Tigers upset Skyview in first round of state playoffs

The Mountain Home Tigers overcame a bad first quarter start, scoring 33 unanswered points on their way to a 33-20 win over the Skyview Hawks in the quarter-finals of the State 4A football playoffs Friday night at Skyview.

The Tiger win sets up another match-up with the Bishop Kelly Knights, the only other team to beat Mountain Home during the regular SIC 4A conference season.

The Tigers could not get anything going offensively early on against the Hawks, who had won eight straight on their way to the conference championship.

The Tigers received a break on the opening kick-off, when the ball was fumbled by the Skyview return man, and Cal Vivier recovered it for the Tigers at the Skyview 25-yard line.

Three offensive plays could bring the ball no closer than the 20.

Kyle Clark then tried a 37-yard field goal that missed.

The Hawks' first series saw quarterback Matt Ballenger connect with Jake Hauge on a long pass into Mountain Home territory, but when Hauge was tackled, the ball squirted lose, and players from both teams tried pouncing on the ball, with Robert Moss of the Tigers finally controlling it on the Tiger 18.

A penalty put the ball back on the Tigers' eight-yard line, and they went three-and-out, punting the ball back to Skyview, with the return setting up the Hawks at the Tiger 27.

The Hawks took just two plays to score, Matt Ballenger hitting John Slack on a 24-yard scoring strike. Ballenger's PAT was no good, but the Hawks led 6-0 with 5:53 left in the first quarter.

Matt Ballenger's kickoff took Robert Daniels into the end zone to catch, so the Tigers started from their 20-yard line. On fourth and five, from the 25, Kyle Clark was run into as he punted it away, resulting in a penalty. The five-yard penalty moved the ball out near the 30, but inches short. Tiger quarterback Jake Posey tried to sneak it over for the first down. The nose of the ball was across the 30 yard-line, but the officials would not call it a first down, and brought the chains in to measure. It was short by less than an inch.

That turned the ball over to the Hawks at the Mountain Home 30-yard line, and on third-and-13 from the 33, Matt Kaiserman ran 33 yards for a touchdown. Matt Ballenger was good n the PAT this time, and the Hawks led 13-0 with 2:54 left in the first quarter.

The Tigers' offensive problems continued their next series, as they went three-and-out and punted the ball back to Skyview.

"I can't really understand why we weren't clicking (in the first quarter)," said Tiger head coach Brian Floyd. "We had some penalty problems and things like that, trying to get some rhythm going, and I thought it was mostly just sustaining, because they still kind of had that doubt in their mind. Then they came off after their second series and said, 'we're pushing them around, we're doing this and we're doing that,' and I said, 'well get in there and sustain, and we're going to be fine."

The Tiger defense made a stop and forced a punt, and Matt Ballenger boomed a 55-yarder that was downed at the Tigers five-yard line.

Jake Posey was sacked at the three on first down, and threw an incompletion on second down. On third and 12, Posey took off and rambled 30 yards out to the 33-yard line. It was the Tigers' first first down of the game, but it sparked the offense, which picked up 22 more before the night was over.

The Tigers moved the ball down to the Skyview 14 before the drive stalled on fourth down.

Three plays later the Tigers had the ball back, Zacq Hale intercepting a pass and returning it to the Skyview 20. Four plays later, Chris Knudson ran in from a yard out to give the Tigers their first score. Kyle Clark's PAT made it 13-7 Skyview, with 3:59 left in the half.

The Hawks' next drive stalled at the Mountain Home 44, where the Tigers took over on downs with 1:08 left in the half. Jake Posey scored from 11 yards out with five seconds left in the half, to tie the game at 13-13.

The Tigers received the ball to start the second half and wasted little time taking the lead, going 80 yards in four plays, Robert Daniels romping 49 yards for the touchdown.

Fifty-nine seconds into the third quarter the Tigers had the lead, 19-13, a lead they would only add to the rest of the ball game.

Defensively, the Tigers shut down the Hawks' running game, holding Hawks running back Matt Kaiserman to just 46 yards on 15 rushes. He was averaging over 10 yards per rush coming into the game, and over 150 yards rushing per game.

The Tigers had another 80-yard drive, Robert Daniels getting 66 of those. Zacq Hale took it the final yard for the score. Jake Posey then threw to Kori Andrews for the two-point conversion,and the Tigers led 27-13 with 11:01 left in the ball game.

The Hawks' next drive ended on their first play, with Robert Moss picking off a Matt Ballenger pass, and Mountain Home had the ball at the Skyview 39. Robert Daniels capped off the seven-play drive from a yard out, and the Tigers had their biggest lead of the night, 33-13, with 7:27 left.

The Hawks managed to score on their next possession, going 71 yards in nine plays, Darren Linn scampering 22 yards for the touchdown, making it 33-20 with 4:44 left.

The Hawks were able to recover the onside kick, but the Tiger defense held, getting the ball back on downs.

Skyview had one last possession, but again turned the ball over on downs, Mountain Home running out the clock for a 33-20 win, ending the Hawks' season.

"The kids played awesome! My hat's off to them. They did an outstanding job!" said a happy Coach Floyd.

"I also want to say a big thank you to the community and our fans who made the trip over and braved the weather. It felt good to hear all the cheering from the stands behind us!"

The Tigers ran for 373 yards against the Hawks, led by Robert Daniels' career high of 243 yards and two touchdowns on 21 rushes.

Zacq Hale had 56 yards and a score on nine carries, Jake Posey rushed for 39 yards and a score on 13 carries, Chris Knudson had 31 yards and a score on seven rushes, while Tyson Sessions carried twice for four yards, Matt Ward, once for three yards, and Tallon Pauley had two rushes for two yards.

Jake Posey completed five of 15 passes for 78 yards. Ricky Lee had one catch for 36 yards, Brandon Doble caught one for 20, Nick Barrie had one for nine yards, Nick O'Briant had one for seven, and Zacq Hale had one for six.

Defensively, Tyson Sessions once again led the Tigers in tackles, with 10. Robert Daniels had seven tackles, including a tackle for loss, Josh Driskell had five tackles and a sack, Matt Ward, Kyle Clark and Chris Knudson each had four, Clark and Ward had tackles for losses, and Reed Borgholthaus had three tackles and a sack.

The win improved the Tigers to 7-3 on the season, and puts them in the 4A State Semi-Finals at Bishop Kelly this Friday night.

The Knights battled back from a 24-14 deficit at Sandpoint last Friday night to win 28-24.

Coach Floyd said his Tigers are wanting to see Bishop Kelly again, wanting to make amends for their 31-9 loss in the final game of the regular season.

"The way these kids played, I know they're going to come out and play hard again. If you want to do it, you want to do it right, and go through the defending state champs on their turf. We probably would have matched up better against Sandpoint, but we match up good against BK as well. We just had mental breakdowns in that game, and those were the big differences, those long passes they had.

"We still stopped their running game and did what we wanted to do. We forced them into being one-dimensional. It just happened they capitalized on being one-dimensional. (Kyle) Cefalo is a heck of a quarterback. He's the most accurate quarterback I've seen, probably in high school, minus one kid in Arizona that I saw. I mean he is accurate, right on the money, I mean he's more accurate than (former BK quarterback Cody) Hawkins was. It's very impressive to see him throw that deep ball.

"We're excited about playing them again. We're ready to go, and if we play like that (like we did against Skyview) and play the way we can, we can get it done."