Tucson Sugar Skulls look to rally in final home game of the season, shake 2-game skid

With the IFL playoffs approaching in two weeks, the Sugar Skulls got a taste of a road playoff atmosphere at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale. And part of the Rattlers' home field advantage was a page from the book in Tucson.

According to Sugar Skulls co-owner and president Edmund Marquez, Rattlers fans sitting near the Sugar Skulls bench and near the field received vuvuzelas, long plastic horns that became popular in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Over 12,000 tickets were sold for the Sugar Skulls-Rattlers game.

When the Sugar Skulls beat the Rattlers in Tucson earlier in the season, several fans at the rowdy Tucson Arena had vuvuzelas. The horns on a larger scale in Glendale caused communication issues and snap infractions on offense for the Sugar Skulls. 

"I mean this respectfully, I thought it was funny," Marquez said. "They pulled out every trick in their bag during the game. They pulled out vuvuzelas and we saw their staff delivering them just around our bench. They were on either side of our bench."

Tucson head coach Rayshaun Kizer "hated it, to be transparent."

"It was so annoying, and it was right in my ears the whole game," he added. "I had a headache after the game. But great for the Rattlers. It was a great advantage for them. We had a lot of delay-of-game (penalties) and false starts because we couldn't hear. It was so loud, and I had a hard time getting the play calls to (quarterback Ja'Rome Johnson) at times.

"A credit to them. It was great what they did. It should be illegal to do it in our ears the whole game, but it was a great advantage for any team. (Rattlers head coach) Kevin Guy it was the same thing (in Tucson). ... We've never been in a hostile environment like that before — not that loud. We've been in loud environments, but not like that. That was a different animal. We'll be better prepared for it next time, for sure." 

The mental games started before kickoff. When the Rattlers warmed up before the game, the arena played "pretty hardcore, hype rap music," Marquez said. When the Sugar Skulls hit the field for warmups, "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright — a melodic yacht rock song — played in the arena. 

"You name it, they were messing with us as much as they could," Marquez said. "I appreciated it because it was adversity. I told the team that this was like a playoff game. ... (The Rattlers) did a great job and they won, unfortunately. We'll brush ourselves off and go play the next one."

Added Marquez: "That was a great pressure test. It was fantastic. We handled it well in the first half. I like to play 'imagine if.' Imagine if they pull out every trick in the book and we beat them. That would've been fantastic — and we should've done it. We were on the right path and we were in the game physically and we could beat the Rattlers, but we didn't do a good job mentally and they got to us in the second half." 

Tucson was called for 12 penalties — mostly false start and personal foul penalties — against the Rattlers, which led to Arizona scoring 24 straight points. Johnson, who was added midseason and has been a key cog to the Sugar Skulls' turnaround this season, threw a pick-six in the third quarter, which sparked the Rattlers' 24-point run.

The Sugar Skulls "unraveled mentally" and "we need to do a much better job of handling ourselves mentally, and I think we're going to do so moving forward," Marquez said. 

"We are a good team, and Arizona didn't just flat-out beat us," Kizer said. "We just made some really bad decisions in the second half, and we lost control mentally. We mentally lost control of that game with personal fouls. We helped Arizona move the ball down the field, and there was a costly interception by Ja'Rome that was returned for a touchdown; that hurt us.

"We never rebounded as a team. We're a good team and the guys know that. We can beat anybody on the west side. We just gotta get our confidence back and that starts at home this week." 

The Sugar Skulls (6-8) face the Northern Arizona Wranglers (3-11) for the final home game of the regular season on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. 

After Tucson went on a four-game winning streak following a 2-4 start, with wins over the Orlando Pirates, the Rattlers and the Vegas Knight Hawks, the defending IFL champion, the Sugar Skulls dropped a road game to the Wranglers before the final bye week of the season.

Despite outgaining the Wranglers in total yards, 277-147, and converting 71% of third-down plays, turnovers and special teams blunders hindered the Sugar Skulls. Johnson threw four interceptions against Northern Arizona last month. 

The Sugar Skulls allowed two kickoff returns for touchdowns — a total of five returns for 156 yards. Tucson also had nine penalties to Northern Arizona's four. Northern Arizona kicker Manuel Nestor Higuera, who has one of the strongest legs in the IFL, accounted for nine points between two deuces, a field goal and two PATs. 

"He's good," Kizer said of Higuera, who's listed at 5-5, 275 pounds. "I like him a lot. Everybody talks about his body, but he's a good kicker. He kicks a lot of deuces and it's going to be hard for him to kick deuces in the TCC, (because of the speaker system in the rafters).

"Outside of that, he doesn't really have anything going well for him. He's pretty average in the field goal department. In Prescott Valley, he's good at kicking deuces there, but we don't have an open arena, so I think he's going to struggle to hit deuces at the TCC."

When the Sugar Skulls lost to Northern Arizona, they "didn't come prepared to play a 60-minute battle with them," Kizer said. 

"We knew we were the better team, but we didn't come to play for 60 minutes, and that's where they took advantage of us," added the Sugar Skulls head coach. "They played hard, gotta give credit where credit is due. They made plays in the fourth quarter that we did not make. They took advantage of the plays we didn't.

"That was the difference of that game. Obviously, this week, we want payback. Northern Arizona is historically competitive at home, but they haven't won on the road this season, so we're taking that into consideration. They're playing some good football right now, but we'll be ready this week."

With two weeks remaining, Tucson controls its destiny for the IFL playoffs. If the San Antonio Gunslingers (4-10) win their next two games against the Rattlers and the Iowa Barnstormers, and the Sugar Skulls drop their next two contests against the Wranglers and the San Diego Strike Force, San Antonio owns the tiebreaker and will secure the fourth seed of the IFL playoffs. 

The Sugar Skulls are most likely heading to the playoffs, but Tucson is searching for its mojo again after losing two straight games with two weeks of the regular season remaining.  

"We gotta go back and remember who we are," Kizer said. "After the bye week, we revisited the last four games we won and saw how good we were playing.

"We gotta go back to who were during that phase and get these guys to remember how good we were playing. ... As far as where we stand, we know that if we win this weekend, we're in the playoffs." 

Extra points

– Johnson, who exited Saturday's game with a lower-body injury, is expected to play this week. 

– The Sugar Skulls' final home game against Northern Arizona on Sunday will be "SpongeBob SquarePants Night." Tucson is wearing SpongeBob SquarePants-themed uniforms. Some of the jerseys will be a part of a live auction after the game. Other jerseys are part of an online auction at TucsonSugarSkulls.com. 

– "SpongeBob SquarePants Night" is one of many promotional games for the Sugar Skulls this season. Tucson also had "Star Wars Night" and "Western Night." Each promotional game had themed uniforms and "they've been home runs" this season, Marquez said.

Added Marquez: "They've been a blast and I'm happy to do them. The fans enjoy them. ... The fans feel appreciated for their fandom and we just want to create a winning atmosphere and have a blast at the TCC, and I think that's what we're doing."

– The Sugar Skulls set the franchise attendance record in their previous home game against the Rattlers last month. Tucson distributed 5,300 tickets for its in-state rivalry matchup.