Soul fall to Rattlers again in Arena Bowl rematch, 66-52

The Soul turned the ball over four times against the Rattlers, including two costly fumbles from fullback Derrick Ross, which contributed to the Soul coming up on the short end again against Rattlers.

The Soul have never defeated the Rattlers.

Much like last season’s Arena Bowl between these two teams, the Soul turned the ball over too many times and the Rattlers took full advantage of them.

Besides turnovers, the Soul had a slew of missed and botched extra points, which also put a big dent in the Soul’s chances of gaining redemption Saturday night.

"It is hard to have any success when we put ourselves in a hole with four turnovers," Soul head coach Clint Dolezel said via a team press release. "We did some things right, but the turnovers and missing extra points are unacceptable. We will identify areas and work to improve. It's a long season and we will get better."

The Rattlers weren’t as dominant Saturday as they were against the Soul last August, but it was definitely a statement made by the defending champs nonetheless.

The Soul hung tough with the Rattlers in the first half despite not having a great rhythm on offense.

The Soul even had a chance to take the lead at halftime, but a costly fumble on the exchange from center Brennan Carvalho and quarterback Dan Raudabaugh was recovered by Arizona and thwarted that opportunity. The Soul trailed, 35-32, at intermission.

Arizona received first possession in the second half and extended its advantage after a touchdown pass from quarterback Nick Davila to wide receiver Jared Perry to make the score 42-32.

On the first play of the Soul’s next offensive possession, Ross fumbled for the first official time in the game, which the Rattlers recovered. Ross fumbled earlier in the game, but since the play was blown dead, it did not count.

Unfortunately for him and the Soul, he wasn’t so lucky the second time.

The Soul did catch a bit of a break as the defense held the Rattlers to only a field goal from kicker Garrett Lindholm to make the score 45-32.

Ross made up for his mishap on the next possession by scoring from short yardage to cut into the deficit to 45-39 with 7:43 left in the third quarter.

The Rattlers were not deterred, however, and immediately struck with another touchdown from Davila to receiver Kerry Reed from 13 yards out to make it 52-39 after three quarters.

Showing faith in all-Arena fullback, Dolezel kept feeding his all-Arena fullback Ross, but he again coughed up the ball and this time the Rattlers turned it into a touchdown as defensive lineman Marcus Pittman recovered the ball and took it 44 yards for a touchdown, extending his team’s advantage to 59-39 in the beginning of the fourth quarter.

The Soul did not fold up shop, however, as they pulled the deficit to within one score after a touchdown from Ross, an onside kick recovery and another quick score by receiver Tiger Jones from Raudabaugh, making the score 59-52 with 4:34 left in the fourth.

That proved to be the last gasp from the Soul as Davila threw his seventh touchdown pass of the game to finish off the Soul. Purify was on the receiving end on that touchdown and two others as he finished with 10 receptions for 141 yards.

Raudabaugh finished completing 22-of-34 passes for 323 yards, five touchdowns and one interception that occurred at the end of the game.

Jones was the Soul’s best offensive weapon all night as he hauled in nine passes for 169 yards and three touchdowns.

The Soul will have extra time to correct the wide range of mistakes from Saturday night as they have bye week coming up.

They don’t play again until April 6 when they travel to Orlando to take on former head coach Doug Plank and the Predators.