{"id":211340,"date":"2026-03-30T06:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T06:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/211340\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T06:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T06:06:10","slug":"orlando-storm-knock-off-columbus-aviators-in-ufl-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/211340\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Storm knock off Columbus Aviators in UFL debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

A block in the back could have been a nightmare for Chris Rowland and the Orlando Storm on Sunday night at Inter&Co Stadium during the the team\u2019s UFL debut game.<\/p>\n

Rowland, a Storm receiver, was trailing on a play as teammate Elijhah Badger was speeding down the field on the way to a 94-yard touchdown off a screen pass. Rowland, however, clipped a Columbus Aviators\u2019 player in the back and flags flew just before Badger crossed the goal line.<\/p>\n

A few plays later, however, Rowland redeemed himself, catching the game-winning touchdown pass from quarterback Jack Plummer as the Storm opened the season with a 23-17 victory.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s awesome, man. It\u2019s hard to win,\u201d Storm coach Anthony Becht said<\/a>. \u201cWhen you get these early ones at home \u2026 we gotta lock the gates at home. That\u2019s gotta happen. We gotta give our fans what they want. It was great. I love winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OrlandoOrlando Storm running back Jashaun Corbin runs toward a first-quarter touchdown during the Orlando Storm’s debut UFL game Sunday night, March 29, 2026, at Inter&Co Stadium. (Chris Hays\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Becht said afterward that the team should push the Rowland touchdown into Badger\u2019s statistical touchdown column.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook he\u2019s a vet, he understands. He\u2019s a great playmaker, but we can\u2019t do those things,\u201d Becht said of the block in the back by Rowland. \u201cWe take a lot of pride in penalties. We only had three in this game. \u2026 We gotta continue that trend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Chris we\u2019re taking that touchdown away from him and we\u2019re gonna transfer that over to Badger. Will put an asterisk next to it. \u2026 No, (Rowland) knows what he did. It\u2019s silly. We can\u2019t have it. He was hustling down the field \u2026 He owes EB something. I don\u2019t know what.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two players brushed off the incident after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no trash talking \u2026 all love. I mean, we won the game at the end of the day. We still got the touchdown,\u201d said Badger, who played at Florida.<\/p>\n

Rowland expected a bit more razzing after Badger\u2019s touchdown was wiped off the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediately, I was surprised. I thought he was gonna be like, \u2018Dang, why did you do that,\u2019 \u201d Rowland said. \u201cBut first thing, Elijhah is a pro\u2019s pro and he responded, saying \u2018Hey, we\u2019re good. We\u2019re gonna finish this drive. It\u2019s all right.<\/p>\n

\"OrlandoOrlando Storm defensive end Keshawn Banks celebrates after swatting down a pass with teammate Lamar Jackson during the Orlando Storm’s debut UFL game Sunday night, March 29, 2026, at Inter&Co Stadium. (Chris Hays\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce he said that, I felt a little better. Fittingly it had to be me that scored, which I wasn\u2019t too happy about. I\u2019d rather it had been anyone else, but I\u2019m glad we were able to finish that drive and we handled it well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Badger will hold him to his promise, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cI owe him a steak dinner. That\u2019s what I told him,\u201d Rowland said.<\/p>\n

The Storm had the Inter&Co crown of 11,127 people on their feet early after Columbus fumbled the opening kickoff and safety Josh Minkins jumped on it to give the Storm their initial possession inside the 30-yard line. Three plays later, running back Jashaun Corbin, a Rockledge native and former FSU running back, broke a couple of tackles on a 15-yard touchdown run to put Orlando on top 6-0. The two-point conversion failed.<\/p>\n

Pictures | Columbus Aviators vs. Orlando Storm<\/a><\/p>\n

The Storm offense sputtered a bit the rest of the half, but the defense did its part, holding Columbus to a pair of field goals. Orlando kicker Michael Lantz hit a 55-yard field goal as the first half ended to give Orlando a 9-6 lead at the break.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first game, we had a lot of new pieces, but what I liked was we took the lead at halftime,\u201d Bech said. \u201cAnd then we come out in the second half and we make the adjustments we need to make. \u2026 The offense comes out and strikes quick, two drives in a row. That\u2019s how you get things cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corbin scored his second touchdown of the game, this one from 13 yards, four minutes into the third quarter, and then Rowland caught the touchdown pass that would give the Storm enough cushion. Corbin wound up with 66 yards on 15 carries.<\/p>\n

The Storm defense had a number of big plays by several players, including Minkins, 7 tackles; defensive end Keshawn Banks, 2 sacks and a pass break-up; linebacker Andrew Parker, 9 tackles; and safety Nate Meadors, 8 tackles.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defense, it\u2019s hard. You gotta get off the field. They didn\u2019t convert a lot of third downs, but they made some big plays and got a lot of yards,\u201d Becht said. \u201cBut it was bend-don\u2019t-break today. I think they were 1-of-5 in the red zone. That was critical for us. \u2026. (we) were killer in the red zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OrlandoOrlando Storm quarterback Jack Plummer during the Orlando Storm’s debut UFL game Sunday night, March 29, 2026, at Inter&Co Stadium. (Chris Hays\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Plummer had a terrific debut after getting the quarterback nod over Dorian Thompson-Robinson. He completed 17-of-22 passes for 245 yards and a touchdown, while Badger had 4 catches for 132 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Plummer) was phenomenal. He made some passes in some tough situations with pressure,\u201d Becht said. \u201cCompleted 77% of his passes, that\u2019s huge. That\u2019s how you win football games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becht and the players were pleased with the atmosphere at Inter&Co. The small venue provided for a noisy crowd at times, and everyone was presented with orange Storm T-shirts when they walked into the stadium gates.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst game in Orlando was just an awesome sight to see,\u201d Becht said. \u201cThe fanbase was incredible tonight. If everybody just brings one friend next game, we\u2019re gonna have a great environment, but tonight was great, with the orange T-shirts and all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowland agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good. \u2026 I think the fans showed up and showed out,\u201d Rowland said. \u201cIt was very exciting to see, running through that tunnel, seeing all that orange on [the fans]. \u2026 we definitely fed off of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Chris Hays can be found on X.com @OS_ChrisHays<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A block in the back could have been a nightmare for Chris Rowland and the Orlando Storm on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140,108],"class_list":["post-211340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211340","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=211340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}