Kickers could determine the Battlehawks’ biggest game

The rematch between the St. Louis Battlehawks and Seattle Sea Dragons will decide the second playoff spot in the XFL North Division on Sunday, April 16 in St. Louis.

It is being billed as an arms race between the top two quarterbacks in the league. Seattle’s Ben DiNucci leads the league in passing yards with 2,072. Despite missing last week due to a shoulder injury, St. Louis’ A.J. McCarron has thrown more touchdown passes than any other quarterback in the league.

McCarron being out during the Battlehawks’ 21-17 victory over the Vegas Vipers last week was a gamble made by head coach Anthony Becht, which paid off.

“It worked out from a win standpoint,” Becht said. “Hopefully it works out for him as well, getting his body where it needs to be.”

Given how close these games have been, it is more likely that rather than an offense shootout orchestrated by the league’s top passers, a well-timed field goal might actually be what decides the game.

An argument could be made that the matchup between St. Louis’ Donny Hageman and Seattle’s Dominik Eberle is among the more interesting storylines in this game. Both kickers started in the same place, kicking collegiately in the Mountain West Conference, and took different paths to get to this point with varying peaks and valleys.

Eberle left Utah State with his name in the school record books and kicked in the East-West Shrine Bowl in 2020 with hopes of making it into the NFL. He started with the Las Vegas Raiders but didn’t make it to the field until 2021 with the Houston Texans for one game. He made 2-of-3 field goals, including a 51-yard kick, with five extra points during the Texans’ 41-29 home win over the Las Angeles Chargers on Dec. 26, 2021.

The next season, Eberle made it back on the field with the Detroit Lions. He made his only field goal but only half of his extra points during the Lions’ 48-45 home loss to the Seattle Seahawks on October 2, 2022. He was released two days later.

Eight games into the XFL season, Eberle is tied with San Antonio’s Parker Romo for field goals made (13) and three other kickers, including Hageman, for field goals attempted (14). Hageman is the only one among that group to not make double-digit kicks but has the longest field goal in XFL history, a 59-yarder to help push the Battlehawks past the Houston Roughnecks 24-15 on April 2 in Houston. Hageman’s last-minute field goal last week against Vegas set up the first overtime game in XFL history.

Hageman is used to the alternate path. He started his college career in junior college before transferring to San Diego State and broke the school record in field goals made (20) his junior year in 2015. After college, he went straight to the Arena Football League with the Los Angeles Kiss, a team that folded after the 2016 season.

Hageman’s next stop was in the Alliance of American Football with the hometown San Diego Fleet. It was there where he first had Becht as a coach. He was one of the top kickers in a league that folded before the conclusion of its first season.

Now he’s in St. Louis, with his third league, an XFL that is finally seeming healthy as a viable league, playing for a team in a market that is setting the standard in fan support. No other team in the league is pulling at least 30,000 fans per home game.

Hageman kicked the game-winner for St. Louis the first time the two teams played, a 20-18 win in Week 2 in Seattle. The key to the Battlehawks winning again and claiming a spot in the playoffs may come from his alternate-colored cleats.