Freshmen Tigers fall against Skyview

The Mountain Home Tigers had trouble holding on to the ball Friday night in their 34-13 non-conference loss to the Caldwell Cougars at Tiger Field in Mountain Home.

Five fumbles and a pass interception hurt the Tigers offensively as they failed to score after putting 13 points on the scoreboard in the first quarter.

Caldwell fumbled the opening kickoff with Mountain Home recovering it on the Cougar 21-yard line. Three plays later Tommy Miller scored from five yards out to put the Tigers up 6-0, just 48 seconds into the ball game.

Caldwell quickly responded when Mark Mourton took the kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown. The PAT was no good, and the score was tied at 6-6, less than a minute into the ballgame.

Mountain Home then had a sustained 80-yard, six-play drive for another score, Tommy Miller taking it the final yard, after a 40-yard pass play from Jake Hennessey to Tyler Wright gave the Tigers a first down on the Caldwell three-yard line. Juan Silva's PAT made it 13-6, Tigers, with 8:34 left in the first quarter.

Caldwell got another nice runback off the kickoff to the Mountain Home 42-yard line and scored six plays later, Tyson Heller taking it the final three yards for the score. Tony Martinez tied the game at 13-13, with his PAT, with 5:51 left in the first quarter.

Neither team scored again, until the Cougars took it 82 yards in five plays, the big play a 45-yard touchdown pass from Bryce Hughes to Tyson Heller. Luke Martinez made it 20-13, Cougars (with his PAT), with 22 seconds left in the half.

Caldwell intercepted a Jake Hennessey pass and took over a the Mountain Home 31 with 10 seconds left, but failed to score, the first half ending 20-1, in favor of Caldwell.

The Tigers received the kickoff to start the second half but a fumble on the second play in the series was recovered by Caldwell at the Tiger 45-yard line. Seven plays later, Dallas Tweedy took it in for a score from two yards out. With the PAT, it was 27-13, Caldwell, with 6:59 left in the third quarter.

Mountain Home had a good drive going on their next series, and moved the ball from their own 22 down to the Cougar 10-yard line, where they fumbled it away on the 10th play of the drive.

Mountain Home had great field position on their next possession, as a bad Caldwell punt put the ball on the Cougar 39-yard line. Four plays later the Tigers fumbled the ball back to the Cougars.

Caldwell then went 55 yards in 13 plays, Bryce Hughes taking it the final six yards for the score. With the PAT, the Cougars led 34-13 with 3:44 left in the game.

Mountain Home lost another fumble on its next series and the Cougars hung on to the ball and ran out of the clock on the 34-13 Caldwell win.

Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd was disappointed in his team's effort against Caldwell.

"We did some math. We've had 20 fumbles in two games, and we've lost eight of those fumbles. We've also thrown three interceptions, so that's 11 turnovers in two games. No one's going to win like that. Not to put down Optimist (football), but they hold on to the ball better than we do right now.

"In the second half, we had four offensive drives -- two that really counted, because the other two were trying to catch up. Every single one ended in a turnover on their side of the field except for the very last one, where we can't even get a shotgun snap.

"That's unacceptable -- 20 fumbles in two games -- it's mind-boggling! That's got to be a record somewhere!

"There's a reason we're 0-2 -- it's turnovers," Floyd said.

"That was not a better team across the field from us. They hadn't won since 2007, and we made them look good! There's not much more to say than that."

The Tigers rushed for 128 yards against the Cougars. Tom Hennessey had 47 yards rushing on eight rushes, Tommy Miller had 39 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries, Colton Zamora rushed four times for 28 yards, Juan Silva had 22 yards on three carries and Jake Hennessey had minus four yards.

Mountain Home managed just 49 yards through the air, just seven of those in the second half. Jake Hennessey completed four of 10 passes for 49 yards and had one pass picked off.

Tyler Wright caught one pass for 40 yards, Deion Brown had a catch for seven yards and Brock Morris caught one for two yards.

Caldwell had 129 yards rushing and 149 yards passing for 278 total yards.

The Tigers have a bye week this week before opening their SIC 4A conference schedule at Kuna on Sept. 18. Coach Floyd hopes to get things ironed out before they open conference play.

"We do have a bye week, thank God, to work on that (turnovers). We do finally get into SIC play -- the games count. I still believe we can be one of the best teams in the state -- there's no doubt in my mind about that. What has to happen is the kids have to stop thinking that people are going to roll over for them, like they've earned something, because they haven't earned something.

"We got on a roll because of the 2006 team, the 2007 team and the 2008 team, and it seems to me sometimes the kids just think it's easy, and we're going to go in a game and people are going to fold for us. But that's not the way football works. The only thing 2006, 2007 and 2008 did was put a bull's eye on us, and everyone's going to play their hardest against us.

"The kids need to take it a little bit more personal and a little bit more serious. It's frustrating to me, because I know the potential of this team. The sky's the limit for this team, but they've got to own up to it and say 'we've got to do this,' because nothing's going to be handed it them, and that's what's frustrating."

The Tigers travel to Kuna for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Sept. 18.