A “championship or bust” season for the Tucson Sugar Skulls has now reached uncomfortable territory for the Old Pueblo’s Indoor Football League team. 

Tucson (1-6) not only dropped its fifth straight game of the season in Saturday night’s 54-38 loss to the Arizona Rattlers (5-1), the Sugar Skulls have now suffered six consecutive losses to their in-state rival since joining the IFL in 2019. 

In typical Dixie Wooten fashion, Tucson’s head coach shouldered the blame for Sugar Skulls loss. 

“I gotta find a way (to win) as a coach,” Wooten said. “At the end of the day, I gotta find a way to motivate them someway, somehow. So, I gotta go to the drawing boards, do what I gotta do and figure it out, because it all starts with me.” 

Rattlers receiver Jarod Harrington got Arizona on the board first, 6-0, in the early goings. Sugar Skulls kicker Jimmy Camacho, who signed with Tucson last week and kicked a league-high 54-yard field goal in last week’s loss to Northern Arizona, sunk a 51-yarder with 8:04 left in the first quarter. 

Similarly to the first matchup between Arizona and Tucson, a 44-34 thriller in Phoenix, the Sugar Skulls started the contest sluggish and fell behind 13-3 after the first quarter. Arizona posted 73 yards of total offense and six first downs in 14 plays, while the Sugar Skulls had one yard in four plays. The Rattlers dominated time of possession (10:55) in the first quarter compared to Tucson (4:05). 

The Sugar