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SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake Stallions thought they had found a way to win.
It was gritty. It was gripping. It was heart-pounding.
Josh Woodrum's back-to-back passes for a touchdown and two-point conversion with 51 seconds left gave the Stallions a 25-24 edge on the road against the San Diego Fleet.
It just left too much time, though.
Donny Hageman drilled three field goals, including a 44-yard boot as time expired, to help the San Diego Fleet hand the Salt Lake Stallions a heartbreaking loss, 27-25 Saturday evening at SDCCU Stadium in Southern California.
"I think it just boils down to turnovers," said Stallions coach Dennis Erickson, whose team suffered back-to-back losses for the second time in the first five weeks of the Alliance of American Football's inaugural season. "Fighting back and taking the lead was good, but then they go down and kicked that field goal. There’s a lot of emotions there.
"I’ve been in a lot of football games in my life. I don’t know that I’ve ever been in one that quite ended like that. That’s well over 300 football games. That’s why my hair is the color that it is right now."
Mike Bercovici, the quarterback whom Erickson recruited to Arizona State, threw for 304 yards with a touchdown and an interception to lead the Fleet, which piled up just 31 yards on the ground.
The Fleet (3-2) were helped by two defensive scores, a 41-yard fumble return for a touchdown in the third quarter and a 22-yard interception return to start the fourth, to take the win.
Josh Woodrum completed 21-of-34 passes for 222 yards for the Stallions (1-4), but also threw two interceptions before leaving the game in the third quarter. Woodrum finished with 380 yards passing with a touchdown and three interceptions.
Joel Bouagnon ran for 36 yards and two touchdowns for Salt Lake, which out-gained San Diego 424 yards to 322 — but had just 57 yards on the ground. De’Mornay Pierson-El caught eight passes for 130 yards, and Nick Truesdell added 71 yards and a touchdown on six catches for the Stallions.
With little help from its offense, the Fleet’s defense gave them the advantage, though.
Salt Lake’s Terrell Newby fumbled on a run up the middle, leaving the ball on the ground in the midst of a gaggle of players.
San Diego’s Jordan Martin scooped up the loose ball and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown that gave the Fleet a 12-11 edge with 3:20 left in the third quarter on the same drive where Woodrum left the game briefly with an injury.
"I thought offensively we turned the ball over five times for 14 points. That’s horrible," Erickson said. "Defensively, we played good — but they have a big-time quarterback and receiver."
After Woodrum's departure, Austin Allen took over for the former star quarterback at FCS Liberty.
The backup fumbled the ball after a six-yard sack, setting up Bercovici’s 18-yard TD strike to Ben Johnson that gave San Diego an 18-11 lead with 2:33 left in the third.
Former Utah State defensive back Will Davis gave the Stallions life to start the fourth quarter. The former third-round NFL draft pick intercepted Bercovici at the Salt Lake 18, but Woodrum returned from an injury just in time to throw a 23-yard pick-six to Kameron Kelly that put the Fleet up 24-11 in the fourth quarter.
The Stallions responded with Bouagnon's second touchdown of the night, a 4-yard scamper with 4:06 left in the game to cut the deficit to 24-17 after the failed conversion attempt.
After forcing the Fleet to punt, the Stallions had 2:14 remaining to drive 72 yards to win or tie.
Woodrum gave the Stallions a shot, marking Adonis Jennings with a 42-yard downfield strike just after the two-minute warning that set up first-and-goal at the 6-yard line. The quarterback then battled through penalties and false starts to keep the drive alive, then found Truesdell with a 6-yard TD strike with 57 seconds left.
"You can't practice anything like that. You either have it or you don't," Woodrum said of the tenacity of the failed comeback bid. "We came back in the second half, but it wasn't enough.
"I turned the ball over twice in the first half, too, and I shouldn’t have done that, though."
Miraculously, the Stallions had a 25-24 lead on a conversion to Kenny Bell. But the visitors left too much time on the clock, as Hageman converted his third field goal to give the hosts the win.
Next up
The Stallions return home March 16 to host the Memphis Express. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. MST for a game that will be streamed on Bleacher Report Live. The loss puts Salt Lake two games behind the Fleet for the top spot in the four-team West division, with five games remaining.
