Tucson looks to secure the three seed in the Western Conference Playoffs with a win against the Bay Area Panthers tomorrow in San Jose, Calif.
The Sugar Skulls can also clinch the third seed if Duke City loses to the Wranglers tomorrow.
Tucson came up short against the Iowa Barnstormers, losing 61-48 last Saturday night at Tucson Arena.
If Tucson beats Bay Area tomorrow, it will face the Northern Arizona Wranglers in Prescott Valley in the first round of the IFL Playoffs. If the Sugar Skulls lose to the Panthers and Duke City defeats the Wranglers tomorrow, Tucson will drop to the fourth seed and play the Arizona Rattlers in Phoenix in the first round.
The 1-14 Panthers have lost 14 straight games and average a league-worst 28.7 points per game while allowing a league-worst 54.9 points per game.
While a win tomorrow would guarantee Tucson a higher seed in the playoffs, it would also provide some much-needed momentum at the end of the regular season.
“It’s important because you go to sew up the third seed. So, going out to the Bay Area is super important,” Tucson head coach Dixie Wooten said last Saturday. “So, we gotta go to the drawing board, fix this and see if we can go down there and get a win and get ready for the playoffs.”
The Sugar Skulls beat Bay Area 58-33 on June 11 At Tucson Arena. The 25-point win was the largest margin of victory in franchise history.
Tucson kick returner Benjamin Jones was named IFL Special Teams Player of the Week. He returned four kicks for 96 yards, including a 50-yard return for a touchdown on the opening kickoff against Iowa last Saturday.
The Sugar Skulls (8-7) play tomorrow against the Bay Area Panthers (1-14) in San Jose, Calif. Kickoff is at 6:05 p.m. You can watch the game live on the IFL YouTube channel.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com writing intern Kevin Murphy was born and raised in Tucson, and has followed Arizona Wildcats athletics since childhood. Murphy is a journalist product manager with the Green Valley News & the Sahuarita Sun. He is currently attending the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU where he is working towards a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and Media Studies.
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