The Tucson Sugar Skulls looked to get back on track for the playoff push following their bye week, but they went down 14 points in the first quarter and never quite recovered after that, dropping their second straight game in the 48-28 loss to the San Antonio Gunslingers on Saturday at the Tucson Convention Center.
“Man, it was just coming out and executing,” wide receiver Larry ‘Tripp’ Harrington said on the preparation during the bye week. “Man, we know we got a talented team. We got a real good, close knit group. We just wanted to come out here, put our best game together from start to finish and we came up short today. But we got a long season and eight more games to correct stuff and get better.”
Tucson (3-5) lost to Bay Area 68-57 in San Jose on May 16 after they won consecutive games at home against the Arizona Rattlers and Massachusetts Pirates.
They managed to score only six points in the first half on Saturday night while San Antonio (3-6) dominated with 28.
“We just missed some reads,” Sugar Skulls head coach Billy Back said on the offensive woes. “We left guys open, missed some reads, didn’t make the play, got beat up front offensive line wise. We’ve got to get better.”
After an early interception in the third quarter by Jorge Reyna, the offense got back on track, scoring 22 points to San Antonio’s 20.
Back assessed the offensive improvement and felt that, “(We) just gotta trust the play call, trust the read. Sometimes you got to flow blind. We missed a lot of blocks as receivers on the edges, and they just they wanted it more than we did”.
The Sugar Skulls kicked the ball off to start the game, giving them possession at the start of the second half. San Antonio’s first possession began at its own 16.
After multiple third-down conversions, San Antonio’s Keyshawn Harper ran in a 5-yard touchdown, making it 7-0 with 8:11 to go in the first quarter.
Tucson had a chance for great field position, but a well-placed bounce on a squib kick went into the hands of San Antonio’s Jalen Phelps at its own 2.
“It’s just awareness,” Back said. “It’s an IQ play. Our front lines got to be aware of the squib kick and you know, we got hit with it.”
The Gunslingers took full advantage of the kick and took it all the way to the Tucson 10 before scoring their second touchdown of the first quarter, making it 14-0 with 1:39 left.
Tucson drove the ball across the field on its next possession but wasn’t able to punch it in for a touchdown.
San Antonio got the ball back and scored on its first play of the ensuing drive, making it 21-0 with 10:27 left in the half.
Wide receiver Jerome Buckner initially returned the kick off for a touchdown, but a holding call put Tucson back at its 15.
The Sugar Skulls drove all the way to San Antonio’s 5, where Jamyest Williams scored on the ground, making it 21-6 after the missed extra point with 5:16 remaining in the first half.
San Antonio once again went across the field and capped the drive off with a quarterback keeper, pushing Joaquin Collazo in, to put the Gunslingers even further up, 28-6 with 1:44 left in the half.
Reyna’s pass was intercepted by Michael Miller, placing the Gunslingers at the middle of the field.
San Antonio took the ball to the Tucson 5 before Kali Rashaad ran it in to put the Gunslinger lead up 35-6 with 8:02 remaining in the third quarter.
After a quiet start to the third quarter, Reyna found the endzone, connecting with Buckner for a 22-yard touchdown, cutting the Gunslinger lead to 35-12 with 3:01 left in the third quarter. The 2-point conversion failed.
San Antonio answered back with another touchdown. Rashaad ran the 5-yard score to make it a 41-12 with 6 seconds left in the third quarter. The extra-point attempt failed.
Tucson responded with a touchdown. Williams zig-zagged in the back field before finding an opening thanks to a huge block from Reyna, who converted the 2-point conversion run to cut the lead to 41-20.
The Gunslingers scored soon after that with a 20-yard pass from Collazo to Austin Upshaw, making it 48-20 with 6:32 left in the game.
On the next drive, Reyna found Harrington in the corner of the end zone to cut the lead 48-28 with under a minute to play.
San Antonio ran out the rest of the time.
Reyna ended the night going 9 for 16 with two touchdowns and one interception. Devonte Sapp-Lynch carried the ball three time for 16-yards.
Williams rushed four times for 11-yards and two touchdowns. Harrington’s single catch was for 30 yards and a touchdown.
Buckner caught two passes for 25 yards and a touchdown.
Tucson will be back at the TCC on Saturday against the San Diego Strike Force at 6:05 p.m. The game is a rematch from when the Sugar Skulls lost 45-22 at San Diego on April 27.
With eight games left in the regular season, the Sugar Skulls have plenty of time to improve for a strong playoff push.
“I mean, I think some of our teammates, coaches, staff, everybody just wants to laser focus in a little bit more,” Harrington said. “Like I said, we had a great week of preparation off of a bye week, but we’re gonna come in even more focused and correcting all those mistakes that we made in game throughout the week in practice.
“We just gonna come back out here next week hitting.”
Recommended for you
