Down to the final two weeks of the season and the playoffs are wide open for the league. With the removal of conferences, any of the eight teams could’ve made the playoffs as long as they were a top-four team.
The Gamblers ran away with the win last week against St. Louis, keeping their playoff hopes alive and delaying St. Louis’s. The only teams that were statistically eliminated were the Columbus Aviators and the Dallas Renegades going into this matchup so if Houston lost they would join those two teams.
The game was set for primetime Sunday and capped off the whole weekend so all eyes were tuned in to see who would prevail the winner of the series. The first quarter started scary as the game seemed to be in full grasp from Houston, especially with Houston’s QB picking up his own fumble and then turning it into a touchdown.
The second quarter though brought life to the St. Louis hopefuls as kicker Ramiz Ahmed got us on the board and had it immediately followed by a Luis Perez deep shot to Hakeem Butler to take the lead 10-9 going into halftime. This would be the first time the Battlehawks held the lead going into the half since their week seven bout against the Columbus Aviators. This was good momentum to have as they hoped to keep it going into the last two quarters of the game.
The second half didn’t get going till about 10 minutes left in the third but it was Houston who would finally retaliate and take the lead yet again. They would attempt a two-point attempt but the backup QB Plumlee would fumble the ball and fail the conversion only leading to a 15-10.
This would be the last bit of action till a long-winded drive out of the Battlehawks would lead to a two-yard rush from Kylin James for a touchdown. St. Louis would attempt their own two-point conversion on the touchdown and execute it successfully with a up the gut rush by Jarveon Howard to make it 18-15. The rest of the game was defense showcases as the only points scored in the fourth was again by Ramiz Ahmed for three and making sure the Battlehawks won and secured the playoffs in a 21-15 score and splitting the season series with Houston.
Coach Proehl said after the game on clinching a playoff spot that he was excited but that they could still play better than that and that they look forward to working on it in week 10. With that we are approaching the final week of the UFL regular season and the last playoff spot will either go to the Louisville Kings or the Birmingham Stallions as the Orlando Storm and D.C. Defenders have also clinched their spots in the playoffs.
The St. Louis Battlehawks play next on Friday May 29 at 7 p.m. at The Dome at Americas Center in St. Louis, Missouri where they will be facing off against the Dallas Renegades.
