The Birmingham Stallions did a lot of things on Friday night that should have led to a loss in the United Football League team’s home opener for the 2025 season. But after one of the miscues turned into a get-out-of-jail-free card, the Stallions did what it took to win.

Quarterback Matt Corral threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Cade Johnson with 26 seconds remaining, then ran in a 1-point conversion to lift Birmingham to a 10-9 victory over the Arlington Renegades at Protective Stadium.

“Really proud of this football team because they continue to fight, they continue to compete,” Birmingham coach Skip Holtz said. “They never give up.”

The Stallions’ game-winning drive started at the Birmingham 30-yard line with 2:09 remaining, and it looked as though it had ended just 21 seconds of clock time later when cornerback Steven Jones intercepted a fourth-and-6 pass by Corral.

But under UFL rules, the video official can review plays in the final five minutes if it’s thought an obvious penalty has been missed. The review showed Stallions left tackle Barry Wesley had started before the snap, as the Arlington defensive line had pointed out.

Since a false-start penalty would have stopped the action, Birmingham got a fourth-down do-over, but made 5 yards harder. On fourth-and-11, Corral connected with wide receiver Marlon Williams for a 12-yard gain.

“Maybe one of the few penalties I’ll appreciate the whole season,” Holtz said. “We did have way too many penalties.”

With two of the Stallions’ starting offensive linemen on the sidelines with injuries, Corral then had completions to tight end Jordan Thomas for 16 yards and wide receiver Davion Davis for 10 yards before an 8-yard scramble to get Birmingham in position for the game-winning throw.

Before that, though, Corral threw an interception on Birmingham’s first series, tight end Jace Sternberger lost a fumble just as he was about to score a touchdown on the Stallions’ second series, Birmingham committed four penalties on Arlington’s third possession to lead to a field goal and a 6-0 deficit and Stallions nose tackle Carlos Davis got a roughing-the-passer penalty with five seconds left in the first half, which kept time from expiring and allowed the Renegades’ Lucas Havrisik to kick his third field goal of the game.

Despite having seven penalties for 64 yards (to none for Arlington) and two turnovers (to none for the Renegades), Birmingham trailed only 9-0 at halftime as the Stallions defense held three red-zone possessions to three field goals.

In the second half, Arlington’s possessions ended with three punts, one lost fumble and a series of laterals that went nowhere but out of bounds on the game’s final snap.

Birmingham got a 42-yard field goal from Harrison Mevis on its opening possession of the second half, then punted three times and was stopped on downs on fourth-and-4 at the Arlington 10-yard line with 5:37 to play before the game-winning series.

Corral completed 19-of-41 passes for 255 yards with one touchdown and one interception and ran four times for 24 yards. Corral was not sacked in the game, while the Birmingham defense got to Arlington QB Luis Perez three times. Bradlee Anae, Ronnie Perkins and Marvin Wilson had one sack apiece, with all three coming in the red zone.

The Stallions’ 10th consecutive home victory was the Renegades’ first loss of the season. Each team left Friday night’s game with a 2-1 mark for the 2025 campaign.

Birmingham returns to the field to play the Houston Roughnecks at 6 p.m. CDT April 19 at TDECU Stadium in Houston.

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