BETHANY, Okla. -- The Miners nearly dug themselves out of a 21-point hole in the second half, but their rally came up 10 yards short and Southern Nazarene came away with a 35-21 win over the Miners Saturday night.
UMR, which trailed 21-0 at halftime, closed the gap to seven at 28-21 and was driving for a potential game-tying score in the final minutes. The Miners got as close as the eight-yard line and had a fourth down pass from the SNU 10-yard line fall incomplete with 1:03 to go. The Crimson Storm's Branden Smith extended the lead to the final score when he raced 84 yards for a touchdown two plays after UMR lost the ball on downs.
In the opening half, the Miners had 155 yards of total offense but turned the ball over twice deep in Southern Nazarene territory. The Crimson Storm turned one of those turnovers and a missed UMR into scoring drives that allowed them to build the early lead.
SNU quarterback Tyler Schneider threw scoring passes of five yards to Jeremy Rogers and 18 yards to Jared Elmore sandwiched around a one-yard scoring run by Smith in the first half.
The Miners worked their way back into the game by utilizing a short passing game and the running of David Shields. Shields ran 56 yards into SNU territory to set up a Steve Watson 10-yard touchdown pass to Ashton Gronewold to get UMR on the scoreboard with 11:54 left in the third quarter.
UMR got to within a touchdown 1:20 into the fourth quarter when Shields capped an 80-yard scoring drive with a 10-yard run. Shields finished the evening with a career-high 119 yards on 16 carries, making him the first Miner to top the 100-yard mark in a game this season.
The teams traded punts after the Miner score, but on UMR's punt, Southern Nazarene's Coryan Briggs returned it down the sideline 88 yards for a touchdown to give the Crimson Storm a 14-point lead again.
However, Gronewold returned the ensuing kickoff -- a short kick into a 25-mile per hour wind -- back to the SNU 29 and then ended the drive by catching a four-yard scoring pass from Watson with 7:04 to go to get UMR back to within a touchdown.
UMR got the ball back at its own 48 with 3:11 to go and Watson completed three passes for first downs, the last to Bryan Crider that put the ball at the Crimson Storm 12. But after the first three plays netted just two yards, the Miners had to go for it on fourth down and Watson thew an incomplete pass to halt the drive.
Watson, making his third start at quarterback, completed 37-of-60 passes for a career-best 325 yards and the two scores. Gronewold and Mike Greaving each had 11 catches in the game, with Gronewold ending up with 105 yards in catches and 215 all-purpose yards on the night.
UMR had 317 yards of offense in the second half and finished the game with a 472-427 advantage in total yards.
The Miners will return home for the next two weeks, starting with next Saturday's Homecoming game against Central State at 1 p.m. at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.
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