by The St. Louis Battlehawks scored early and often with a commanding 31-20 win over the visiting Columbus Aviators. This improved the Battlehawks to a 5-2 record on the season as they are a serious contender to win the UFL Championship. Meanwhile, it drops the Aviators to 2-5 as they now have a giant hill to climb if they hope to make the playoffs.
Luis Perez had a quality first half to get the Battlehawks a commanding 24-7 lead at the break. He went 4 of 7 for 64 yards with a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown to Steven McBride in the half alone. The 24 points in the first half was a league high this season for points scored in the first half.
The touchdown pass to McBride was set up after a 44-yard hookup with Hakeem Butler. The other first half touchdown was a run from Kylin James with an 18 yard off tackle to the house. The only Columbus score came off of an 18 yard touchdown run by backup quarterback Jalen Morton who checked in the game to run and did so brilliantly on this play.
A Miller Jr interception of Perez started the second half strong for the Aviators and gave them the spark they needed. A few plays later they turned the Battlehawk mistake into much needed points when Jalan McClendon scrambled loose and found an open Tay Martin who caught it and leapt in the endzone to slash the lead to 24-14 and give Columbus a chance.
It wouldn’t stay close long however as Kylin James bounced in for his second score of the game and opened the lead back up to 31-14, pretty much ending all doubt. McClendon and the Aviators wouldn’t go away quietly however as McClendon found Keke Chism over the middle for a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter to cut it to 31-20 with 7:27 to play.
It was too little too late for the Aviators however as they fell to 2-5 with the loss. They will now prepare for two straight games versus Birmingham while the Battlehawks have two straight with the Houston Gamblers.
