return yardage.

The Miners had 174 total yards in kickoff and punt returns, which gave them fantastic field position and led to all six scoring drives being six plays or less.

“That killed us,” Bass said. “I’ll take the blame for that. We have to fix it.”

AJ Hardin’s 45-yard touchdown reception and Tremayne Lee’s 13-yard touchdown run gave the Hawks a 14-3 lead midway through the second quarter, and Jalen Lawrence’s 12-yard touchdown reception made it a 21-11 QU lead with 22 seconds left in the first half.

Missouri S&T took advantage of a short kick and got in position for Parker Boyce to kick a 50-yard field goal as time expired to get within 21-14 at halftime.

Then Gideon Niboh’s 47-yard kick return to open the second half changed everything.

The Miners capitalized by scoring on Cameron Smith’s 2-yard run to tie the game. A fumble by Lee on the first play of the next drive set up the Miners in QU territory, and Boyce booted a 29-yard field goal for a 24-21 lead.

QU tied it on Drew Lenzen’s 37-yard field goal, but the Hawks gave up a 59-yard touchdown catch-and-run in which they missed three tackles that gave the Miners the lead for good with 5:14 to play in regulation.

The Hawks were without both starting cornerbacks due to injury by that point. They also had three injuries along the offensive line and one at tight end during the game.

“When you’re dealing with injury after injury after injury after injury, you start to think, ‘Who did we do so wrong? Why is this happening?’” Bass said. 

QU quarterback Tionne Harris completed 24 of 45 passes for 245 yards with Hardin and Marlin Washington each catching seven passes. Lee finished with 104 yards rushing on 15 carries. Linebacker Peyten Chappel led the QU defense with 10 tackles and linebacker Peyton Plunkett had 3.5 tackles for loss.