Rattlers fall in ex-Desert Vista QB’s team debut

Cody Sokol hadn’t played a full football game since he led Louisiana Tech to a bowl victory in 2014.

Sokol needed a half to get used to the quicker Indoor Football League pace Saturday, and by the time he found himself in a groove, he had the Rattlers leading one of the top teams by eight points in the final quarter.

But Wichita Falls quarterback Charles McCullum continued to shred a flat defense and maneuvered the Nighthawks to a late touchdown and a 60-53 victory before 10,879 fans at Talking Stick Resort Arena.

The loss spoiled a franchise-record rushing effort by Ketrich Harmon, who ran for 123 yards on 20 carries. He had two scoring runs and had a 39-yard scoring run called back by a penalty.

After quarterback Darron Thomas struggled in last week’s 30-29 win in Green Bay, coach Kevin Guy decided this week to go with the local kid, Sokol, who starred at Phoenix Desert Vista High and Scottsdale Community College.

Sokol bounced around in the Arena Football League, getting very little playing time, before catching on this year with the Rattlers.

He showed rust, especially early when the 25-second play clock wound down and the Rattlers were hit with a delay penalty and had to burn a timeout.

“I think the pace definitely is a lot quicker,” said Sokol, who completed 15 of 28 passes for 224 yards and four touchdowns with one interception in his Rattlers debut. “When you’re sitting there watching it, you don’t realize how fast it is going. A lot of it has to do with that 25-second play clock. I had to get my feet wet and bounce back.”

Guy said he will have to look at the tape first to determine whether Sokol is the quarterback he goes with moving forward.

But the Rattlers are sitting at 2-3 and now head to Nebraska for a game next week.

Wichita Falls (5-1) bounced back from its first loss to six-time defending IFL champion Sioux Falls, showing off the offense that made it the highestscoring team in the league before being held to fewer than 30 points to the Storm.

McCullum, the top-rated quarterback in the league, was 20 of 27 for 256 yards and seven TDs. He also had 18 yards on two runs.

Guy blamed this loss more on the defense that didn’t make a stop in the second half.

“I’m very disappointed with how we played defensively,” Guy said. “We’ve played better defense here. For whatever reasons, we weren’t getting it done. We’ll look at the tape. But the bottom line, it just looked like we struggled covering their receivers. Their receivers were better than our coverage.”