Despite last-quarter rally, Tigers fall to Columbia

Big plays were costly for the Mountain Home Tigers Friday night as they dropped their season opening football game 34-27 to Columbia at Tiger Field.

Despite trailing by 20 points with less than nine minutes left in the game, the Tigers battled back and came close to winning it at the end.

Columbia took the opening kickoff and moved down the field 81 yards in six plays, the big play a 52-yard pass from Austin Shaffer to Mario Jenkins. With the PAT by Austin Gonzales, the Wildcats led 7-0 just 91 seconds into the ballgame.

Mountain Home answered on its opening drive, going 65 yards in ten plays, Jake Hennessey driving in from the one yard-line. Tony McKenzie's PAT tied the game at 7-7 with 5:45 left in the opening quarter.

The Wildcats then took the ball down the field and scored on their next possession, going 75 yards in five plays, Austin Schaffer connecting with Eric Cotton on a 25-yard scoring pass. The PAT by Austin Gonzalez was good to put Columbia up 14-7, with 4:02 left to go in the first quarter.

The defenses of both teams then took over, as there was no other score in the first half until less than two minutes remained, and that was after the Tigers had fumbled a punt return, which Columbia recovered on the Tiger one-yard-line. Mario Jenkins, on the first play, ran it in to put the Wildcats up 20-7 with 1:54 left in the half, a lead they took into the locker room at halftime.

The defenses continued to dominate in the third quarter, which ended scoreless, but on the last play of the quarter the Tigers fumbled the ball away to Columbia at their own 10-yard-line. Mario Jenkins then ran it in from there, as the Wildcats increased their lead to 27-7 with 11:54 left in the ballgame.

That score fired up the Mountain Home offense, as they proceeded to move the ball 65 yards in eight plays, Jake Hennessey connecting with J.T. Cristobal on a 28-yard toss. With Tony McKenzie's PAT, it was 27-14, Columbia, with 10:20 left in the ball game.

The Wildcats answered the Mountain Home score with one of their own, going 76 yards in four plays, the big one a 43-yard pass by Austin Schaffer to Eric Cotton. With the PAT, it was 34-14, with 8:56 left.

The Tigers answered with a score of their own, going 56 yards in six plays, Jake Hennessey hitting Ben Ceccarelli on a 24-yard scoring pass.

The PAT was blocked and Columbia led, 34-20, with 6:29 remaining in the game.

The Tigers defense held Columbia and forced a punt. Taking over at the Columbia 38, Jake Hennessey once again hooked up with Ben Ceccarelli on a scoring strike. With Tony McKenzie's PAT, the Tigers were down by just seven, 34-27, with 2:22 left.

The Tigers forced Columbia in a three-and-out and Mountain Home got the ball back with 1:09 left in the game.

Mountain Home moved the ball into Columbia territory, but a fourth-down pass that would have given the Tigers a first down was ruled out of bounds and the Tigers had to turn the ball over to Columbia.

The Wildcats were able to run out of the clock to escape with a 34-27 win.

"We dug ourselves too deep of a hole to get out of," said Mountain Home Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd. "We made a lot of mental mistakes, especially with our techniques on defense in getting to the spots we needed to be.

"It seemed like the first half turned into another jamboree for us, and they were feeling their way out, but Columbia took advantage of that, which is a credit to them. But we gave up so much to them -- two turnovers inside our 10-yard-line, and they converted on both.

"In the third and fourth, we started to get it together," the coach said.

"We still had some breakdowns on their touchdowns, but the kids never quit, they went after it, and I was extremely proud and so was the whole coaching staff.

"That's one of our points that we talked about a lot with them -- that they really hammered the fourth quarter extremely hard and they did everything we asked them to do, so it was great to see that.

"It's just too bad that we dug ourselves too big a hole (early) to get out of."

The Tigers rushed for 96 yards on 38 rushes. Juan Silva led the rushing attack with 42 yards on six rushes. Ben Ceccarelli had two carries for 21 yards. Jake Hennessey had 18 yards on 20 rushes and scored one touchdown. Robert Jackio had eight yards on eight carries and Skyler Podesek rushed two times for seven yards.

Jake Hennessey completed 18 of 28 passes for 301 yards and three touchdowns. He had one pass picked off.

Ben Ceccarelli caught seven passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns. J.T. Cristobal caught four passes for 62 yards and a score. Mike Daniels had two catches for 52 yards, Juan Silva caught two for 35 yards, Robert Jackio caught one for 22, Alex Rodriguez had one for 17 yards and Dion Salinas caught one for 13 yards.

The Columbia Wildcats rushed the ball 33 times for 101 yards, and passed for 198 yards.

Defensively, Skyler Podesek led the Tigers with 10.5 tackles, four for losses and one sack. Kolby Hall had five tackles and Jake Hennessey and Jeff Checketts had four. Hennessey had a deflected pass. Luke Filipovich and Gage Curtis both had 3.5 tackles.

Austin Seegrist, J.T. Cristobal and Robert Jackio each had three tackles. Seegrist had two for loss and Cristobal had an interception and two pass deflections.

Mike Gordon and Joe Gutierrez both had two tackles. Tanner Cook, Ben Ceccarelli, Ricky Castillo and Alex Rodriguez all had one tackle and Rodriguez had a deflected pass.

The Tigers are on the road to Skyview Friday night to take on the Hawks, who are 1-1 to date, having dropped their opener to Fruitland, but easily won their conference game over Kuna.

"They're coming off a win against Kuna," said Coach Floyd of the Hawks. "They're kind of young, but they're explosive. They've got athletes, and we're going to definitely have to get after them."

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday night at Skyview High School in Nampa.