April hasn’t been kind to the Tucson Sugar Skulls.
The team’s second-half performances and “self-inflicted” struggles this month have been a thorn in Tucson’s side.
The Sugar Skulls (3-5) dropped their fourth consecutive game of the season to the Iowa Barnstormers (7-1) — the defending Indoor Football League champions — 61-58 Saturday night at Tucson Arena.
The Barnstormers scored the game-winning touchdown with seven seconds left, then survived a missed field goal by Tucson as time ran out.
For the second consecutive game, Tucson’s defense allowed 300 yards of total offense. This week, Iowa recorded 310 yards, including 265 through the air.
Tucson entered the second half with a 31-20 lead and held a 17-point advantage with just over nine minutes left in the third quarter. Similar to the previous three losses, the Sugar Skulls were either tied or in front before coughing up the lead.
Iowa scored five touchdowns in the fourth quarter including two blocked field goals, one of them recovered in the end zone, which gave the Barnstormers their first lead of the game at the one-minute warning in the fourth quarter.
“We’re still making too many mistakes on both sides of the ball,” said Sugar Skulls coach Marcus Coleman. “We’re in the right defense, got the right coverage calls, we’re just not making the right plays.
“With penalties, we’re still not quite there and we’re still not mature enough to understand we can’t make mistakes against good teams, whether it’s Iowa (Barnstormers) or Arizona (Rattlers).”
The silver lining for the Sugar Skulls was running back Mike Jones. He had a season-high with 21 carries, 109 yards and three scores.
“That was a huge part of the game plan. We knew we’d have some success doing that and we were very successful running the ball,” said Coleman.
Jones’ last touchdown came with just under six minutes left, which gave the Sugar Skulls a 51-41 lead.
At that point, Tucson “lost focus mentally.”
“We weren’t focused. We were riding the hot streak and said, ‘Oh we’re up and we can finally win a game. People were too excited and once we got excited, we started having mental errors,” said Jones.
After quarterback Jake Medlock found wide receiver Shaquan Curenton for the go-ahead touchdown, Iowa stormed down the field to take a 61-58 lead with seven seconds left after quarterback Daquan Neal rushed for his seventh score of the game. Coleman wanted to challenge a potential holding penalty on the score, but the officials denied his request.
“Every other team in this league is challenging holding,” Coleman said. “Obviously we didn’t get the update that we can’t do that anymore. I’ll take it up with the head of officials and talk about. I’m sure he’ll let me know what’s going on.”
Kicker Josh Gable attempted a 53-yard field goal to tie the game at 61, but it was five yards short as time expired.
For now, the Sugar Skulls head into new month with a game against the San Diego Strike Force on Saturday.
“It’s frustrating. I know everybody is going to say we’re an expansion team and everything is new,” Coleman said. “We don’t think like that. We feel like at the end of the day as a coaching staff, with the players we bring in, we’re good enough to compete and win games.
“At the end of the day, that’s our job, win games. It’s a production-based business. If you can’t get it done, someone else will come in and we’ll figure it out until someone gets it done.”
