The United Football League’s highest-scoring offense found the going tough against the Houston Roughnecks on Saturday. But when the St. Louis defense came up with two big plays, Battlehawks quarterback AJ McCarron responded with two big throws.

The resulting 22-8 victory for St. Louis set up a Week 7 showdown with the Birmingham Stallions in a homecoming game for McCarron.

The former Alabama All-American will lead the 5-1 Battlehawks against the 6-0 Stallions at 3 p.m. CDT Saturday at Protective Stadium in Birmingham.

St. Louis had a 6-0 lead on the strength of McCarron’s 17-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Hakeem Butler with 6:12 left in the first half when Battlehawks linebacker Mike Rose caused running back Mark Thompson to fumble on a reception, with nose tackle Tautala Pesefea Jr. recovering the football at the St. Louis 38-yard line.

Gaining possession with 50 seconds left in the first half, the Battlehawks moved 61 yards on four completions followed by a defensive pass interference penalty in the end zone to advance the football inside the Houston 1-yard line. But only four seconds remained in the half.

Instead of taking the field goal, St. Louis coach Anthony Becht played for the touchdown, and McCarron connected with wide receiver Steven Mitchell Jr. for six points as time ran out in the second quarter. A 2-point pass to tight end Jake Sutherland had the Battlehawks ahead 14-0 at halftime.

After the Roughnecks had scored a touchdown on their first possession of the fourth quarter, Houston had a fourth-and-6 snap at the St. Louis 38 with 5:04 to play. Roughnecks QB Reid Sinnett completed the pass, but Battlehawks safety Kameron Kelly snatched down wide receiver Justin Hall just short of the necessary yardage for a first down.

McCarron had one second-half completion at that point, but St. Louis did not try to take time off the clock. The Battlehawks ran once in four snaps, and McCarron had completions of 7, 21 and 36 yards. The longest went to Butler behind the defense for a touchdown with 3:06 to play. A 2-point conversion pass to running back Jacob Saylors set the score at 22-6.

St. Louis yielded an intentional safety on a fourth-down snap to run out the final seconds on the clock.

McCarron completed 24-of-37 passes for 255 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, which came in the end zone in the first quarter.

Butler had six receptions for 134 yards and two touchdowns.

While St. Louis won its fifth game in a row, Houston dropped to 1-5 this season.

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