Tigers fall to Post Falls 12-0 in defensive battle

The Mountain Home Tigers fell to the Post Falls Trojans 12-0 Friday night, in a game that was a defensive struggle until late in the fourth quarter.

The injury bug reared its ugly head again and caused havoc with the Tigers football team.

Not that they suffered any major injuries in Friday night's loss at Tiger Field, as the latest blow actually occurred last Wednesday night at practice, when Tiger senior linebacker and center Brett Grodi went down with an ankle injury.

Tiger football coach Brian Floyd was hoping it was just a sprain, but he found out the bad news Thursday, a day before the game, that it was broken, and Grodi was lost for the rest of the season.

"It's extremely tough to teach two guys two new spots in one day, so that was a big blow," said Coach Floyd reflecting back on the Post Falls game.

The loss of Brett Grodi appeared to matter most to the Tigers on offense, with a number of fumbled snaps, one leading to a turnover, and a few others hurting drives.

The Tigers stepped up to the challenge on defense, and kept Post Falls out of the end zone until the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home's bests offensive series occurred late in the third quarter, when they moved the ball from their own 26-yard line down to the Trojans' 12, where it stalled and Kyle Clark's 30-yard field goal attempt was wide right.

Post Falls had their best drive after the missed field goal, moving the ball from their 20 down to the Tiger 11 before turning the ball over on downs.

Mountain Home managed to move the ball just two yards during their next series, and had to punt it back to the Trojans, who started with a short field and went 42 yards in four plays, with Dan Hamilton scoring form nine yards out. The PAT failed, but Post Falls was on the scoreboard and led, 6-0, with 5:53 left in the ball game.

Mountain Home started on their own 26, with 5:46 left in the game, and moved the ball down to the Post Falls 39, before the drive stalled, and Post Falls took over on downs, with 2:45 left.

Once again the Tiger defense rose to the occasion, and Mountain Home forced a Trojan punt, and got the ball back on their own 46 with 1:11 left in the ball game.

On a third-and-four from the Post Falls 48, Bob Daniels' pass went off his receiver's hands into the hands of Post Falls defensive back Derek Schneidmiller, who headed down the sidelines 70 yards for a touchdown. The Trojans' two-point conversion failed, but with 31.7 seconds left, the Trojans led, 12-0.

Mountain Home had 27 seconds left when they started on their own 30, but failed to score before time ran out.

"I thought our defense played very well," said Coach Floyd of the Post FAlls game. "I'm proud of them. I thought that's the best we've played all year.

"On offense we struggled quite a bit with the loss of (Brett) Grodi. It's hard to teach a sophomore a new position in one day, and with their (Post Falls) three-four, they were playing, they were bringing the (line) backers up. Their inside (line) backers really flowed, because our guards just couldn't get up to them.

"It's not like we didn't have our chances. We dropped quite a few balls that should have been catches. It was there, they just didn't take advantage of it."

Bob Daniels led the Tiger rushing attack with 61 yards on 13 rushes. Georgio Sutton had 52 yards on nine carries. Matt Ward rushed the ball nine times for 14 yards, and Zacq Hale carried once for one yard.

Bob Daniels completed 11 of 23 passes for 88 yards. He had the one tipped pass intercepted.

Josh Reynolds caught four passes for 40 yards, Zacq Hale caught three for 11 yards, Georgio Sutton had three catches for 24 yards, Kori Andrews caught one for 12 yards, and Nick Barrie had one catch for one yard.

Post Falls rushed the ball 45 times for 195 yards, and passed for 26 yards.

Mountain Home has a bye this week and returns to action next Friday, Oct. 21, at Kuna against the Kavemen.

Coach Floyd is happy to have the week off.

"It's going to help with (Chris) Knudson and (Tyson) Sessions who should be back, and Reynolds will be back to full strength, but our biggest problem is the O-line, with how thin we are. Losing Grodi is a pretty big blow because not only was he a starting linebacker and starting center, he was also our long snapper, and we had a couple miscues there. His loss probably hurt more than some of the others, besides Sessions, but we'll get healthy.

"We'll do a lot of mental stuff this next week come out ready to go against Kuna in two weeks. It also gives us two weeks to try and get our line together."