Mad Max and Hot Rod came through on Sunday afternoon.
The two St. Louis players with the coolest nicknames on the team led the Battlehawks to a 19-9 win over host Memphis in at Liberty Stadium.
Max Duggan ran for one touchdown and threw for another, and Rodrigo Blankenship drilled a pair of field goals to help St. Louis to its third successive victory.
The Battlehawks (5-2), who never trailed for the second successive game, moved into a tie with the D.C. Defenders (5-2) for first place in the XFL Conference with three games remaining in the regular season.
Duggan led the Battlehawks on an eight-play, 78-yard drive that changed the game in the closing two minutes of the opening half to allow the visitors to take a 16-6 lead into the break.
The former TCU standout did all of his damage on that drive in the air, hitting on 5 of 6 passes, including a 13-yard scoring toss to Jahcour Pearson that pumped the lead to 10 points. The march, which took a minute and 10 seconds off the clock, served as an answer after the Showboats got to within 10-6 on a 5-yard pass from Dresser Winn to Jonathan Adams.
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For the game, Duggan hit on 15 of 23 passes for 158 yards. He also ran eight times for 59 yards.
Blankenship connected from 53 and 44 yards to improve to 16 of 16 on the season. The former University of Georgia kicker has made five of field goals of 50 yards or more. His 44-yarder with 3:01 left in the contest sealed the triumph.
St. Louis bolted out to a 10-0 lead over the first 13:07.
Duggan ran up the middle on a 7-yard scoring jaunt on third-and-goal for a 7-0 lead.
Blankenship connected on a 53-yard field goal on the following possession to push the advantage to 10-0.
The St. Louis defense set the tone right from the start with a pair of stops on fourth down. Linebacker Carson Wells halted Showboats running back Wes Hills with a crunching stick that eventually set up the Blankenship field goal.
Linebacker Isaiah Mack led the swarming stop unit with seven tackles and a sack. He also forced a fumble.
St. Louis, which has 193 games of NFL experience on its roster, is coming off a 12-6 win over Arlington, giving the defense back-to-back strong efforts.
Memphis (1-6) was eliminated from postseason play with the loss.
The Battlehawks return home to the Dome at America's Center for their next two games, playing host to the Birmingham Stallions (5-2) at noon Saturday and the San Antonio Brahmas (1-6) at 7 p.m. May 23.
