(Tucson, AZ). The Tucson Sugar Skulls (2-8) were entering the game off of a 51-12 loss against the Bay Area Panthers, to come up against another tough matchup in the (8-3) Frisco Fighters.
Sugar Skull Head Coach Billy Back was looking to get a win over his previous team.
The Skulls had a handful of releases, including Quarterback Mylike Mitchell, Kicker Dimitri Fotinos, and Wideout Jalen Marshall.
Frisco won the coin toss and elected to defer. The Skulls with new signal caller Giovanni Sanders, were steam rolling downfield, but after two false start penalties and a delay of game, the Skulls brought in new Kicker Josh Winnett who missed a field goal.
The Fighters weren’t able to get much going, turning the ball over on downs.
The Skulls used Devonte Sapp-Lynch to pound the ball and get themselves down the field. From twenty-eight yards out, Winnett pounded in a field goal, the Skulls were ahead 3-0.
The Fighters ended the first quarter with a big twenty yard run by Runningback Martez Carter.
The Skulls were ahead 3-0.
With Frisco being only five yards out, Quarterback TJ Edwards threw to wideout Phazione McClurge for a touchdown. Frisco was ahead 7-3.
Tucson’s Mike Carrigan had a huge kickoff return to start at the Fighters’ eight yard line. Tucson brought in another signal caller in Quincy Patterson for this drive. Unfortunately Tucson was driven back, but Winnett kicked in a thirty yarder, bringing them within one, the score 7-6.
Frisco started out rough but managed to string a couple of plays together to drive downfield. A twenty-five yard run from runningback Justin Rankin for a touchdown but was brought back due to penalties on both sides of the ball. The Skulls’ defense tightened up, which caused a turnover on downs.
Tucson called for Sanders this drive. Sanders had a huge thirty-three yard run to set Tucson up nicely. Sapp-Lynch ran it in from three yards out, but the PAT was missed, Tucson was ahead 12-7.
Frisco started at midfield due to a missed deuce attempt by the Skulls. Frisco used the run to milk out the clock. With eighteen seconds left, Edwards passed to wideout Cole Blackman for a touchdown, Frisco was back ahead 14-12.
Tucson got an extra fifteen yards on the kickoff due to an unsportsmanlike penalty on the Fighters’ touchdown pass. With six seconds left, Tucson fumbled the ball, and brought in Winnett for a thirty-nine yard field goal attempt, but missed on a huge shank to the right.
At the end of the first half, the Skulls were trailing 14-12.
Frisco started the second half. Edwards flipped the field with his legs on the very first play of the drive. The Skulls tightened up with a sack to cause a turnover on downs. Due to a penalty on the Skulls, there was a replay of downs, and in a turn of events, Frisco had an illegal blindside block, forcing them to kick a thirty-six yard attempt which was no good.
Tucson didn’t have anything go their way, forcing a field goal attempt from fourty-eight yards out, which was shanked left.
Frisco used the run to get a twenty-five yard run from Edwards. The score was then 21-12.
Tucson was given an extra fifteen yards after a late hit, starting inside Fighter territory. Tucson threw an interception but was overturned due to offsetting penalties. With a wide open wideout Brian Smith in the end zone, Sanders nailed the pass for a touchdown. Tucson went for two, but it was unsuccessful. The score was 21-18.
Frisco used Rankin for huge gains on the ground to end the third quarter.
At the end of the third the Skulls were trailing 21-18.
The Fighters couldn’t do much except throw an interception to Tucson’s Carrigan.
With the interception by Carrigan, Sapp-Lynch ripped off a huge twenty yard run. Using the ground game, the Skulls attempted to open up the pass, but in doing so, they threw an interception to the defensive line.
The Fighters got fifteen yards due to a targeting penalty by Tucson. The Tucson defense tightened up even with two receivers playing defense in Carrigan and Tyron Laughinghouse. From twenty-five yards out Edwards hit McClurge in the end zone, the score was 28-18.
Carrigan continued his big game returning the kickoff to the five, but was brought back ten yards as he was pushed out of bounds. The Skulls couldn’t capture the momentum and fumbled the ball which was recovered by Frisco.
The Fighters kept the onslaught going by eating up the clock on the ground. Carter walked into the end zone. The score was 35-18 to put the nail in the coffin.
The Skulls had one minute to go but couldn’t do anything.
The final score was 35-18 moving the skulls to 2-9.
With thin defensive back help, Mike Carrigan and Tyron Laughinghouse were forced to play both sides of the ball and were pretty successful all things considered. The Skulls defense still looked solid, but the offense was in shambles with two new quarterbacks arriving this past week or the night before the game. They were lucky to keep the game as close as it was offensively.
The next home game for the Skulls is June 22nd against the San Diego Strike Force.
Article by Matthew Martell Jr. – 520 Sports Talk
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