The Vegas Vipers now had a win under their belts and they were looking to take that momentum and start a winning streak. To do so they’d have to go through the St. Louis Battlehawks who were visiting Cashman Field on a Saturday night.
Last week, the Battlehawks lost to the DC Defenders, even though they attempted to mount a game-winning drive in the waning seconds, something they have been successful at twice this season. On the other hand the Vipers won last week, albeit against the hapless Orlando Guardians. But, a win is a win. Right?
In this game the Battlehawks hoped a win would keep them on pace with the Seattle Sea Dragons for a playoff spot in the XFL North Division.
The Battlehawks received the opening kickoff. St. Louis quarterback A.J. McCarron could not drive the ball and the Battlehawks punted the ball back to Vegas. Vegas took over on their own 43-yard line and quarterback Luis Perez also could not mount an attack. Vegas punted back to St. Louis.
Defenses would reign supreme as both teams would exchange punts until the end of the 1st quarter when the Battlehawks McCarron put together a drive featuring a 16-yard quarterback rush and a 15-yard Hakeem Butler reception. Moving the ball to the Vegas 17, McCarron connected to Campbell on the Vegas 3-yard line to end the quarter.
The game was scoreless at the end of the 1st quarter.
The 2nd quarter began with a St. Louis major when McCarron passed to Jennings for a touchdown. The 2-point conversion pass to Shepherd was good, making the score 8-0 for the Battlehawks.
Vegas’ Torrey returned the kickoff 17-yards to the Vegas 25. Perez started by handing the ball to Lovett for a first down, and then he moved the chains again with a 13-yard pass to Torrey. A penalty pushed them back 5-yards, but a 16-yard Bryant reception made up the distance. The drive stalled on the St. Louis 37 and the Vipers punted.
McCarron started deep with the ball on his own 3-yard line, and a penalty pushed them back to the 1. A 16-yard pass to Brian Hill gave them some room, and then a shorter run by Hill, coupled with a 16-yard rush by Walker put them on the 37-yard line. McCarron kept the drive alive with a 7-yard pass to Hakeem Butler and a 14-yard catch by Darrius Shepherd. A 24-yard pass to Austin Proehl put the ball on the Vegas 21. Vegas’s defense stiffened and the Battlehawks drive stalled. A 40-yard Hageman field goal made it 11-0 for St. Louis.
Vegas received the kickoff and Perez got started on his own 23. Despite a penalty and getting sacked he was able to manufacture a first down. However, Perez was sacked again, and the Vipers were forced to punt.
Taking over on the St. Louis 43, A.J. McCarron passed 6-yards to Hakeem Butler, and a 15-yard major penalty was added to the output. With the ball on the Vegas 33 Hill rushed for 3-yards, and then with 34 seconds remaining in the half McCarron passed to Darrius Shepherd for a 30-yard touchdown. The 2-point conversion attempt failed.
At half time the score was St. Louis 17, Vegas 0.
In the 2nd half Vegas took the kickoff and Cinque Sweeting returned the ball 31-yards to the Vegas 39. A Luis Perez pass intended for Jeff Badet was intercepted by Hill and returned to the Vegas 49.
McCarron drove the ball, handing to Hill for a 12-yard rush and passing to Campbell for a 32-yard gain. A 12-yard Hill rush put the ball on the Vegas 1-yard line, and then Walker ran it in for the St. Louis touchdown. A 1-point conversion attempt failed, making the score 23-0 for St. Louis.
Vegas receive the kickoff at their own 21. Perez drove the ball with handoffs to Smith and passes to Jeff Badet, Sutton and Lovett, making it up to the St. Louis 33-yard line. However, a pass intended for Sutton was intercepted by Hill.
McCarron took over, but went three and out and St. Louis punted back to Vegas. From the Vegas 43 Hundley was brought in to see if he could move the ball. Handley made some yards handing to Lovett for gains on the ground. At the end of the 3rd quarter, Hundley faced 4th down and 5 and he ran the ball for the first down.
At the end of the 3rd quarter the score was St. Louis 23, Vegas 0.
