By Zev Black
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Coming off of their IFL Cup championship game loss to the Vegas Knight Hawks, the Arizona Rattlers (7-3) bounced back to take down the Northern Arizona Wranglers (1-8)  56-32. Their offense, through Rattlers QB Drew Powell, was able to march up and down the field throughout much of the game.

The scoring came early for the Rattlers when RB Ron Brown Jr. took a jet sweep into the endzone on the team’s first drive.

After K Matthew Cook converted the extra point, he nailed a deuce. This has been somewhat of a revelation for Arizona in recent weeks.

“If you’re gonna do it, I feel like you gotta commit,” he said. “It’s kind of hit-and-miss.”

The play of the game for Arizona came on their next drive. Leading 9-3, Powell scrambled to his left and threw across the field to a wide open Arland Bruce who took it to the one-yard line. One play later RB Kymani Clarke converted the score to push the lead to 16-3.

The Wranglers kept fighting, however. QB Anthony Garrett called his own number for a touchdown run.

Later, after Cook nailed another field goal to push the lead back to nine, Garrett found WR Marlon Cook Jr. in the back of the endzone who made an incredible catch, flipping over the board completely and holding onto the ball for the score. This was Cook Jr.’s first of two touchdowns in the half. The Rattlers led 26-16.

Later in the half with the Rattlers up 26-23, Powell found Bruce for a two-yard touchdown reception. Another deuce later and Arizona found themselves leading 35-25 at halftime.

Powell refrained from saying who his favorite receiver to throw to is during the postgame press conference.

“If I could say all of them,” he said. “They all do different things well. I was able to sit back early in the season to see what those things were. Bruce, the first man never gonna bring him down. He’s an after the catch type of guy. Dukes is a jumpball type of guy.”

Arizona then dominated the second half. Their defense didn’t allow a point until just over three minutes left in the game. The half was highlighted by a Rattlers Yahsyn McKee Sr. interception on the first drive of the half.

Rattlers Head Coach Kevin Guy was pleased with his defense, but thought there was room for improvement.

“I thought we did a decent job at not letting the quarterback run all over the field,” he said. “He got out a couple of times, but that’s something we need to improve because that’s how teams are going to attack you when you’re a man free team.”

Clarke and WR Trey Odoms-Dukes both added their second touchdowns of the game as the Rattlers ballooned their lead to 49-25.

Rattlers QB Max Meylor entered the game with just over nine minutes left and immediately led the offense down the field. He found Bruce for his second receiving touchdown of the game. Cook’s extra point pushed the lead to 56-25.

An interception by McKee Sr., his second of the game, finished things out, 56-32. The Rattlers enter their bye week 7-3.

Their next game is 4:30 p.m. Sunday, June 14, against Fishers Freight at Desert Diamond Arena. The game will be streamed live on the Yahoo! Sports Network.