ORLANDO, FL \u2013 May 22, 2026 \u2013 The Storm continue to prove they\u2019re one of the toughest teams in the UFL. In their regular season home finale, a dominant first half powered Orlando to a 27-19 victory over the Defenders. Former DC receiver Chris Rowland delivered a statement performance against his old team, hauling in eight receptions for 117 yards and a 62-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n
Rowland wasted no time making an impact. On Orlando\u2019s opening drive, Jack Plummer dialed up his playmaker early. Rowland turned a short catch into a 62-yard score, making multiple defenders miss on his way to the end zone and adding another highlight to his growing reel.<\/p>\n
With a clinching scenario on the line, the Defenders answered quickly. After Matt McCrane connected on a 43-yard field goal, the defense forced a quick stop and got the ball right back. Spencer Sanders then delivered one of his best throws of the night, finding Keke Coutee for 45 yards.<\/p>\n
A few plays later, Deon Jackson punched in a three-yard touchdown and DC grabbed a 10-7 lead.<\/p>\n
The Storm offense responded immediately. Plummer dropped a perfect deep ball into the hands of Elijah Badger, who raced into the end zone for a 41-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n
Plummer struck again later in the half. After a 35-yard completion to Cam Camper, he found the receiver once more for a two-yard touchdown. Suddenly, Orlando had full control with a 21-10 lead they would never give back.<\/p>\n
The Defenders nearly cut into the deficit before halftime. McCrane attempted a 67-yard field goal, but it came up just short.<\/p>\n
He redeemed himself coming out of the locker room, drilling a 56-yard field goal to bring DC within one possession at 21-13.<\/p>\n
As they had all night, the Storm answered again. Michael Lantz connected from 35 yards out to push the lead back to two scores.<\/p>\n
The Defenders made things interesting in the fourth quarter, but could not finish drives in the end zone. McCrane added two more field goals to trim the deficit to 24-19. Lantz answered once more with a 51-yard field goal, giving Orlando breathing room late.<\/p>\n
DC had one final opportunity, but Keshawn Banks strip-sacked Sanders to seal the win. Orlando\u2019s defense turned in another strong performance with three sacks, seven tackles for loss, and a takeaway.<\/p>\n
The Storm improved to 7-2 and now own the best record in the UFL. Meanwhile, the Defenders dropped their third straight game and fell to 5-4.<\/p>\n
Plummer finished with 275 passing yards, three touchdowns, and a 146.1 quarterback rating. Badger added five receptions for 82 yards and a score, while Darien Butler led the defense with a game-high 11 tackles, including two for loss.<\/p>\n
Brandon Smith paced the DC defense with eight tackles and one tackle for loss. Despite the defeat, Sanders totaled 235 yards of offense, including 75 rushing yards.<\/p>\n
The Defenders and Storm will meet again next Sunday in DC at 12:00 PM ET on ABC in the regular season finale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, FL \u2013 May 22, 2026 \u2013 The Storm continue to prove they\u2019re one of the toughest teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-281717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281717","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=281717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}