Boys soccer falls just short of state bid

After losing to Skyview in the semi-finals of the District III 4A Boys Soccer Tournament at Kuna, the Mountain Home Tigers faced the Bishop Kelly Knights last Wednesday in a battle to see who advanced to the third-place game on Thursday. Bishop Kelly ended the Tigers' season 1-0 in a shootout.

Skyview 5

Tigers 1

Mountain Home battled Skyview through a scoreless first half, but Skyview pulled away in the second half to down the Tigers 5-1 in the semi-finals of the District III 4A Boys Soccer Tournament at Kuna last Tuesday at Kuna.

"We fought them to a scoreless tie in the first half," said Tiger boys soccer coach Paul Walsh. "That's the best half we've played all year."

Logan Whitney scored the Tigers lone goal. Christian Figueroa had nine saves on goal.

Knights 1

(Shootout)

The Tigers and Knights have been noted for some great battles in boys soccer, and last Wednesday's battle was no different. Two halves and two overtime periods failed to produce a goal for either team. Finally in the shootout, which is where each team has five shots on goal from 12 yards out against the goalkeeper, the Knights managed to get one kick in for a score, and won 1-0.

"It's kind of frustrating, because in a shootout, the best team doesn't always win," said Coach Walsh, "but it was hard-fought the entire time. BK played well, our boys, they left it all on the field and I was really proud of them."

Christian Figueroa had a total of 12 saves on goal for the game as goalkeeper for the Tigers.

Coach Walsh loses 10 seniors to graduation, but with what he has coming back, and the fact that the Mountain Home JV won the JV district tourney, he believes the future is bright for Tiger soccer.

"Things are really looking up.It doesn't help our seniors, and we're really sad to see those guys go --they've been a great bunch of guys -- but with the JV squad doing well, we're hoping for good things next year."

The loss ended what Coach Walsh agreed was a great season for his Tigers squad.

"Obviously, we were hoping for more, especially our seniors, I know those guys were really disappointed. We felt good going into all of this, we were playing well. We played well in the tournament, but sometimes it's just the breaks, and that's kind of what happened to us this time."