Tigers fall to Skyview 25-12

Big plays and turnovers helped Skyview get past the Mountain Home Tigers, 25-12, Friday night at Tiger Field in Mountain Home.

Two 65-yard touchdown passes and one for 45 yards by Skyview's Matt Ballenger accounted for three big scores for the Hawks, and crucial turnovers by Mountain Home killed scoring drives.

Skyview scored on their opening drive, going 88 yards in eight plays, Matt Ballenger connecting with Jake Hauge on a 45-yard touchdown pass. Ballenger's PAT made it 7-0 Skyview with 5:56 left in the first quarter.

The Hawks recovered an onside kick at the Tiger 47 and moved the ball down to the Mountain Home 10 before the Tiger defense made the first of many great stands, and forced the Hawks to try a 30-yard field goal, which was blocked by Robert Daniels.

The Tigers went three-and-out and had to punt the ball back, and punting against the wind, the Hawks had great field position at the Tiger 30.

The Tiger defense rose to the occasion, Robert Moss intercepting a Ballenger pass at the Tiger 10-yard line.

The Tigers again struggled offensively, and unable to get a punt off, Skyview took over on the Tigers 12-yard line.

As they did so many times Friday night, the Tiger defense held, taking over on downs at their own six-yard line.

The defensive stop ignited the offense, and the Tigers moved the ball 94 yards down the field in 13 plays, Tyson Sessions taking it the final six yards for the score. Kyle Clark's PAT was no good, and the first half ended with Skyview up, 7-6.

The Hawks received the ball to start the third quarter and Ballenger hit Matt Kaiserman for 65 yards and a score on the third play of the drive, and it was 13-6, Hawks, just 90 seconds into the second half.

Mountain Home held off the Hawks the rest of the third quarter, and had two drives stall in the red zone, one on a pass interception and the other on a fumble at the Skyview 12 that ended the third quarter.

Skyview came up with another big-play scoring drive in the fourth quarter, Ballenger again hooking up with Kaiserman on another 65-yard scoring toss. That made it 19-6, Hawks, with 8:41 left in the ball game.

Mountain Home's was able to get a drive going after a fumble recovery by Josh Driskell at the Tiger 42-yard line. The Tigers had a first down at the Skyview 25-yard line, but the drive stalled, and Skyview took over on downs at their 24.

With just over five minutes remaining in the game, the Hawks seemed content to run out the clock, but when Mountain Home used a time-out as the clock was winding down, Matt Ballenger then rambled 18 yards for a score with 27 seconds left.

Back came the Tigers, getting a 44-yard kick-off return from Zacq Hale to the Skyview 36-yard line, where Jake Posey connected with Nick O'Briant for a score with five seconds left, making the final score, 25-12, Skyview.

"We just had too many turnovers," said Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd. "We were inside the red zone twice in the third quarter and scored zero points. It was 7-6 at halftime, 13-6 after the third quarter. We score those two in the third quarter and we're ahead, and that changes the complexion of the game.

"They scored on all big plays. I mean two of those touchdowns should never have been touchdowns. We gave up two, in my opinion, that were legitimate touchdowns, the other two were missed assignments."

Coach Floyd was proud of the defensive effort that his Tiger squad put on against Skyview.

"I can't say enough about our defensive effort. The kids played hard and never gave up. I was so proud of our defense. I haven't seen them play that well since I've been here. You look at the stats and see they had over 400 yards, but when the defense is on the field for almost 70 plays, that's a lot of plays to be on the field.

"We gave up three big touchdowns and one of those was missed assignments, and that's impressive when you're talking about an offense that just puts points up on the board continually, and we have them frustrated, they didn't know what to do. We took them out of their game plan and those plays that they scored on were plays we'd never seen, and I guarantee they didn't run very much.

"Like I told their coaches after the game, 'we'll see you in the rematch,' because I strongly believe if we play the way we did -- besides the turnovers -- we'll be there. We'll be there (in the playoffs) at the end. I strongly believe that."

Mountain Home picked up 136 yards on the ground, led by Robert Daniels, who had 78 yards rushing on 17 carries. Zacq Hale carried nine times for 39 yards, Tyson Sessions had five rushes for 18 yards and a touchdown, Chris Knudson carried once for two yards, and Jake Posey had seven rushes for minus one yard.

Posey completed seven of 18 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown. He had one pass picked off.

Brandon Doble caught three passes for 33 yards, Nick O'Briant had one catch for 36 yards and a touchdown, Robert Moss had one catch for 36 yards, Chris Knudson had one catch for 18 yards, and Zacq Hale caught one pass for two yards.

Skyview rushed the ball 40 times for 182 yards, led by Matt Kaiserman's 121 yards on 19 carries. Matt Ballenger completed 11 of 19 passes for 240 yards and three touchdowns.

Defensively for the Tigers, Tyson Sessions led in tackles with 14. He also had a half-sack. Zacq Hale had seven tackles, Robert Daniels, Nick Barrie and Josh Driskell both had five, Daniels blocked a field goal attempt, Driskell had a sack and recovered a fumble.

Chris Knudson and Kori Andrews both had four tackles. Robert Moss had two tackles and a pass interception, Corey McGuire had a sack and Kyle Clark had a half-sack.

The Tigers travel to Emmett Friday night to face the Huskies in conference football.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday.