(Tucson, AZ) Tucson limped into their final home game in the basement with a 2-12 record hoping to go out on a high note.
Their foe, the San Antonio Gunslingers entered the game even at 7-7 and in sixth place in the Western Division.
The Sugar Skulls have shuffled many players through their roster trying to find the right combination and that spark that would ignite the team this season.
Tucson has been competitive in many of their games this season, but not being able to finish the task coming out on the short end. The ground game is near the top in the pass happy Indoor Football League.
Consequently, that was San Antonio’s weakness coming into the contest. The Skulls will try to exploit that.
Last week, Tucson had the Arizona Rattlers right where they wanted them, leading going into the final quarter but failed to get the win.
First Quarter
Tucson lost the coin flip but received the ball first. Vincent Espinoza got the nod to start at quarterback but had all kind problems handling the snaps that resulted in an almost impossible forty two yard field goal attempt that fell woefully short and was returned to the Gunslinger eighteen yard line.
San Antonio methodically moved the ball down the field and scored the game’s first touchdown 7-0 at the 4:08 mark.
Mike Carrigan had a long runback on the ensuing kickoff, but it was nullified by a holding penalty. A play later Tucson coughed up the ball in their own territory which was recovered by the Gunslingers.
With a short field to work with, San Antonio scored on a four yard run by Kali Rashaad to end the first quarter with a 14-0 lead.
Second Quarter
Tucson struck quickly on the first play of the second quarter as Espinoza hit Mike Carrigan on a 30 yard fly route to get the Sugar Skulls on the scoreboard 14-7.
The Gunslingers bogged down and turned the ball back over to Tucson near midfield. The joy didn’t last long as Espinoza threw an interception on a play that the intended receiver wasn’t even in the area.
Castronova ran the ball fifteen yards after the turnover to go back up by a couple of touchdowns 21-7 with 3:47 left till halftime.
The game to this point lacked any type of flow with both teams seemingly lethargic and mistake prone.
The Skulls came back inside the final minute to score off a Espinoza to Laughinghouse four yard touchdown at 21-14.
Under a minute is plenty of time in Indoor Football as San Antonio displayed as they drove thirty yards to cap off their drive with an eighteen yard touchdown pass to go uo 28-14 with still 20 seconds left.
Tucson had all their timeouts left to try to steal points before the half. With 3 seconds left and the ball on two yard line, Mike Jones was stacked up just shy of the goal line to end the half.
The Sugar Skulls were hampered with 51 yards of penalties which took them out of their flow and gave San Antonio the edge in field possession.
The Gunslingers had almost twice as much time of possession 19:26 to Tucson’s 10:34.
Neither team has anything to play for as they both have been eliminated from Playoff contention as they play out the string.
Third Quarter
The Gunsligers got the ball as they had deferred the coin toss. It didn’t take long for them to light it up as Castronova slipped a couple of tackles and scored from midfield on a simple quarterback keeper as they began to pull away 35-14.
Espinoza’s problems with accuracy continued, but Levantritt kicked a 36 yard field goal to come away with points and make the score 35-17.
Once again, the game slowed down as the Tucson defense stiffened initially but then the Gunslingers came back to score on another quarterback keeper to widen the lead 42-17 with 3:28 left in the quarter.
Castronova has been the story of this game with his ability to scramble and keep the play alive and his legs leading the team in rushing.
Tucson not wanting to let the deficit get any larger saw Espinoza scramble far side and run in for the score. Tucson went for two points, but Espinoza’s pass was too low in the back of the end zone. San Antonio now led 42-23 to end the quarter.
Fourth Quarter
Castronova continued to pick apart the Sugar Skull secondary. On a pass that was challenged by Tucson Coach Billy Back as incomplete in the back of the end zone was reversed and another San Antonio touchdown which seemed to sealed the game 49-23 but 10:38 remained.
Tucson wanting to go out on a positive note in the final home game, scored on a Carrigan 8 yard touchdown run to bring the score to 49-30.
Trying to maintain some momentum, the Skulls recovered the on-side kick. Espinoza took a play out of San Antonio’s book as he took off down the field for a big gain to get Tucson out of its own goal line area.
The Sugar Skulls converted a fourth down followed by a Espinoza to Brian Smith 17 yard touchdown. Again, the try for two failed leaving the score 49-36 and 3:52 to play.
San Antonio still running their pass offense but had no success turned the ball over on downs to the Sugar Skulls with 1:36 left.
One last drive for Tucson in the season had a near touchdown pass ruled incomplete when it hit the wall. On the next play, Espinoza found Smith in the back of the end zone for a touchdown and put Tucson back in contention 49-43. With 44 seconds remaining, could they go to well one more time and pull out an improbable victory?
That opportunity vanished when San Antonio recovered the on-side kick with 40 seconds left.
Final Score 49-43 San Antonio Gunslingers.
In the post game press conference, Coach Back praised his team for having the resiliency to comeback in the final quarter. When asked, “what positives can you take away from this effort? Back stated, “this team is very young and a play here or there during the season, Tucson could have very easily had a winning record.”
The Sugar Skulls conclude their season next week in Henderson Nevada to face the Knight Hawks.
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