stallions qb martinez scores 5 tds, leads birmingham to win over houston and 8-0 record

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MAY 19, 2024 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

By Steve Irvine

Saturday night’s outcome was shaped by the Birmingham Stallions ability to sandwich success around the halftime break. In other words, it was business as usual for the Stallions as the points they scored on the final first half possession and initial second half possession was the difference in a 35-28 win over the Houston Roughnecks at Protective Stadium.

The scores came on a 4-yard run by quarterback Adrian Martinez and a 10-yard pass from Martinez to Amari Rodgers. The Stallions followed Rodgers’ score with a 1-point conversion pass to Jordan Thomas. Put those 13 points together and a 15-14 lead late in the half became a comfortable two-possession advantage.

Houston coach Curtis Johnson called it the “turning point of the game.”

For Birmingham coach Skip Holtz, though, it was simply all part of a plan that begins with the pregame coin toss.

“Everybody has their own philosophy on how they want to handle defer, take the ball, etc.,” Holtz said. “I am always a defer. I feel like if we can find a way to manage with our timeouts and get the ball back and put any points on the board before the half, we have a chance to make it a two-score game. You can be in a tie game and if you can score before half and you can score the beginning of the third quarter, you’re up 14 points when they get their opportunity to go back out there on offense.”

Holtz didn’t have the season statistics in front of him in the postgame press conference. But, he did say his team has been “pretty efficient” in the final possession of the first half success this season. In this case, pretty efficient is an understatement.

Counting Saturday’s game, the Stallions scored on seven of eight final possessions of the first half. Five times the Stallions scored touchdowns, while they added field goals on two occasions. The only failure came at Houston when Ramiz Ahmed missed a 59-yard field just before the half. In three of those games, Birmingham added a field goal on the first possession of the second half.

On Saturday, a big mistake by Houston on the final first half possession played a huge role in Birmingham’s success. What looked like the Stallions final first half drive appeared to end after three plays. The Stallions punted the ball on 4th-and-4 with 1:17 left on the clock. However, the punt was negated because Houston was offsides on the play.

The Stallions took advantage of the mistake. Martinez and Deon Cain got it started with a 12-yard connection to move into Roughnecks territory. Martinez then completed four of five passes before darting for the touchdown with 11 seconds left in the half.

“It takes some air out of your sails, it’s like that gut punch,” Holtz said of the effect it had on Houston. “For us, we still had to make the throws, we still had to make the catches, had to make the reads, had to protect the quarterback.”

The second half touchdown came at the end of a 52-yard drive that included 31 yards rushing. The tone was set for the remainder of the game but some untimely penalties and a lost fumble by running back Larry Rountree III kept Houston in the game until the final play. The Stallions were able to escape when Demarquis Gates sacked the quarterback on the game’s final play.

“I think this is probably a really good learning lesson for our football team,” said Holtz, whose team is 8-0 heading into next Saturday’s road game against the San Antonio Brahmas. “It wasn’t as clean as we wanted to play. It wasn’t as good as we wanted to play. But it’s fortunate we were able to come out of here with a win.”