Boys soccer team opens district play with victory

The Mountain Home Tigers opened the District III 4A Boys Soccer Tournament Saturday with a win over Emmett, a team they had lost to earlier in the week. The week also saw them fight to a tie with Columbia.

Emmett 4

Mtn. Home 1

The Tigers had trouble getting the ball in the net last Monday at Emmett, losing to the Huskies, 4-1. Danny Snelgrow scored the Tigers lone goal, that off an assist by Bryan Walsh. Josh Lindsay had 10 saves on goal, Jaime Rios had three, and Lucas Marsh had two.

Mtn. Home 1

Columbia 1

Mountain Home and Columbia battled to a scoreless first half tie Wednesday at Eastside Park in Mountain Home. Danny Snelgrow scored early in the second half off an Adam Marsh assist to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Columbia managed a score late in the game to tie it up. Mountain Home had their chances but could not get any more shots to drop in the net.

"We had 11 shots on goal and only put one of them in," said Tiger boys soccer coach Paul Walsh. "That's been our Achilles' heel all season. Columbia played good today, I mean they never gave up, so my hat's off to them, but we really dominated the game for the most part, and once again, we just couldn't seem to find the back of the net!"

The Tigers closed out the regular season, 5-7-5, overall, and 3-7-4 in conference, which put them at the number seven seed.

Tigers 5

Emmett 2

Coach Walsh had said he was confident heading into the district tournament, saying, "I still think we've got a good chance. If we can come out and play our kind of game, we can play with all of them."

The Tigers certainly got their game going Saturday, pulling off an upset of Emmett, the number two seed, beating the Huskies 5-2 at the District III 4A Soccer Tournament at Kuna.

Danny Snelgrow continued his hot play, scoring two goals and getting one assist.

Reza Mesmarian scored one goal and had three assists. Kyle Hall and Stephen Bitrick also scored goals, and Christian Adamson and Bryan Walsh had assists.

The win improved the Tigers to 6-7-5 on the season, and put them in the semi-finals yesterday (Tuesday) against Nampa. The Tigers had lost, 1-0, early in the season to Nampa, and tied them, 2-2 late in the season.

A win over the Bulldogs would put Mountain Home in the District Championship game on Thursday and qualify them for state. A loss to Nampa would mean playing in the consolation bracket, needing to pick up two wins to win third place, which also advances to state.