{"id":30291,"date":"2026-05-23T21:58:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/23\/rowland-haunts-former-team-orlando-wins-third-straight\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T21:58:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:58:56","slug":"rowland-haunts-former-team-orlando-wins-third-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/23\/rowland-haunts-former-team-orlando-wins-third-straight\/","title":{"rendered":"Rowland Haunts Former Team, Orlando Wins Third Straight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>ORLANDO, FL \u2013 May 22, 2026 \u2013 <\/strong>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<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"min-height: auto;\" title=\"Ex-Factor: Rowland Leads Storm to Win\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vokol.ai\/f\/jdexmlyc\" width=\"100%\" height=\"530\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"clipboard-write; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>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<p>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<p>A few plays later, Deon Jackson punched in a three-yard touchdown and DC grabbed a 10-7 lead.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>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<p>The Defenders nearly cut into the deficit before halftime. McCrane attempted a 67-yard field goal, but it came up just short.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>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<p>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<p>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<p>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<p>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<p>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<p>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<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ORLANDO, FL \u2013 May 22, 2026 \u2013 The Storm continue to prove they\u2019re one of the toughest teams in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_animmysite_disable_animation":false,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.theufl.com\/imgproxy\/skNpTkSqkf3ED-k9z7psVp81wrj44zylX40Tz7YQJuY\/rs:fit:3000:0:0\/g:ce\/q:90\/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdG9yYWdlLmdvb2dsZWFwaXMuY29tL3VmbGVhZ3VlLXByb2QvMjAyNi8wNS8yMy9kMDI4NDUyMS03ZDZkLTQwMzMtODQ4YS0wYjg3ZGNkNTJlMTQucG5n.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}