Saturday night marked the sixth win of the season for the Tucson Sugar Skulls, but their 58-33 victory over IFL bottom-dwellers Bay Area Panthers was unlike any of the previous triumphs.
For the first time of the season, the Sugar Skulls weren’t sweating the final moments of the game. They didn’t have to worry about fumbling another fourth-quarter lead — and rather than winning in shootout fashion, Tucson (6-5) clobbered Bay Area (1-11) with a dink-and-dunk offense that kept their defense off the field.
Bay Area’s 33 points are the fewest allowed by Tucson in a game this season. It was also the largest margin of victory in franchise history. The Sugar Skulls will host the Vegas Knight Hawks this weekend at Tucson Arena.
“You have to give the guys credit,” said Sugar Skulls head coach Dixie Wooten. “Coming off a bye week, playing and practicing tough and coming to win the game by 20, that’s big-time. … Defense is getting better, man …
“It’s huge, because it’s a possession league. It’s all about stopping people, because it’s an offensive game. If you get stops on defense, that’s huge.”
The Panthers led the Sugar Skulls 14-13 after the first quarter following a pair of rushing touchdowns by quarterback Vincent Espinoza.
“They hit us with two quarterback draws for touchdowns, so we sewed up the middle and cut a lot of stuff they did in the pass game,” Wooten said.
Tucson scored 38 points in the second and third quarters. Tucson led 51-20 after quarterback Daquan Neal connected with wide receiver Raheem Harvey for a touchdown with 7:59 left in the third.
“I have the keys to the Ferrari that is our offense,” Neal said. “We’re trying to score every time, no matter what the score is. That’s all we’re supposed to do is put up points. … We don’t really like to score-watch, because there are some things you can’t control. All we can control is putting up points.”
Tucson was in cruise control late in the fourth quarter rather than trading points with its opponent.
“I wouldn’t say it takes pressure off us, but we feed off that,” said Sugar Skulls running back Mike Jones. “When they’re playing like that and cracking heads, our energy level skyrockets.
“When they get stops like that, we like to reward them by scoring touchdowns.”
Jones has career night
Tucson’s high-powered offense features wide receivers — Carrington Thompson, Arthur Jackson IV and Quinton Pedroza — who are among the top pass-catchers in the IFL.
Saturday, the Sugar Skulls rode the shoulders of Jones, who rushed eight carries for 74 yards and four touchdowns. He also caught two passes for 22 yards and a score. His five total TDs are a career high.
Jones now leads the IFL with 26 rushing touchdowns, five more than Frisco running back Justin Rankin’s 21.
“I was just taking what the defense gave us. Our offensive linemen were blocking their tails off and opened up holes, and it just made it easier for me,” Jones said.
Bay Area’s defense played a Cover 3 defense for most of Saturday in an attempt to stop the deep ball.
“Their defense didn’t want to get beat deep, so Mike was our answer — running the ball, checkdowns,” Neal said. “We had Mike in the backfield, and that helped us out a lot.”
Jones has also emerged as a mature voice and presence amongst the players — and even the coaching staff. He’s old soul … with an insatiable appetite for sweets.
“All the time, he’s like, ‘I got you, Coach, I got you, Coach,’ because he knows how uptight I am when it comes to practice or in the games. He’s always the one to come and let me know that, ‘We got you today, Coach,’” Wooten said. “He’s good for us, because he’s a funny guy, but he’s always serious. When it is time to relax, Mike Jones will relax. Just give him some cookies and a bed, he’s good to go. He loves all kinds (of cookies). He’s always got a sweet tooth — cake, cookies. For breakfast, he eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every morning. Then he eats cereal before he goes to bed.”
Jones, who has played for the Sugar Skulls since the inaugural season in 2019, said the bye week prior to the win over Bay Area allowed the team to refocus and dial in for the remainder of the regular season. The playoffs begin next month.
“Going into the bye week, everyone was down and saying, ‘We should’ve done this, we should’ve done that,’” Jones said. “Good thing we’re men and winners at heart, so the attitude we had coming back was, ‘We can’t lose anymore,’ so we came out and put on a show.”
Where they stand
The Northern Arizona Wranglers took down the Arizona Rattlers 37-34 on Saturday, moving into first place in the western conference standings at 10-2.
The Rattlers are second at 9-3. Tucson, which has wins over both teams this season, is in third place ahead of the Duke City Gladiators (6-6), Vegas Knight Hawks (5-7), San Diego Strike Force (2-10) and Bay Area Panthers (1-11).
The Frisco Fighters (10-2) currently control the top seed in the eastern conference standings, with Massachusetts Pirates (8-4), Sioux Falls Storm (7-5), Iowa Barnstormers (6-5), Quad City Steamwheelers (6-6), Green Bay Blizzard (5-8) and Bismarck Bucks (3-10) rounding out the group.
