Freshman team loses first game

The Mountain Home Tigers freshman football team suffered their first loss of the season when they lost to Columbia 61-21 last Thursday at Tiger Field in Mountain Home.

Columbia shot out to an early 14-0 lead, but the Tigers battled back to tie the game at 14-14 midway through the second quarter. Columbia scored two times before halftime to take a 28-14 lead at the half. Columbia had a big fourth quarter to do in the Tigers, 61-21.

"We will make no excuses for our performance today," said Tiger freshman football coach Rick Suber. "They were the better team today and we have several adjustments before next Wednesday's game with B.K.

"Our blocking was poor, our tackling was poor and our recognition on defense was poor. It's pretty hard to compete when you don't do these things. That being said, our goal remains the same: we want to play for and win the league championship, and to do so, we will have to play better and with more intensity."

The Tigers managed just 107 yards rushing against Columbia, fumbled the ball away twice, and did not score a rushing touchdown. Juan Silva rushed 13 times for 51 yards, Austin Clark had two carries for 25 yards, Cory Pinque rushed twice for 16 yards, and Antonio Tancredi had nine yards on eight carries.

The Tigers passing game accounted for 225 yards and three touchdowns. Jake Hennessey completed 6 of 16 passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns. He also had two passes picked off. Alex Rodriguez went 4-10 for 109 yards and one touchdown.

JT Cristobal caught four passes for 82 yards and two touchdowns, Ricky

Castillo had two catches for 77 yards and a score, Tyler Knauth caught three passes for 46 yards, and Anthony Lucas had one catch for 20 yards.

The Tiger freshmen dropped to 4-1 and host Bishop Kelly this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. at Tiger Field.

In action the previous week, the Mountain Home Tigers freshman football team improved to 4-0 on the season with a 52-16 win at Middleton last Thursday.

After a sluggish start, the young Tigers started clicking in the second quarter on their way to a 28-8 halftime lead.

Both the first team offense and second-team players came up big in the second half as the Tigers cruised on to a 52-16 win.

"I thought both our quarterbacks played very well tonight, and Juan Luna had a tremendous game at running back," said Tiger freshman head football coach Rick Suber.

"Coach Rupp and Coach Hiler did a great job of preparing our offense this week as our offense was very effective."

The Tigers rushed for 332 yards, led by Juan Silva who had 172 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. Antonio Tancredi had eight rushes for 80 yards and two touchdowns. Austin Clark had three carries for 26 yards and a score, Cory Pinque had four rushes for 25 yards and a score, Alex Rodriguez carried once for 20 yards, JT Cristobal had two carries for eight yards, and Jake Hennessey had a one-yard touchdown run.

In the passing department, Jake Hennessey completed 11 of 15 passes for 176 yards and a score.

JT Cristobal caught four passes for 77 yards and a score, Tyler Knauth caught three for 52 yards, Juan Silva, two for 39, Anthony Lucas, one for six and Luke Filipovich caught one for two yards.

Defensively, the Tigers had four sacks, two pass interceptions, one fumble recovery and one blocked punt.