Tigers maul Bulldogs for third straight win

The Mountain Home Tigers made it three straight wins, downing the Nampa Bulldogs, 51-14 Friday night at Nampa.

The Tigers blew a scoring opportunity in the first quarter, after Tyson Sessions blocked a Nampa punt, the Tigers taking over first and goal at the Bulldog nine-yard line. Nick Barrie ran it to the five on first down and Sessions got it to the three-yard line on second down. Zacq Hale was tackled at the four, setting up fourth and goal from the four. The Tigers went for it but Robert Daniels was tackled at the four, Nampa taking over on downs there.

Nampa was unable to move the ball and punted it back to the Tigers, who had good field position at the Nampa 48.

The Tigers engineered a seven-play drive, capped off by a 20-yard run by Robert Daniels in the opening play of the second quarter. Matt Ward ran in the two-point conversion and Mountain Home led 8-0 with 11:50 to go in the first half.

The Bulldogs managed to move the ball into Mountain Home territory on their next possession, before the drive was stopped on the Tiger 40 when Chris Knudson recovered a fumble.

Two plays later the Tigers were on the scoreboard again. Going to the air, Jake Posey hit Robert Moss on a 61-yard touchdown pass. The two-point try failed, but it was 14-0, Mountain Home, with 9:01 left in the half.

A failed on-side kick gave Nampa good field position at the Tiger 49, but the Mountain Home defense forced a three-and-out, and Nampa punted the ball back to the Tigers, with Mountain Home starting deep in their own territory, on their five-yard line.

Four running plays moved the ball out to the Mountain Home 33-yard line, where Jake Posey connected with Nick Barrie on a 67-yard scoring strike. Matt Ward ran in the two-point conversion, making it 22-0 Tigers with 5:33 left in the half.

The only other score of the first half came when Chris Knudson recovered another Nampa fumble. Two Jake Posey completions put the ball on the Nampa three-yard line, and Robert Daniels took it on from there for the score, and then ran in the two-point conversion to make it 30-0 at halftime.

Nampa received the ball to start the second half and moved the ball down the field 86 yards in nine plays, Blake Wasden taking it in from eight yards out. Connor Smith's PAT made it 30-7, Tigers, with 8:17 left in the third quarter.

That would be the scoring until the fourth quarter, when Mountain Homed took advantage of a bad punt, taking over on the Bulldog 32-yard line. After a five-yard penalty moved it back to the 37, Tyson Sessions rambled 34 yards down to the three-yard line. Jake Posey took it the final yard for the score.

Josh Lindsay's PAT made it 37-7, Tigers, with 7:24 left in the game.

After the Bulldogs went three-and-out again, Mountain Home scored again, Zacq Hale taking it 55 yards for a score. Josh Lindsay again booted the PAT, and it was 44-7, with 4:36 left.

The Bulldogs got on the scoreboard one more time, Blake Wasden passing 10 yards to Brandon Winwood to cap off a nine-play 54-yard drive. Connor Smith's PAT made it 44-14, with 1:54 left.

A failed on-side attempt by Nampa gave the Tigers a short field, and Zacq Hale scored on a 39-yard run with three seconds left. Josh Lindsay's PAT made it a 51-14 final.

Despite the lopsided win, Tiger head coach Brian Floyd was not pleased with the play of the offense.

"I thought the defense played okay at times. I mean, a win's a win, but we were very displeased with how our offense played.

"Even though you see the points up there, really, I think Nampa gave us those with field position. The defense caused a lot of turnovers, but the O-line was having problems sustaining blocks, and the running backs were having problems on pass blocking, and we were just giving up too many things like that.

"I thought our offense played better last week (against Kuna) than it did tonight.

"We threw some new things at them, some new formations that we've been working on, and we still need to work on them. For the most part, I thought we took a step backwards on offense."

Coach Floyd was pleased with Jake Posey's effort at quarterback. The 6"3" 200-pound junior completed seven of nine passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns.

"He had a great game. He hit Barrie on stride on that (67-yard touchdown pass), that was so smooth, and we've been working on that all year long, and we have to have that happen."

The Tigers rushed the ball for 241 yards. Zacq Hale had 100 yards rushing and two touchdowns on seven carries. Robert Daniels had 59 yards and two touchdowns on 18 rushes. Tyson Sessions carried the ball six times for 53 yards. Robert Moss had one carry for 18 yards, Matt Ward rushed once for eight yards, Nick Barrie had a four yard carry, and Jake Posey carried eight times for minus five yards.

Posey completed seven of nine passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns. Robert Moss caught two passes for 67 yards and a touchdown, Robert Daniels caught two for 30 yards, Nick Barrie had a 67-yard touchdown catch, Brandon Doble caught one for 23 yards, and Zacq Hale had one catch for minus one yard.

Nampa rushed for just 46 yards, and passed for 154 yards, for 200 total yards.

Defensively, Tyson Sessions once again led the Tigers in tackles with 14. He also forced a fumble and blocked a punt. Josh Driskell had seven tackles and two sacks, and forced a fumble. Chris Knudson had six tackles, two sacks, two fumble recoveries and a deflected pass. Nick Barrie had four tackles and a pass deflection, Kyle Clark had a sack, and Reggie High and Matt Ward each had a half-sack.

The Tigers improved to 4-2 on the season and 3-1 in league play. They play their final home game of the season this Friday night against Middleton.

"I think they've gone away from the wishbone veer and now they're doing the shotgun veer," said Coach Floyd. "They're having some problems right now, obviously. I know Emmett beat them, but Emmett has a real good defense.

"It's going to be Senior Night, a lot of things going on. We just need to stay focused and play disciplined defense step it up this week."

Friday night's Mountain Home-Middleton game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Tiger Field in Mountain Home.