The Tucson Sugar Skulls defeated visiting San Diego 51-31 on Sunday afternoon at the Tucson Convention Center. One would have thought the score was the other way around, given the impressions from those interviewed.
No one was happy – especially head coach Marcus Coleman. He said the game was full of “mental breakdowns.”
“I’m happy we got the win,” he said, in moving the team to 3-1 overall and back in the right direction after a loss two weeks ago. “(But) not necessarily (happy) with where everything is right now. We’ll address that in house.”
He said there were too many mistakes to his liking and “we have got to clean those things up and get ready for our next game.”
Tucson Sugar Skulls coach Marcus Coleman speaks to the media after his team’s 51-31 victory on Sunday.
That would be next weekend against Nebraska, a team that went into the weekend 1-2 overall.
Coleman’s biggest peeve – and yes, he was peeved – was the fact his Sugar Skulls lost their composure a time or two against a team that attempted to get into their heads while failing to get into the endzone enough. The biggest tussle was between Skulls’ defensive lineman Keith Jones and San Diego’s Royce Roxas. They went back and forth for a couple of plays, getting personal fouls. There were other dustups as well, but that was the biggest. And, well, there were the 10 personal fouls for 94 yards.
Coleman talked about composure after the game to his team.
“The Game should have been in control a little bit more and it wasn’t – the game got out of hand,” he said, adding that he wants to say more but didn’t want to get fined. “This is professional sports and just because it is indoor it’s still professional, so you have to act like one. You have to carry yourself like one, regardless of what’s going on.”
By that fourth quarter, Tucson had the game pretty much in hand, keeping the winless Strike Force, um, winless and now 0-5.
FINAL from the Boneyard. ☠️☠️☠️ pic.twitter.com/iDRtLFL596
— Tucson Sugar Skulls (@sugarskullsfb) April 1, 2019
But throughout – save for the early part of the game when the team’s traded scores to go back and forth on the scoreboard – Arizona maintained control the rest of the final three quarters. And anytime San Diego would attempt to get closer, Tucson had an answer. Twice in the second half San Diego got within seven, but the Sugar Skulls scored shortly after.
“In this you have to do that,” Coleman said. “There’s that scoring factor because the game is so fast. If someone gets a big play you really have to … really have to match it immediately. Or you have to get a stop.”
Tucson had enough of those, and local product Cam Gaddis had a hand in a big interception (his second at home this season).
“It feels good,” Gaddis said, of his driving-killing interception. “It means a lot to ball for these fans. It’s a big thing.”
But he, too, said this team, even though at 3-1, “has got a lot of work to do.”
“We’re not going to get too high on this,” he said. “We got to get back to work tomorrow.”
In part because there’s still a lot to play for given it’s still just four games in and there’s a lot to work on.
“Still trying to figure it out It’s still kind of early,” Coleman said, when asked what he has in his team. “We have a team, but do we really have a team.”
He talked of the team’s inconsistencies and wants more togetherness.
“We’re slightly better than what I expected … but (they should be) better than what we’ve been.”
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