Hundley did not fare much better as his drive stalled when he turned the ball over on downs at the St. Louis 36-yard line.
McCarron made one 1st down for St. Louis but his drive stalled when he was sacked on a 4th and 1 attempt. Vegas’s Hundley took over on his own 49-yard line and passed to Price and then Jeff Badet to move the chains. A 20-yard pass to Smith put the ball on the St. Louis 17, and then a pass to Lovett was good for a touchdown. The 2-point conversion attempt failed, but Vegas was now on the scoreboard trailing St. Louis 23-6.
Giffen’s kickoff was short of the 20-yard line and the Battlehawks fielded the ball on the Vegas 45. A. J. McCarron engineered a drive that ended with a Darrius Shepherd touchdown catch. The 1-point conversion failed and the Battlehawks lead was extended to 29-6.
With 3 minutes remaining, Hundley attempted to drive the ball and give Vegas more points, but to no avail.
The final score was St. Louis Battlehawks 29, Vegas Vipers 6.
Box scores – Statistics Summary
Scoring
1 2 3 4 F
STL 0 17 6 6 29
VGS 0 0 0 6 6
------ ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS ------
Passing
PLAYER C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT LONG SCK-YDS
A. J. McCarron 23/29 236 8.1 3 0 32 3 - 14
Rushing
PLAYER CAR YDS AVG TD LONG
Brian Hill 14 71 5.1 0 12
A. J. McCarron 4 18 4.5 0 16
Kareem Walker 4 15 3.8 1 16
Mataeo Durant 1 2 2.0 0 2
TEAM TOTAL 23 106 0.0 1 16
Receiving
PLAYER REC YDS AVG TD LONG TGTS
Darrius Shepherd 7 79 11.3 2 30 10
George Campbell 3 54 18.0 0 32 3
Hakeem Butler 5 36 7.2 0 15 7
Brian Hill 4 29 7.3 0 16 4
Austin Proehl 2 28 14.0 0 24 3
Steven Mitchell 1 6 6.0 0 6 1
Gary Jennings 1 4 4.0 1 4 1
TEAM TOTAL 23 236 0.0 3 32 29
Fumbles
FUM LOST REC
0 0 0
Defensive
PLAYER SOLO AST TOT SACKS-YDS TFL INT FF FR
Nate Meadors 7 1 8.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
LaCale London 3 2 5.0 0.5 - 3.5 1.0 0 0 0
Carson Wells 2 2 4.0 1.5 - 13.5 1.0 0 0 0
Elijah Hamilton 3 0 3.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Mike Rose 3 0 3.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Tim Harris 3 0 3.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Willie Harvey 2 0 2.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Elorm Lumor 2 0 2.0 1.0 - 9.0 1.0 0 0 0
Brandon Sebastian 0 2 2.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Lakiem Williams 1 1 2.0 0.0 - 0.0 1.0 0 0 0
Chris Cooper 1 1 2.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Travis Feeney 2 0 2.0 1.0 - 6.0 1.0 0 0 0
Lavert Hill 2 0 2.0 0.0 - 0.0 1.0 2 0 0
Kevin Atkins 1 0 1.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Lukas Denis 0 1 1.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Gelen Robinson 1 0 1.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Taniela Tupou 0 1 1.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Freedom Akinmoladun 1 0 1.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
TEAM TOTAL 34 11 45.0 4.0 - 32.0 6.0 2 0 0
Interceptions
PLAYER INT YDS TD
Lavert Hill 2 8 0
Punt Returns
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LONG TD
Austin Proehl 3 22 7.3 10 0
Kick Returns
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LONG TD
Darrius Shepherd 1 15 15.0 15 0
Kicking
PLAYER FGM FGA FG% LNG
Donald Hageman 1 1 100.0% 40
Punting
PLAYER NO YDS AVG TB IN-20 LONG
Sterling Hofrichter 3 135 45.0 0 0 56
------ VEGAS VIPERS ------
Passing
PLAYER C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT LONG SCK-YDS
Luis Perez 13/20 99 5.0 0 2 17 2 - 13
Brett Hundley 9/18 120 6.7 1 0 20 2 - 19
TEAM TOTAL 22/38 219 0.0 1 2 20 4 - 32
Rushing
PLAYER CAR YDS AVG TD LONG
John Lovett 6 19 3.2 0 10
Rod Smith 5 15 3.0 0 7
Brett Hundley 1 5 5.0 0 5
Luis Perez 1 4 4.0 0 4
TEAM TOTAL 13 43 0.0 0 10
Receiving
PLAYER REC YDS AVG TD LONG TGTS
John Lovett 3 44 14.7 1 17 7
Jeff Badet 4 34 8.5 0 15 7
Martavis Bryant 3 30 10.0 0 16 5
Cam Sutton 2 27 13.5 0 18 3
Cinque Sweeting 3 23 7.7 0 18 3
Rod Smith 1 20 20.0 0 20 2
DeAndre Torrey 2 18 9.0 0 13 2
Geronimo Allison 2 13 6.5 0 8 6
Sean Price 2 10 5.0 0 7 2
Travis Koontz 0 0 0.0 0 0 1
TEAM TOTAL 22 219 0.0 1 20 38
Fumbles
FUM LOST REC
0 0 0
Defensive
PLAYER SOLO AST TOT SACKS-YDS TFL INT FF FR
Maurice Smith 5 3 8.0 1.0 - 7.0 1.0 0 0 0
C.J. Avery 4 2 6.0 0.0 - 0.0 2.0 0 0 0
Marwin Evans 3 2 5.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Martrell Spaight 2 3 5.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Deontay Anderson 1 3 4.0 0.0 - 0.0 1.0 0 0 0
Keylon Kennedy 2 2 4.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Maximilian Roberts 1 3 4.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Antonio Phillips 2 1 3.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Adam Sparks 2 1 3.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Vic Beasley 1 2 3.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Jawuan Johnson 1 1 2.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Kelvin Pinkney 2 0 2.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Pita Taumoepenu 2 0 2.0 2.0 - 7.0 1.0 0 0 0
Nijuel Hill 1 0 1.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
D.J. Calhoun 0 1 1.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
LaRon Stokes 1 0 1.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
Cavon Walker 1 0 1.0 0.0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
TEAM TOTAL 31 24 55.0 3.0 - 14.0 5.0 0 0 0
Interceptions
INT YDS TD
0 0 0
Punt Returns
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LONG TD
Mathew Sexton 2 3 1.5 3 0
Kick Returns
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LONG TD
Cinque Sweeting 3 64 21.3 31 0
DeAndre Torrey 2 35 17.5 18 0
TEAM TOTAL 5 99 0.0 31 0
Kicking
FGM FGA FG% LNG
0 0 0.0% 0
Punting
PLAYER NO YDS AVG TB IN-20 LONG
Michael Carrizosa 4 150 37.5 0 2 42
------ TEAM STATS ------
TEAM STATS STL VGS
TOTAL PLAYS 55 55
TOTAL YARDS 328 230
YARDS PER PLAY 6.0 4.2
FIRST DOWNS 18 13
FIRST DOWNS PASSING 10 10
FIRST DOWNS RUSHING 7 3
FIRST DOWNS PENALTY 1 0
THIRD DOWN EFFICIENCY 33.3% 16.7%
FOURTH DOWN EFFICIENCY 50.0% 50.0%
TOTAL PASSING YARDS 222 187
PASS COMPLETIONS 23 22
PASS ATTEMPTS 29 38
INTERCEPTIONS THROWN 0 2
YARDS PER PASS 7.7 4.9
PASSING TOUCHDOWNS 3 1
SACKS ALLOWED 3 4
SACK YARDS LOST 14 32
TOTAL RUSHING YARDS 106 43
RUSH ATTEMPTS 23 13
YARDS PER RUSH 4.6 3.3
RUSHING TOUCHDOWNS 1 0
PENALTIES 6 7
TURNOVERS 0 2
FUMBLES 0 0
DEFENSIVE TOUCHDOWNS 0 0
SPECIAL TEAMS TDS 0 0
POSSESSION 33:05 26:55
