Orlando Storm coach Anthony Becht was proud of his team’s resiliency Saturday night, but it was the fact that they needed it that was the problem.
He watched his team spot St. Louis 25 points before the Storm tried, in vain, to rally before losing for the first time this season 25-17 before an announced crowd of 9,735 at Inter&Co Stadium. He had no explanation for the team’s poor first half performance.
“You know what, I don’t know,” Becht said when asked to explain a first half that saw the Storm manage just 29 yards on 21 offensive plays. “Man, I felt like our focus was great. … Sometimes the other team’s just got your number. I felt we were 2nd-and-long a lot early in the game. We gave up some critical third-and-long plays early in the first half.
“I wanna tip my hat to the Battlehawks. They came out like a Storm. … We just were kind of not playing to the level we wanted to play at to start the football game. We gotta be better there. … The moments were there for us. When the moments were there for them, they made the plays.”
Pictures: St. Louis Battlehawks vs. Orlando Storm
Moments like a crazy fumble by running back Jashaun Corbin after his longest carry of the first half of seven yards. Corbin tripped over a teammate and the ball squirted loose after he hit the ground. Because a defender never touched him, the ball was awarded to the Battlehawks.
Orlando could not get out of its own way in the first half, while St. Louis was marching up and down the field. The Battlehawks posted 244 first-half yards to Orlando’s 29. It’s not easy to win that way.
St. Louis coach Ricky Proehl tried to explain the lopsided first half, either.
“We sustained some drives and made some plays offensively and kept our defense off the field,” Proehl said. “When they were on the field, our defense was pretty solid. We put pressure on Jack (Plummer) all night.’
Indeed. Orlando ran only 21 offensive plays in the first half, while St. Louis doubled that and more with 44. Asked if he was surprised by the first-half dominance and Proehl said, “No.”
“We had a great game plan going in and I wasn’t surprised,” he said.
Orlando would scurry to get back in the game and thanks to some lucky breaks in the second half, the Storm were able to make things interesting.
The Battlehawks took a 25-0 lead with 11:52 left in the third quarter before Orlando finally began chipping away at the lead.
The Storm took advantage of a huge personal foul penalty after Elijhah Badger had caught a 13-yard pass from Plummer and was standing out of bounds. He was leveled by Battleshawks’ player Trey Dean III. Dean was flagged for a late hit and the result was 28 yards on the play. That finally gave Orlando some momentum.
Plummer kept the drive alive with a huge 13-yard run on a fourth-and-1 play, and two plays later he found Badger for the Storm’s first touchdown from 4 yards out to pull Orlando within 25-7 with 7:17 left in the third quarter.
The breaks kept coming for Orlando. The Storm forced St. Louis to punt on the next series, and due to a huge rush, the Storm pushed blocker Kevon Latulas backward, and punter Ryan Sanborn kicked the ball right into the back of Latulas.
Orlando Storm defensive end Amani Bledsoe (95) celebrates after intercepting a pass during a UFL football game against the St. Louis Battlehawks, on Saturday in Orlando. (Phelan M. Ebenhack for the Orlando Sentinel)
The ball rolled backward to the St. Louis 1-yard line, and Elijah Dotson punched it in on the next play to pull Orlando within 25-14 with 5:20 left in the third.
Orlando failed to take advantage of a Nate Meadors interception in the fourth quarter, and a field goal by Michael Lantz with 1:52 left in the game was all the Storm had left. A late rally inside two minutes fell short, and Orlando lost for the first time.
Plummer, who came into the game completing 70 percent of his passes in the first four games, was not himself. He was 24-of-44 for a season-low 143 yards and one TD. Orlando got just 85 yards on the ground, but that was after the Storm had only gained 10 rushing yards in the first half.
“I am incredibly proud of the way our team came out in the second half,” Becht said. “Nobody came in (at halftime) yelling at anybody. We just had to go and play one play at a time and I felt like we did that.
“Clearly we had the opportunity, multiple times, to try to win it at the end, or at least tie it up, but we fell short.”
Chris Hays can be found on X.com @OS_ChrisHays.