Eagles soar in 2nd quarter to down Tigers 31-7

It wasn't Mother Nature that struck like lightning just before halftime last week -- it was the Capital Eagles, who scored 21 points in just under seven minutes in the latter part of the second quarter to break open a close game and take a 21-7 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Eagles went on to win 31-7.

Mountain Home got on the scoreboard in the first quarter after recovering a fumble on the Eagle 37 yard-line. Four plays later Jake Posey threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Lee for the score. John Deal's PAT made it 7-0 Tigers with 4:29 left to go in the first quarter.

Capital tied the game midway through the second quarter, going 87 yards in seven plays, Mitch Blume scoring from 10 yards out. Eric Niblett's PAT made it 7-7, with 7:32 left in the first half.

It stayed 7-7 until Capital stopped a Tiger drive, Mountain Home turning the ball over on downs at the Eagle 38. Five plays later, Mitch Blume passed to Andy Brault nine yards for a score to give Capital the lead. Eric Niblett's PAT made it 14-7, Capital, with 1:03 left in the half.

Capital squibbed the kickoff, which the Tigers were unable to come up with, and Capital had the ball on the Tiger 26 yard-line with 58 seconds left in the half. After two incompletions, Mitch Blume threw back to his left to Andy Brault, who took it the 26 yards for the score. With the PAT by Eric Niblett, the Eagles went into the locker room up, 21-7.

The Tigers were hampered by poor field position in the second half -- they averaged starting at their own 13-yard line, while Capital averaged starting at the Tiger 47. Despite those statistics, Mountain Home's defense just gave up three points in the second half.

Capital scored in the third quarter when Kyle Sosnowski picked off a Kyle Kerfoot pass and ran it 30 yards for a score.

The Eagles only other score came in the fourth quarter, when Eric Niblett booted a 22-yard field goal, and the Tigers lost, 31-7.

Despite the loss, Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd saw plenty of positives.

"We improved. We did much better than last week. The kids were very coachable this week and they work on the things they needed to work on, which showed in the game. I'm pretty proud of the way they improve from week to week, and I expect them to be even better next week.

"We made some miscues. It was like with 6:45 to go, or near there, we took a stupid pill, and gave up 21 points. We had a couple plays on offense that could have got us back on the scoreboard, but we just missed some chances here and there.

"We stood up to them, we pushed them around, and I think they respected us a little more at the end of the game than what I heard their JV parents talking about during their game.

"I want to thank the fans for showing up and their support," the coach added. "We had a great bunch of fans there, and they made their presence heard."

The Tigers rushed for 129 yards on the night, 102 of them by Tallon Pauley, who carried the ball 20 times. Mountain Home passed for 84 yards. Jake Posey completed seven of 13 passes for 80 yards and a score. Kyle Kerfoot completed one of five for four yards and had two passes intercepted, one returned for a score.

Jesse Donez caught three passes for 30 yards, Nick Barrie had two catches for 19 yards, Ricky Lee caught one pass for 31 yards and a score, and Tallon Pauley had one catch for four yards.

The Capital Eagles rushed for 195 yards and passed for 222 yards for 417 total yards.

The Tigers open SIC 4A conference play Friday night at Middleton against the Vikings, who are 1-1 to date, beating Jerome in their opener, and losing to a tough Ontario, Oregon team last week. Coach Floyd expects a tough battle at Middleton.

"They're always a tough team. They run a lot of what Capital ran, so it's actually a good warm-up game for us."

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday night at Middleton.