Turnovers hinder Tucson Sugar Skulls in 'unacceptable loss' to Northern Arizona Wranglers

It’s a daunting task to win a football game with turnovers, especially five of them.

The Tucson Sugar Skulls (3-2) turned the ball over five times — three interceptions and two lost fumbles — in their 31-21 loss to the defending IFL champion Northern Arizona Wranglers (4-2) Saturday evening at Tucson Arena. Since Tucson’s 72-62 win over Northern Arizona last season, the Sugar Skulls have lost four straight to their in-state rival.

After starting the season 3-0 with three straight road wins, the Sugar Skulls are 0-2 in Tucson this season.

“We gotta do better, especially in front of our home crowd,” said Sugar Skulls head coach Hurtis Chinn. “It’s unacceptable. That’s one thing we talked about after this game. It’s an unacceptable loss. It starts with me, and we just have to do better on the offensive side of the ball. There was too much misreads, miscommunication, things we knew were going to happen — and did happen — but we just didn’t execute.”

Tucson quarterback Ramone Atkins completed 19 of 32 passes for 162 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.

“If you have more turnovers than the other team, you’re likely going to lose,” Atkins said. “We both had turnovers, but we had a couple more. ... I was going through my reads and with with bodies in front of me, you lose sight of guys. I let it go, didn’t have a clear vision and the DBs were there undercutting my throws.”

A pair of fumbles by Tucson and Northern Arizona led to a scoreless first quarter.

Wranglers running back Jarrod Ware Jr. redeemed his first-quarter fumble with the game’s first touchdown to put Northern Arizona ahead 7-0 to begin the second quarter.

Following Atkins’ first interception, Ware scored his second touchdown of the night off a swing pass inside the red zone.

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Atkins connected with Thompson on an 8-yard touchdown to cut the deficit 14-6 after the missed PAT attempt. Wranglers quarterback Garrett Kettle’s 1-yard run lifted Northern Arizona to a 21-6 lead, but the Sugar Skulls pulled within one possession, 21-14, after running back Mike Jones scored on a 3-yard touchdown with 21 seconds left in the second quarter. The Wranglers made a 19-yard field goal to end the first half and led 24-14.

In a scoreless third quarter, Sugar Skulls defensive backs JJ Dallas and Mike Minter each recorded interceptions, albeit Atkins threw his second interception of the night, and Jones fumbled.

With 10:43 left to play, Atkins threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to newcomer wide receiver Emetrious Scott to cut the lead to 24-21.

Tucson safety-linebacker hybrid and former Arizona Wildcat Rashie Hodge intercepted Kettle at the Sugar Skulls’ 17-yard line with just under eight minutes remaining.

Turnovers continued to plague the Sugar Skulls, with Atkins throwing his third interception at the Wranglers’ 12-yard line.

“It could’ve helped us tremendously, if we took advantage of it on the offensive side of the ball. That was a big moment of the game,” Chinn said of Hodge’s interception. “The offense was aware of the moment, everything we were calling was there, we just didn’t execute. We need to do better executing on offense.”

Northern Arizona punched in its final touchdown with a 1-yard run by wide receiver Ramaud Chiaokhiao-Bowman.

The loss dropped Tucson to second place in the IFL Western Conference standings.

Up next: The Sugar Skulls will hit the road to face the Duke City Gladiators in Albuquerque at 5:05 p.m. Saturday. Contact sports producer Justin Spears at jspears@tucson.com. On Twitter: @JustinESports