Turnovers prove costly as Wolves thwart Tigers

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Back-to-back interceptions allowed the Timberline Wolves to break open a close ball game with 27 third-quarter points to pull away from the Mountain Home Tigers during a 33-13 win Thursday evening at Bronco Stadium in Boise.

Timberline was the first to get on the scoreboard, going 65 yards in eight plays on their second possession, including a 48-yard pass play.

Jackson Reed used his six-foot, four-inch height to haul in a five-yard pass from Grant Hruby for the touchdown with 2:33 left in the first quarter. The run for the two-point conversion failed, leaving Timberline with a 6-0 lead.

Neither team put together a scoring drive until late in the first half when Mountain Home went 87 yards in eight plays. The big play came from a 46-yard pass from Jake Hennessey to Colton Zamora that put the Tigers on the Timberline five-yard line.

Curtis Jackson scored from two yards out and Dion Salinas booted the point-after try to put the Tigers ahead by one, 7-6, with 1:41 remaining in the opening half. Mountain Home took that lead with them going into the locker room at half-time.

Mountain Home received the ball to start the third quarter and moved from its own 20 to the Timberline 42 before the drive stalled, forcing the Tigers to punt.

A poor kick, combined with a good return, put the Wolves at their own 47. A 35-yard pass play put the Wolves deep into the red zone at the Mountain Home five until Hruby completed a five-yard pass to Casey Persons for the score. The two-point conversion again failed, but Timberline led by five with 6:31 left in the third quarter.

Mountain Home was forced to punt the ball back to Timberline on its next possession. On a first-and-10 play from their 28-yard line, Hruby connected with Ryan Tate on a 72-yard touchdown pass. Ray Stroudbeck added the point-after kick to give the Wolves a 19-7 lead with 3:53 left in the quarter.

A little over a minute later, Timberline would score again as Jack Tate intercepted a pass from quarterback Jake Hennessey and returned it 27 yards for a score.

Stroudbeck's point-after kick pushed Timberline's lead to 26-7 with 2:43 left in the quarter.

The Wolves intercepted Hennessey's next pass, but successive penalties pushed Timberline back to the Mountain Home 35. Hruby connected again with Jackson Reed on a 35-yard score for the touchdown. Stroudbeck's successful point-after try gave Timberline a commanding 33-7 lead with 1:42 left in the quarter.

On its next possession, Mountain Home put together a 13-play drive that started on its own 26 and got to the Timberline seven before it stalled at the 23. The Tigers then stopped Timberline and forced a punt to start on their own 30-yard line.

In 14 plays, Mountain Home moved the ball 70 yards with Curtis Jackson taking it into the end zone from five yards out for the score. The two-point try failed as the Tigers trailed 33-13 with 2:05 left in the game.

Mountain Home got the ball back and drove down the field again, making it to the Timberline 39 when time ran out.

Aside from the last half of the third quarter, last week's contest was anybody's game, said Tigers head coach Brian Floyd.

"I thought in the first half we played extremely hard," Floyd said. "We made a lot of kind of dumb penalties in the first half, but we were able to survive those.

"It was just about four minutes into the third quarter that we got overwhelmed, didn't tackle well and missed some responsibilities," he added. "Even though we only scored the one touchdown in the fourth quarter, the kids played hard, executed the offense and did what they needed to do. The defense got the ball back for us again, and we were going until the end of the game."

Mountain Home rushed for 91 yards in the ball game, led by Curtis Jackson, who finished with 71 yards and two touchdowns on 11 rushes. Juan Silva carried the ball four times for 16 yards while Austin Clark and J.T. Cristobal both had one yard on one carry.

Hennessey completed 30 or 49 passes for 244 yards with three interceptions and rushed for two yards on five carries while Rodriguez completed one pass for 22 yards.

Meanwhile, J.T. Cristobal caught eight passes for 36 yards, Colton Zamora had seven catches for 81 yards, Curtis Jackson had five catches for 46 yards, Juan Silva caught five for 29 yards, Tyler Knauth had three for 31 yards, Ricky Castillo caught two for 21 yards while Jake Hennessey had one catch for 22 yards.

Timberline rushed the ball 30 times for just 77 yards. Hruby completed nine of 17 for 262 yards and four touchdowns.

Defensively, Jesse Corbett led the Mountain Home Tigers with eight tackles. Anthony Castillo had seven tackles, Dion Salinas had 4.5 tackles, Zamora had four tackles, Deion Brown had three tackles, a fumble recovery and half of a sack, Adam Miller had three tackles and a half sack, John Casper had 2.5 tackles, Ricky Castillo, Luke Filipovich, Curtis Jackson and Juan Silva each had one tackle, Jacob Perry had a sack, and John Ryan and Jamz Wright each had a half tackle.

The Tigers take a 1-1 overall record into Friday night's conference opener at home against the Kuna Kavemen.

"They have a new coach," Coach Floyd said regarding the Kavemen. "They run the triple-option sort of like Navy and Georgia Tech. Defense-wise, they run a lot of the same stuff that they ran the year before. We've started breaking that down and are getting ready for them."

Kickoff begins at 7 p.m. at Tiger Field.

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