Tucson Sugar Skulls fall to San Diego in double-OT thriller in home opener

New season, new coach, same gut-wrenching results at home for the Tucson Sugar Skulls.

The theme for last season’s rendition of the Sugar Skulls: An uber-talented team that couldn’t close out games and frittered away fourth-quarter leads.

In front of a “red-out” crowd at Tucson Arena, the Sugar Skulls (3-1) fumbled a 14-point lead and lost to the San Diego Strike Force (2-2) 51-44 in double overtime in the home opener Saturday night.

The loss also marked the first setback under first-year head coach Hurtis Chinn. Tucson is 0-4 in home openers as a franchise.

“It’s unfortunate,” Chinn said. “It hurts, it doesn’t feel good, but we’ll bounce back from it. We had a lot of misfortune, a lot of missed opportunities, had the game in our hands multiple times and couldn’t come up with a win. ... Last year is behind us, and we want to focus on what’s in front of us.

“It was a weird turn of events that happened, that sometimes happens with the luck of the draw in football, and we gotta get that out of our system as fast as possible.”

Tucson set the tone with a 19-yard touchdown pass from first-year Sugar Skulls quarterback Ramone Atkins — who was the IFL Rookie of the Year last season with the Duke City Gladiators — to wide receiver Dylan Person.

Atkins ended the game completing 18 of 26 passes for 164 yards with three touchdowns and an interception.

With a chance to go ahead two scores, Atkins threw an interception to San Diego defensive back Shawn Shamburger on fourth-and-goal. The Sugar Skulls’ self-inflicted mistakes piled up in the first half, with a pair of fumbles; the first one due to a snap that dribbled between Atkins’ legs to the 25-yard line just plays after a touchdown was nixed for a penalty for a Sugar Skull running into a game official.

“He got pushed into the ref, so I explained it to the referee, that’s why I challenged (the call), and the referee told me, ‘Even though he got pushed into me, he could’ve caught his balance and avoided me.’ ... That was new to me, but I just roll with the punches when it comes to stuff like that,” Chinn said. “I don’t do a lot of back-and-forth with the referees, I just listen to them.”

Atkins said the first quarter “hurt a lot, and it had a little bit of a domino effect.”

“The best way is to get out of that, so it doesn’t keep spiraling down,” the Sugar Skulls quarterback said. “We just got to come together and limit those mistakes. .. If you take care of the ball, you take care of the game itself.”

San Diego kicker Aedan Johnson made all three of his first-half field goals, including a 40-yarder with less than a minute left in the second quarter to give the Strike Force a 16-14 lead. Tucson ended the first half with a 1-yard rushing touchdown by All-IFL running back Mike Jones, the longest-tenured Sugar Skull who’s now in his fourth season with the franchise.

After San Diego moved ahead 23-14 to start the third quarter, the Sugar Skulls answered with a 36-yard touchdown pass from Atkins to second-year Sugar Skull Carrington Thompson Jr.; Person hauled in a 2-point conversion catch on a crossing route to move Tucson ahead 23-22.

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In the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, Jones scored his second 1-yard touchdown courtesy of a direct snap. Jones concluded Saturday with 19 carries for 61 yards and three touchdowns.

San Diego receiver Carlos Thompson fumbled the subsequent kickoff, and the Sugar Skulls started their next drive on the 8-yard line following an unsportsmanlike penalty. Tucson receiver Carrington Thompson capitalized on the takeaway and grabbed his second touchdown catch of the night, putting the Sugar Skulls over San Diego 37-23. Despite missing the PAT, San Diego cut the deficit to 37-31 with a touchdown and a “deuce” on the following kickoff; if a kicker sails a kick through the uprights on a kickoff, it’s worth two points in the IFL.

However, with a chance to seal the contest, Jones fumbled on the Strike Force 5-yard line, giving San Diego one final possession to either tie or win the game. Tucson’s defense, which ranks second in the IFL in points allowed (31.3), needed one stop to end the game with just over a minute left on the clock. With seven seconds left, San Diego quarterback Rudy Johnson launched a 46-yard pass that was bobbled by safety Mike Minter and Thompson, who was in on defense to prevent a Hail Mary pass. The ball was flipped up and landed in the hands of San Diego receiver Kentrez Bell. A missed Strike Force PAT sent the game into overtime.

The message to Tucson’s secondary during the timeout break before San Diego’s game-tying touchdown was to bat down the pass.

“We put a receiver, Carrington, back there to do that job and someone came in the way of that job, but that was the thought process going into it,” Chinn said. “’Hey, let’s just get out of here with a win.’ It would’ve been an ugly win, but again, misfortune, missed opportunity — it bounced off a helmet, I think — and they came up with a play.”

In the extra period, Tucson went back to its bread-and-butter, the “Wildcat” formation with Jones at quarterback. He punched in for a 2-yard touchdown on the first possession of overtime. Strike Force running back Edward Vander countered the first overtime possession with a 2-yard rushing score.

Johnson threaded a 17-yard touchdown on on the second play of double overtime, and San Diego applied pressure with a 51-44 lead. Atkins attempted to tuck the ball and run on 4th-and-5, leapt to cross the goal line, but was stuffed at the 2.

“I had an over-and-under read, their defense kind of just sank and my O-line formed a pocket for me, created a hole,” Atkins said. “I was one on one with their linebacker, and he just bested me that time. ... I take full responsibility. It’s my ship, I gotta control it and make sure we don’t sink.”

Despite the setback for Tucson (3-1), the Sugar Skulls still have the best record in the Western Conference.

“We got a full season to go. Yeah, it sucks to lose, but we got a lot more football left,” Jones said.

Up next: Tucson enters a bye week before hosting the Northern Arizona Wranglers (2-1) on May 6 at 6:05 p.m. Northern Arizona eliminated Tucson from the playoffs last season.

“We’ll enjoy the bye week, but just know when we come back, we’re coming back grinding, because no one likes to lose. We don’t like this feeling right now,” Atkins said.

“We’re going to come back with a chip on our shoulder and get back to what we do, and that’s win.”