CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Arizona Rattlers continued their mastery over the Cleveland Gladiators with a 49-41 victory Saturday night in Quicken Loans Arena, spoil Cleveland's home opener.

The miscue column told the story as Cleveland was 1-of-3 on fourth downs, 1-of-5 on third downs and had three interceptions including one on the second play of the game, and another on the last possession going for a late tie.

Just as critical were a pair of Willie McGinnis defensive penalties that also nullified Gladiator touchdowns off of Arizona turnovers.

"We beat ourselves, we really did,'' Cleveland head coach Steve Thonn said. "You can't do that against a good team."

The Gladiators never led in the game as Arizona's passing game riddled Cleveland from start to finish for 352 yards, including 168 yards and four touchdowns for former Browns receiver Rod Windsor.

This was the first matchup between the two 2014 Arena Football League finalists since the Gladiators suffered a humbling 72-32 loss to the Rattlers in that ArenaBowl XXVII title game on Cleveland's home turf.

The Rattlers (2-1) and Gladiators (2-1) have now met four times in franchise history and Cleveland is still looking for its first victory, thanks to the plethora of bad plays that does not count the dropped passes.

"You just can't turn the ball over that many times,'' Thonn said.

A loud crowd of 12,776 was quickly subdued when Arizona picked off quarterback Shane Austin on the second play of the game and turned that into a 7-0 lead.

Cleveland would recover somewhat on its next possession with a score, but the missed PAT kept Arizona on top, and the lead held up to the end of the first quarter, 14-13.

Arizona began the second period with a third straight touchdown, and Cleveland could not answer after four downs. Two plays later Arizona scored again to make it 28-13 with 5:32 left in the half then Austin threw his second interception of the game to spoil another scoring opportunity for the Gladiators.

Just inside two minutes before the half, Arizona was threatening to make it a blowout. But with seven seconds to go, Terrance Sanders picked off an Arizona pass and returned it for a touchdown to keep Cleveland within range of a comeback, 28-20, at halftime.

It looked to be even better to start the second half, but another Gladiator interception for a touchdown was nullified by a personal foul for roughing the passer on McGinnis. That proved to be a 14-point swing; instead of a tie game the Rattlers were up, 35-20, before the Gladiators offense hit the field, and up by 42-27 at the end of the quarter.

In the fourth quarter, an offsides penalty on McGinnis wiped out a fumble recovery. Still the Gladiators had a chance at the end. A missed field goal by Arizona with under a minute to play opened the door for overtime.

But the final interception soon followed, ending the night for the Gladiators.

"It was disappointing that's the way it ended,'' Thonn said. "We left a lot of plays on the field."