Tigers struggle on field, fall short in season competition

The Mountain Home Tigers boys soccer team played hard last week, but came up short against their three opponents.

Columbia 3, Mountain Home 1

The Tigers battled Columbia tough before losing Tuesday, 3-1, at Columbia in conference boys soccer.

Jalen Gibbons scored Mountain Home's goal off an assist by Tyson Gibbons. Tomas Guillen had six saves on goal for Mountain Home.

"That was a lot better game than the score indicates," said Tiger boys soccer coach Paul Walsh. "We came out really flat and spotted them three goals, and then held them the rest of the game. We got one, but just couldn't muster up enough offense to get another one or tie it up, but it was a lot better game than the score indicated."

Middleton 3, Mountain Home 1

Mountain Home battled Middleton tough at home last Thursday, but came up on the short end of a 3-1 contest.

Tyson Gibbons scored the Tigers' goal off an assist by Dominic Torres. Tomas Guillen and Jack Richelieu combined for 10 saves.

"Middleton's always been tough," said Coach Walsh. "They're real physical. I don't like blaming it on the refs, but it was not a good day for them. We've got to adjust to that and play through it, but he (the referee) gave them a penalty kick that I thought was a terrible call, and then we let down and let them score right in behind that, so that's bad on us. That's a tough one to overcome."

Jerome 4, Mountain Home 2

The Mountain Home Tigers traveled to Jerome Saturday to face the Jerome Tigers in a non-conference encounter and battled hard, but they came up short in a 2-4 loss.

"The kids played well," said Coach Walsh. "We had a couple off-side calls that the guy (referee) missed, and that was two of their goals. We felt like had we gotten our calls that we thought we deserved, that game would have been 2-2."

Dominic Torres and Francisco Dominguez scored the Mountain Home goals, each assisting the other with their goals.

Jack Richelieu and Tomas Guillen combined for 11 saves as goal keeper.

The Tigers fall to 1-11-2 on the season as they close out their regular season schedule this week and start district play.

The Tigers were at Kuna Tuesday and host Nampa for Senior Night today, Oct. 6, to close out their regular season schedule. District tourney action starts Saturday at Kuna.

Coach Walsh is looking forward to the district tourney.

"Absolutely. I told the guys if we can put some things together going into district, there's nobody that we can't play with, so we're looking forward to it. I think we can go in there and surprise some guys if they overlook us or take us too lightly. I think we stand a real good chance."