SAN JOSE—The Indoor Football League Western Conference Championship game will be played Saturday, July 29 at the SAP Center as the Bay Area Panthers will host the Northern Arizona Wranglers at 6:05 pm.

Bay Area (11-5) advanced to the conference final after a 46-34 win over the Tucson Sugar Skulls, propelled by a 22-0 lead after the first quarter.  Dalton Sneed threw a pair of touchdown passes to Nih-jer Jackson and All-IFL second team running back Justin Rankin rushed for two scores in the win.

Northern Arizona (8-8) punched its ticket to the second round after a stunning 62-53 win at top seed Arizona.  The Wranglers had lost three regular season games to the Rattlers, including a 55-39 decision to close the regular season.  Northern Arizona forced four turnovers in the first half on the way to a 34-14 lead.  Ramaud Chiaokhio-Bowman caught five touchdown passes, including the game-winning score on a 38-yard pass from Nick Watson with 35 seconds remaining.

In the first regular season meeting between the teams, the Panthers beat the Wranglers 47-13 at the SAP Center on April 23.  Nih Jackson scored two special teams touchdowns and tackled Northern Arizona return man Andre Williams in the end zone for a one-point rouge.  NAZ lost three fumbles, missed three field goals and went 1-8 on 3^rd down conversions.

The teams tangled in Prescott Valley on May 13 and the Wranglers escaped with a 35-34 win on the strength of Garrett Kettle's 2-yard run with 3:18 left in the fourth.  JT Stokes caught three scoring passes in the loss for the Panthers.

Bay Area will take the field with the third-highest scoring offense in the league at 51.3 points per game while NAZ is the lowest scoring team in the league at 39.3 points per contest—they haven't scored more than 40 against someone other than Arizona since April 16 against San Diego.  The Panthers have one game with fewer than 40 points since the May 13 loss at the Findlay Toyota Center and that was with Dalton Sneed not in the lineup at Frisco.

Justin Rankin leads the league in carries and rushing touchdowns.  He ranks second among backs in total yards on the season.  Sneed has thrown 44 TD passes and has thrown the fewest interceptions (3) for any quarterback who has completed more than 100 passes.  Sneed has not been picked off since the first quarter of the loss at Northern Arizona, a stretch of 87 passes over seven games. 

The offensive standout for Northern Arizona has been Chiaokhiao (pronounced Jock-key-ow)-Bowman who leads the league with 26 TD catches and is second in receiving yards per game
 
The Panthers allow 43.4 points, good for fifth while the Wranglers are second in scoring defense at 40.4.  Before the back-to-back games with Arizona, the Wranglers gave up fewer than 40 points in three of four games.  Bay Area has given up less than 40 in the last two with the best effort in allowing Northern Arizona only 13 in the Panthers' win in San Jose.

The winner advances to the Dollar Loan Center IFL National Championship Game on Aug. 5 in Henderson, Nev. against the winner of Frisco v. Sioux Falls in the Eastern Conference.