THIS WEEK IN PEACOCK FOOTBALL… Upper Iowa football is back at Harms-Eischeid Stadium this Saturday, Sep. 16, as they host Missouri S&T for their third matchup of the season. Although this is a Great Lakes Valley Conference opponent, it will not be considered a conference contest, as the Peacocks face the Miners later this season in Rolla, Mo. on Oct. 7. Kick off is scheduled for 1 p.m. in Fayette. 
 
LIVE OPTIONS… Fans unable to make it to the stadium on Saturday have several options for following the action. The game will be streamed on the GLVC Network at https://glvcsn.com/uiu/ with pay-per-view access. Live stats (free) can be found through the link attached with this story. Both options can be found every game day at UIUPeacocks.com/Live. 
 
RECAP OF LAST WEEKEND… Peacock football secured their first victory of the season in their home opener versus St. Ambrose in a 45-26 final last weekend. After only being up 17-14 at the conclusion of the first half, Upper Iowa came out in the third quarter with vengeance, outsourcing the visitors 28-12. 
 
Upper Iowa crafted their first touchdown of the evening with a 38-yard pass downfield to Aaron Carl, followed by a toss from Darryl Overstreet Jr. to Jayden Mitchell in the visitors endzone. The score gave UIU a 10-7 lead. St. Ambrose reclaimed the advantage after a long touchdown pass of their own on the next possession. The Peacocks added another seven points to their total after a heave from Overstreet Jr. to Eddie Burgess into the endzone to command a 17-14 lead going into the locker room at halftime.
 
To open up scoring in the third period, the home team recorded a 48-yard pass to Monte Morrow putting them within reach at the 4-yard line. Mitchell received a handoff on the very next play and ran it in for his second touchdown of the day. SAU put up a touchdown on their next possession to keep within reach, but UIU blocked their extra point. This is where the Peacocks' momentum shifted. 
 
Overstreet Jr. threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Camacho on the very next possession to pull ahead 31-20. On the defensive end, John Butsch nabbed an interception on SAU's next possession, giving his offense a short field to work with, eventually leading to another Camacho score. The Peacocks capped off their evening with a 74-yard rushing touchdown by Camacho to seal their 45-26 victory. 
 
BEHIND THE SPIRAL… Quarterback Darryl Overstreet Jr. has paced the Peacock offense as he has completed 40 of 67 passes (59.70%) so far this season, five of them being for a touchdown. The sophomore has totaled 526 yards (third in the GLVC) and his longest toss this year has been 49 yards. 
 
CAUGHT/CARRIED BY CAMACHO… Willy Camacho has caused havoc on opposing defenses, as he has posed a threat both rushing and receiving. The junior put on quite the show for Upper Iowa fans at Harms-Eischeid Stadium last Saturday. In the football team's first win of the season versus St. Ambrose, the Palmdale, Calif. native scored three touchdowns to propel the Peacocks to a 46-25 victory. He led the team last game with eight receptions (97 yds), and totaled a team-high 88 yards rushing, including his longest push of 75 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. 
 
OTHER OFFENSIVE NOTABLES… Jayden Mitchell has been key to the Peacocks' ground game, as he leads the squad with 114 yards rushing (1 TD), followed by Camacho with 88 and Aboubacar Barry with 69. Monte Morrow continues to be instrumental as he leads the team in receiving yards with 190, his longest being 49 yards. Morrow has two touchdowns on the season so far. 
 
DEFENSIVE DYNAMIC… Linebackers John Butsch and Trevor Thompson have paced the Upper Iowa defense in their first two contests. Butsch has registered a team-high 18 tackles and the team's only interception. Thompson has collected 14 stops and leads UIU with five tackles for loss. Avery Dixon and Ben Kamara have both recorded eight tackles. 
 
INSIDER REPORT ON THE MINERS (Courtesy of Missouri S&T Communications) ... S&T overcame one 14-point deficit last week at Wayne State (Mich.), but couldn't make a similar deficit later in the game as it lost 31-24 to the Warriors in Detroit.  Miner quarterback Tyler Gioia (Huntington Beach, CA/Edison) – named Monday as the GLVC's Offensive Player of the Week – completed 30-of-42 passes in the game for 323 yards and three touchdowns and has thrown for 547 yards and five scores over the first two weeks of the season.
 
Gioia, who has 613 in total offense, has accounted for all six S&T touchdowns this season and has completed 66.7 percent of his passes to currently lead the GLVC in that department.
 
Blaize Klossner (Rolla, MO/Rolla) had a career-high nine receptions in the game and CJ Wiggins (Yuma, AZ/Gila Ridge) hauled in eight passes for 140 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown reception that brought the Miners within a touchdown late in the contest.  Klossner leads S&T with 13 receptions for the season, while Wiggins has 12 catches for a team-leading 177 yards and tight end Justis Braden (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) has 10 catches for 125 yards and three touchdowns.
 
Josh Sanders (Maize, KS/Maize) currently leads the Miner ground game with 117 yards, while Cameren Smith (Claymont, DE/Concord) has ran for 76 in the first two weeks of the campaign.
 
Defensively, the Miners are paced by linebacker Justin Gniedziejko (Chicago, IL/Taft) with 14 tackles, while linebacker Justin Amaro (Wichita, KS/Goddard) has been in on 12 stops and safety Carson Prenger (Jefferson City, MO/Blair Oaks) on 10.  Amaro has 4.5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, while Nick Mattli (O'Fallon, MO/Fort Zumwalt South), Aidan Hurtado (Austin, TX/McNeil) and Zatyvion Miller (Los Alamitos, CA/Los Alamitos) all have a quarterback sack.
 
THE SERIES… This will be the first meeting between the two teams in nearly two decades. The Peacocks and Miners have played each other twice previously, once in 2004 and then again the following season in 2005. Missouri S&T has been victorious on both occasions, defeating UIU 42-7 the first meeting and 26-18 in the second. 
 
DOWN THE ROAD… Upper Iowa hosts their third home game in a row next Saturday as they welcome Michigan Tech to Fayette for a 1 p.m. matchup.