Birmingham will play the Brahmas in the United Football League Championship match

The San Antonio Brahmas will play their third straight game in St. Louis next week, but they won’t be playing the Battlehawks.

After defeating St. Louis 25-15 in the playoffs Sunday night, the Brahmas will play the Birmingham Stallions in the United Football League championship game.

San Antonio and Birmingham will square off for the league’s first spring football title on Sunday at 4:00 PM CDT at the America’s Center Dome in St. Louis. FOX will televise the game.

Birmingham advanced Saturday by defeating the Michigan Panthers 31-18 in the USFL conference championship game. The Stallions suffered their only loss of the 2024 season to San Antonio, 18-9, on May 25.

The Battlehawks and Brahmas played Sunday at St. Louis, because St. Louis defeated San Antonio 13-12 in the regular season finale on June 1 to clinch the No. 1 seed in the XFL Conference. The Battlehawks also defeated the Brahmas 31-24 on April 14 – the only game this season in which San Antonio allowed more than 19 points.

But when San Antonio running back Antonio McFarland ran 61 yards for a touchdown with 10:08 left in the second half, the XFL conference championship game appeared over.

The Brahmas had a 19-3 advantage and a 299-96 advantage in yards gained, while St. Louis had a defender sit out late for the second half due to treatment for an ankle injury. AJ McCarron missed two games with the injury before returning for last week’s win over San Antonio. In the final moment of the first half, with St. Louis at the 30-yard line on Sunday night, McCarron was knocked down on a pass and didn’t get up until most of the players were already in the locker room.

But on fourth-and-5 at the San Antonio 31, McCarron connected with receiver Hakeem Butler for a 28-yard gain. The drive ended with a 1-yard touchdown pass from McCarron to tight end Jake Sutherland with 6:06 left in the third quarter to cut the Brahmas’ lead to 19–9.

On San Antonio’s next snap, a handoff went awry, linebacker Pita Taumoepenu scooped up the loose football and ran 10 yards for a touchdown to cut San Antonio’s lead to 19-15 with 5:41 left in the third quarter.

In the short period between touchdowns by St. Louis, McCarron told a TV interviewer from the bench, “I feel like (expletive).” But the Battlehawks ran another Philly Special on a 2-point conversion attempt after Taumoepenu’s TD. McCarron caught the pass but didn’t make it to the goal line.

San Antonio regained control of the game and added two Ryan Santoso field goals on the remaining three possessions while recording 3rd down sacks on St. Louis’ next two drives. Louis. The first possession stalled after a 39-yard connection from McCarron to wide receiver Darius Shepherd, and Andre Szmyt missed a 50-yard field goal attempt on the second possession to snap a 13-yard hitting streak for the Battlehawks. The game ended with St. Louis at the San Antonio 10-yard line.

Former star from St. Paul’s Episcopal and Alabama All-American, McCarron was the only player from an Alabama high school or college to appear in the UFL semifinal. He completed 19 of 29 passes for 179 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.

Coach St. Louis’ Anthony Becht said the Battlehawks “will go down with AJ win, lose or tie today.”

“It was good,” Becht said. “I spoke with him several times. Honestly, look, he’s our quarterback. He sacrificed a lot to play, he came back and fought through injuries and treatments and all that stuff. He doesn’t apologize for it, and he shouldn’t. He was ready to go. He got a little tweak before half time. I didn’t even realize it until I got close to the tunnel, but he turned it off. We had (backup) Manny (Wilkins) ready, but he said he was good. I’ll let it go. At the end of the day, it got us to this point. …

“As long as he wasn’t going to hurt himself more and he was confident in what he was doing and he was clear in his voice, I was going to let him go out there. I have a lot of respect for his fight, his care. He is an older player. He’s a guy who’s been in the NFL for a long time and he’s a different person to deal with. There is a standard for it. There’s a way he’s different from other guys.”

San Antonio quarterback Chase Garbers completed 15 of 21 passes for 197 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.

The Brahmas finished with 213 yards and a touchdown on 35 rushing attempts, with McFarland gaining 115 yards on 11 carries and John Lovett totaling 83 yards on 18 carries.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.