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Defense wins game 7-3
After opening the season with a 44-43 win against Jerome, there were people questioning Mountain Home's defense. Those critics were silenced Friday night as the Tiger defense kept the Caldwell Cougars from scoring a touchdown, despite the Cougars spending a great deal of time on Mountain Home's end of the field.
In the end, the Tigers were able to overcome four turnovers to prevail, 7-3, in a non-conference football game at Caldwell.
After Caldwell's first two plays, it looked like the Tiger defense would have another difficult night. The Cougars took the ball on their own 35, and two plays later, had their second first down, and were on the Mountain Home 39-yard line.
The Tiger defense then stepped up, and the Cougars turned the ball over on downs at the Mountain Home 31.
Mountain Home started from there, and mounted a 69-yard, 14-play drive that consumed over six minutes. Kyle Kerfoot threw to Jesse Donez for a nine-yard touchdown to cap off the drive. Chris Maholick's PAT made it 7-0, Tigers, with 2:58 left in the first quarter.
Caldwell picked up a couple first downs on their next possession before it stalled on the Mountain Home 39, and they punted the ball to the Tigers.
Mountain Home took over on their own 20 yard-line, and on fourth-and-four on their 26, went for it, the pass falling incomplete, and Caldwell took over on the Tigers 26-yard line.
A pass interference call against Mountain Home gave the Cougars a first down, and they had a first and goal from the Tiger nine yard-line. A pass play to Jordan Salazar went to the Tiger one-yard line. The Tiger defense stepped up big, with Caldwell quarterback Bryce Hughes sacked at the three. On third down, running back Mark Morton was tackled for a loss back to the 11. On fourth down, Chris Flores was tackled at the five, Mountain Home taking over on downs from there.
Mountain Home picked up one first down, but fumbled and Caldwell recovered on the Tiger 22.
Caldwell picked up a first down at the Tiger nine-yard line, but three plays managed only four more yards, so this time the Cougars went for a field goal, Bryce Hughes booting a 22-yarder to make it 7-3 with four seconds left in the half.
Neither team scored in the second half, a half dominated by Mountain Home, but two more fumbles and a pass interception stopped Tiger drives any time it looked like they had something going.
Mountain Home's defense had a great second half, holding the Cougars to just 33 total yards in the half.
"Besides that first drive, every time we were driving down, we'd fumble," said Mountain Home Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd. "We'd get 20 or 30 yards and look like a drive was going and the fumble or something would happen. It was not the best, but we'll just go from there, I guess."
Coach Floyd had much praise for the defense that kept Caldwell from scoring a touchdown, despite the Cougars playing a good share of the game on the Mountain Home end of the field.
"I was very impressed with our defense. We got after them, a lot this week (in practice) about playing better, getting their rush, doing their assignments right, and, minus the first drive that they had, once we started figuring that stuff out, I thought they did an amazing job. They must have had 15 plays inside our 20-yard line in the second quarter, and they didn't break, they did an excellent job for us!
"Our DBs (defensive backs), man, they made the receivers pay any time they tried to catch that ball. I know we got flagged for a couple PIs (pass interference), but I'd rather be a little bit more aggressive than not."
Tallon Pauley led the Tigers' rushing game, picking up 69 yards on 18 carries.
Jacob Viola had 21 yards on three rushes, Kyle Kerfoot had 19 yards on five carries, Billy Derome rushed three times for eight yards, Jesse Donez, one for six.
Kyle Kerfoot completed eight of 16 passes for 100 yards and had one picked off. Tom Hennessey completed one of three passes for 11 yards.
Jesse Donez caught three passes for 32 yards and a touchdown, Tallon Pauley had two catches for 53 yards, Ricky Lee caught two passes for eight yards, Stefan White had one catch for 11 yards, and Tommy Miller caught one pass for seven yards.
Defensively, Mountain Home held Caldwell to just 88 yards rushing and 54 yards passing for 142 total yards.
The Tigers have a bye this week, returning to action on Sept. 19 at home against Middleton in their conference opener.
"We get a week off now and get to heal up a bit and go over some things we need to do, and look forward to starting league (play)," said Coach Floyd. "The pre-season's over with.
"It will be Optimist Night. All the Optimist players can wear their jerseys and get in free, and I believe their parents get a dollar off on the gate, so hopefully we'll get another big crowd like we had against Jerome."