The Orlando Pirates beat the New Mexico Chupacabras in their first game of the new Indoor Football League season since the team moved from Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
Despite a four-touchdown day from quarterback Ja\u2019rome Johnson, New Mexico\u2019s rebranded Indoor Football League team opened its season with a narrow 41-38 loss to the Orlando Pirates, beginning their first season since moving from Massachusetts, on Sunday at Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n
The Chupacabras led 38-34 in the fourth quarter after Johnson (11-for-20, 158 yards) flipped a short pass to wide receiver C.J. Jefferson for their final score of the day. But the\u00a0Pirates\u00a0\u2013 most recently ranked fourth overall in the IFL\u2019s weekly coaches poll \u2013 pulled back ahead off running back Pooka Williams\u2019 short touchdown run with 3:18 remaining.<\/p>\n
Chupacabras kicker\u00a0Ben Derby\u2019s\u00a0game-tying field goal attempt in the final minute hit one of Tingley\u2019s decks and veered right of the goal posts, effectively sealing Orlando\u2019s closer-than-expected win.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Pirates\u00a0were listed as a 5.5-point favorite entering Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey showed that they had heart,\u201d first-year Chupacabras head coach\u00a0Kyle Moore-Brown\u00a0said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I wanted. We can clean up the little things \u2013 I know I have a great football team \u2026 I\u2019m proud of their fight, I\u2019m proud of the effort that they gave out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chupacabras were led on the ground by La\u2019james White\u2019s 53 yards, the bulk of which came on his 45-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Chupacabras receiver\u00a0Damon Street\u00a0caught five passes for a game-high 104 yards and two touchdowns, connecting with Johnson on multiple deep passes.<\/p>\n
Street\u2019s final catch set up the Chupacabras\u2019 go-ahead score in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a dynamic player,\u201d Moore-Brown said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s one of the things that we got to do as an offense \u2013 get the ball in his hands a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pirates\u00a0quarterback\u00a0Paxton DeLaurent\u00a0completed 17 of 20 passes for 99 yards and two touchdowns, adding 26 yards on the ground. The former Southeast Missouri State quarterback was a late addition to Orlando\u2019s starting lineup after Taulia Tagovailoa \u2013 the Pirates\u2019 preseason starter and brother of Atlanta Falcons quarterback\u00a0Tua Tagovailoa\u00a0\u2013 was signed by the United Football League\u2019s Houston Gamblers early Sunday.<\/p>\n
Moore-Brown said news of DeLaurent\u2019s spot start didn\u2019t change anything for the Chupacabras.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quarterback, he\u2019s a professional,\u201d he added. \u201cMy assessment of it all is (it\u2019s) always the next man up. It\u2019s the same thing with my guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday marked the Chupacabras\u2019 first game since the team was purchased by local businessmen\u00a0Mike Fietz\u00a0and\u00a0Bob Pitre\u00a0last summer. Formerly known as the Duke City Gladiators, the franchise did not participate in the IFL\u2019s 2025 season as Fietz and Pitre rebranded the team and hired coaches.<\/p>\n
While an attendance estimate was not available, Fietz said the crowd was \u201cthinner\u201d than they hoped after distributing just under 3,500 tickets before Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crowd that we did have, they were into it,\u201d Fietz said. \u201cThey were loud and excitable. They showed what New Mexicans are about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s game also did not have a working clock on Tingley\u2019s two video boards, leading to some confusion among fans in attendance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just glitches, you know?\u201d Fietz said. \u201cUntil you get in a gameday situation, you don\u2019t see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sean Reider\u00a0covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at\u00a0sreider@abqjournal.com\u00a0or via X at @lenaweereider.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.). Visit\u00a0www.abqjournal.com. Distributed by\u00a0Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Pirates beat the New Mexico Chupacabras in their first game of the new Indoor Football League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140,109,76046,110],"class_list":["post-202481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}