Tigers come from behind to win in overtime

The Mountain Home Tigers showed what they were made of Friday night at Columbia, battling back from a 21-7 deficit in the final six minutes to force overtime, and then win, 29-27, in overtime over the Columbia Wildcats in conference football.

After Mountain Home went three-and-out on their opening series, the Wildcats moved the ball 81 yards in 10 plays, Spencer Hall running it in from five yards out.

With Taylor Olson's PAT, Columbia led, 7-0, with 5:02 left in the first quarter.

The Tigers managed a first down on three running plays, but Kyle Kerfoot's pass on first down was intercepted by Columbia's Adam Hanson and returned to the Tiger 33-yard line.

The Wildcats moved the ball down to the Mountain Home seven where they had a first and goal. A penalty and three straight running plays for losses brought up fourth and goal from the Tiger 20. Taylor Olson's 37-yard field goal was no good, and the Tigers had dodged a bullet.

Mountain Home moved the ball from their 20 to the Wildcat 36 before the drive stalled after 12 plays and Columbia took over on downs.

A 49-yard run by Spencer Hall gave the Wildcats a first and goal at the Mountain Home eight-yard line. Two plays later Juan Hernendez bulled his way in from four yards out. Taylor Olson's PAT made it 14-0, Columbia, with 4:10 left in the half.

The Tigers had a sustained drive going from their own 21 down to the Columbia 23 before it stalled and the Wildcats took over on downs. The first half ended with Columbia leading 14-0.

Columbia received the ball to start the second half, and managed one first down before they were forced to punt.

Mountain Home's first possession of the second half started out well, and they went 76 yards in four plays, Kyle Kerfoot hitting Ricky Lee on a 24-yard touchdown pass.

Chris Maholick's PAT cut the Columbia lead to 14-7, with 8:29 left in the third quarter.

Columbia came right back, going 78 yards in eight plays, Spencer Hall scoring from eight yards out. Taylor Olson's PAT made it 21-7, Columbia, with 4:08 left in the third quarter.

The score stayed at 21-7 as neither team was able to mount any serious drives.

Mountain Home took the ball on their own 18 with 6:17 left, and moved it the 82 yards in 10 plays, Kyle Kerfoot passing to Jesse Donez from six yards out. The PAT kick by Chris Maholick was no good, and Columbia led 21-13 with 4:12 left.

Columbia tried to run out the clock, and did manage to pick up a first down, but the drive stalled and they were forced to punt the ball back to the Tigers. Hayden Walters' punt was a good one, as it was downed at the Mountain Home eight yard-line.

Mountain Home took over 92 yards away from the end zone with just 1:19 left on the clock.

They did not panic, but moved the ball down the field, Kyle Kerfoot connecting with Jesse Donez on three straight out patterns down to the Columbia 42 yard line.

A pass interference call put the ball on the Wildcat 27-yard line with 07.9 second left. An incomplete pass stopped the clock with 01.3 seconds left.

Kyle Kerfoot then found Ricky Lee in the corner of the end zone and looped the pass over the defender for the score as time ran out. Kerfoot then threw to Bill Derome for the two-point conversion to tie the game at 21-21 and force overtime.

Mountain Home got the ball first in overtime at the 10-yard line and Tallon Pauley ran it down to the two. Billy Derome ran it to the one, and Tallon Pauley took it in from there for the score. The Tigers faked the PAT kick, Kyle Kerfoot shovel passing to Pauley for the two-points, and Mountain Home led 29-21.

Columbia then had their possession at the 10 and Hayden Walters ran it down to the four. A facemask penalty moved it to the two. Juan Hernandez then bulled his way in from there for the score. The Wildcats pass for two was caught, but Ricky Lee tackled Spencer Hall before he could get into the end zone and Mountain Home won 29-27.

Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd was happy to get the win, but wasn't pleased with the way the Tigers played.

"We've been playing too many games where we just play two quarters. I liked how we came out in the second half -- we did great there -- once we got our line together.

"It took a long time, just for the simple fact we were pretty banged up this week. We had a lot of guys working in practice that hadn't been there -- we had sick guys, we had guys that missed most of the week, and then (James) Bailey (hampered by an ankle sprain) -- basically we were without three of our five guys on the line -- but they battled back.

"They got in to it and started doing things that were correct, I guess. I mean, it was a great job to come back and win, that's absolutely amazing, but when you look at the whole game, it shouldn't have been like that, whatsoever, and our tackling was absolutely horrendous, so we'll be working on that."

The Tigers rushed for 144 yards and passed for 241 yards. Tallon Pauley had 80 yards rushing, Kyler Kerfoot, 56, Jacob Viola, 7, and Billy Derome, one.

Kerfoot completed 21 of 39 passes for 241 yards and three touchdowns. He had two passes picked off.

Ricky Lee caught 10 passes for 152 yards and two touchdowns. Jesse Donez caught five passes for 56 yards and a score. Stefan White caught four passes for 28 yards and Tommy Miller had one for nine.

Columbia rushed the ball for 353 yards, and completed just one pass for 16 yards.

Defensively, Billy Derome ended the night with 16.5 tackles, Tom Hennessey had 11.5, Jesse Donez, eight, Mike Heinen and Chris Maholick, four each, and Ricky Lee three, including the game-winning tackle in overtime.

Coach Floyd thought the final drive for the tying score was exceptional.

"We practice it a lot, and every year we always practice it a lot, but it seems people start freaking out or not trusting, and talk about calm, cool and collected, man, they were just spot on the money. Kyle did an excellent job --absolutely excellent job leading that drive.

"He didn't try to force any throws, he was taking the little outs that we were trying to run to get first downs down the field, because they were giving it to us, so we were taking it, and then when it came time to go deep, we went deep."

The win improved the Tigers to 4-0 on the season and 2-0 in conference play.

The Tigers are on the road to Bishop Kelly Friday night to face the Knights, who were upset by Skyview 28-24.

"Skyview's good. I knew they were going to have a good running back coming back," said Coach Floyd. "I don't know if maybe B.K. was looking past them or what.

"I was talking with Jack (Parker, Bishop Kelly head coach) last week, and he was really concerned about their (Skyview's) running back, but we've got to fix our own problems before we start looking at what B.K. does. We had way too many missed tackles, way too many coverage assignments where we were too high across the d-line.

"One thing I am very proud of the kids about is dealing with all the adversity that we had this last week. With all these kids being out, our o-line and defensive line was pretty much decimated, and they came out and still fought and went after it.

"B.K.'s always tough, and it's their homecoming, so we've got to go up there and hopefully we can get everybody here to practice all week and get after it and have a good week of practice and just play our kind of football like we did in the second half. As long as we keep playing like we're capable of playing, we're going to be good."

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday night at Bishop Kelly.