Week four brought a rematch of the most intense rivalry in spring football, where St. Louis would go into the Defenders’ home territory to sweep their regular season for the first time since 2024. However, unlike week one’s game, this was a mostly one-sided affair where St. Louis is still singing the song of offensive struggles.
D.C. has been on a heater recently, winning its last two games by 18 and 38 points, respectively. Now, St. Louis put up 21 in a single quarter last week, but this was a new starter going into unfamiliar territory against a powerhouse team. A quick note as well, the last time was in St. Louis, but now we would have to go to their home turf and have the interference against us on this one. D.C. has always been a rowdy crowd, even with an outdoor MLS stadium; the noise gets to be a bit much, and it showed on Saturday.
St. Louis and D.C. were in a tug of war for the entirety of the first half, with the best score being from Harrison Frost, where he threw a check-down pass to Hakeem Butler, who would run it 75 yards for a Battlehawks touchdown. While it seems like a typical wide receiver play, Hakeem Butler is a six-foot-four-inch 240-pound receiver who hit 22 miles per hour during that drive. This alone caused the UFL social scene to blow up and ask why the NFL has not given such a dynamic player a chance yet, but only time can tell.
This was the last big offensive attack from the Battlehawks as the Defenders took complete control over the rest of the game. Ta’amu would respond with a touchdown and help the Defenders take a more commanding lead, and going into the half, the score was 17-12 in favor of the Defenders. The third quarter was a bit slow, but D.C. shut down any scoring attempt by St. Louis, even resulting in the first safety of the season after an 11-yard sack. St. Louis went into the fourth quarter down 22-12, but with hopes that they could repeat the magic that they conjured during the week three game against Birmingham. This was reinforced thanks to a Kevon Latulas touchdown early in the fourth after a D.C. kick to make it 19-25. This is where the big plays stalled, though as the game finished with field goals on both sides, making the final 22-28 with D.C. able to hold off the late game comeback and tying the season series with St. Louis 1-1, with a possibility of another meeting come playoff time.
This game had a few flashes of life, but it has proved that St. Louis’s biggest issue comes with the quarterback position. Harrison Frost performed great in week three after a rough start, but he was nowhere to be seen against the Defenders. After going 6/21 in completions and having an interception, the D.C. home atmosphere might have been too much for the young field general in his first start in a few years. Some positives of his performance, though was his mobility and vision to extend the play. While he may have been sacked, there were lots of plays where he rolled out of the pocket to make something of nothing. Ultimately, this was the third game in 11 days for this team, so the constant exhaustion could have played a massive role in this performance. They get a full week of rest, though, as they go onto their next game in a mid-season match-up against the former Battlehawks head coach, Anthony Becht.
The Battlehawks next game is against the Orlando Storm on Saturday, April 25th at 6 P.M. at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, Florida, and available to watch on the ESPN Network
