By Zachary McMahon –
The DC Defenders faced off against the Arlington Renegades in a rematch of the XFL Championship from last season, where the Renegades won 35-26, at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, TX on Saturday afternoon in a Week 3 matchup in the United Football League.
The Defenders won their first game of the season, after key defensive stops in the fourth quarter against the Houston Roughnecks in Week 2. Meanwhile, the Renegades were looking for their first win of the season.
The first points of the game came on the leg of Defenders kicker Matthew McCrane with a 54-yard field goal with 5:54 left in the first quarter.
Next, the Renegades had two touchdowns in the second quarter as both of them were passes from quarterback Luis Perez. The first was a 19-yarder to Tyler Vaughns and the second was to J.P. Payton for 17 yards. Then, near the end of the first half DC quarterback Jordan Ta’amu threw a touchdown to Chris Rowland to cut their deficit to 14-9.
The second half started with a field goal from each team, as the Defenders would take a one-point lead after Ta’amu threw his second touchdown of the game to Brandon Smith with 1:12 left in the third quarter.
Then, with 12:17 left in the fourth quarter Renegades running back Lindsey Scott Jr. had a 13-yard rushing touchdown with a two-point conversion, then a 49-yard field goal from kicker Tyler Russolino made them have a 10-point lead.
Finally, the Defenders attempted to come back into the game Cam’Ron Harris had a one-yard rushing touchdown, and a run by Ta’amu for the two-point conversion cut their deficit to two.
With 48 seconds left in the game, the Defenders converted a 4th-and-12 onside kick conversion, and then they went into field goal range for McCarane, who drilled a 49-yard field goal to win the game for the Defenders and complete the comeback.
Next week, the Defenders will be traveling to Birmingham to face off against the Stallions next Saturday at 7 pm eastern on FOX.
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