Missed chances prove costly as Tigers fall to Cougars

The Mountain Home Tigers made some giant strides in getting their football game close to where it should be. However, the Tigers blew scoring opportunities that could have changed the outcome of the game as they fell to the Caldwell Cougars, 28-21, Friday night at Caldwell.

The first opportunity came on the first play of the game, when a block-in-the-back penalty nullified a 99-yard kick-off return for a touchdown by Robert Jackio.

The Tigers ended up starting their first series at their 30 yard-line, and made it into Caldwell territory before having to punt the ball away.

"It's just mental mistakes," said Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd of the penalty on the kickoff. "He was gone, there was no reason to even touch the guy."

Caldwell had success with its running game on its first possession, going 76 yards in nine plays, Laren Walker taking it in from one yard out. With the point-after try by Jacob Torres, the Cougars led by seven with 5:18 left to go in the first quarter.

The Tigers answered quickly, going 80 yards in three plays with Jake Hennessey connecting with J.T. Cristobal on a 70-yard touchdown pass.

Tony McKenzie ran in the two-point conversion to put the Tigers up 8-7 with 3:35 left in the first quarter.

Mountain Home struggled controlling the Cougar counter plays and Caldwell again moved down the field, going 78 yards in five plays.Laren Walker capped off the scoring drive from three yards out. The PAT by Jacob Torres made it 14-8, Cougars, with 1:50 left in the first quarter.

Mountain Home capped off a 65-yard seven-play scoring drive in the opening minute of the second quarter, Jake Hennessey taking it in from one yard out. The PAT kick was no good, and the score was tied, 14-14, with 11:28 left in the first half.

Mountain Home's second blown scoring opportunity came late in the first half, when the Tigers moved the ball from their own 37 down the field, getting a first and goal at Caldwell's eight-yard line with under two minutes remaining.

Robert Jackio ran it to the five yard-line. Jake Hennessey then tried a running play that netted no gain. With the clock running down, Hennessey's pass was intercepted and the Cougars kept Mountain Home from scoring before halftime, the score still tied.

"The interception," said Coach Floyd, "we can't have that kind of stuff, especially when we're looking for either a touchdown or we're going to kick a field goal and go in up, with no time left, and that's what we were looking at. The wind just kind of came out of the sails right there, because I thought in the first half, we let them play with us, and then we started playing at their level instead of playing at ours. It was really frustrating."

Caldwell received the ball to start the second half and went 67 yards in nine plays, the Tigers getting fooled on a rare pass play, as Josh Lopez passed to a wide open Andy Forse for a six-yard touchdown. The PAT by Jacob Torres made it 21-14, Caldwell, with 6:24 left in the third quarter.

Mountain Home answered quickly, going 67 yards in three plays, the big one a 50-yard run by Robert Jackio to the Cougar 10 yard-line. Juan Silva took it in from there for the score. Tony McKenzie booted the PAT to tie the game at 21-21 with 5:22 left in the third quarter.

Caldwell added another score in the third quarter when Josh Lopez hooked up with Andy Forse, on a 37-yard scoring pass.

The PAT by Jacob Torres made it 28-21, Cougars, with 1:45 left in the third quarter.

Mountain Home's third blown scoring opportunity came in the fourth period when the Tigers again were in the red zone, thanks to a 46-yard run by Juan Silva that put the Tigers on the Caldwell six yard-line.

The Tigers lost two yards on first down. Robert Jackio then got it to the four. A face mask penalty on a run by Juan Silva moved it to the two. Jake Hennessey then got it to the one-yard line. On fourth and goal, Hennessey tried once again to get it in the end zone and failed, the Cougars taking over on downs with about six minutes left in the game.

The Cougars managed to put up three first downs and get into Mountain Home territory before the Tigers forced a punt, which bounced into the end zone, giving Mountain Home the ball with 51 seconds left.

Mountain Home then started one last drive from their its 20. Jake Hennessey passed to J.T. Cristobal to the 26. The next two passes fell incomplete.

On fourth down, wide receiver Michael Daniels beat his man down the sideline, and Hennessey threw a pass to him that went off his hands and fell incomplete, the Tigers turning the ball over on downs with 29 seconds left.

Caldwell then ran out the clock for the 28-21 victory, snapping a 13-game losing streak.

Despite the loss, Coach Floyd was pleased with the improvement his team made both offensively and defensively.

"I thought we blocked better and I was really impressed with our O- line. They're getting it. We had a lot of good things come from that, so that's something we can really take out of it.

"That's a good thing, because what's been our problem the last couple games has been our O-line and D-line. I thought they protected pretty well for the most part, and were opening some holes for the running game, and that's always good to see."

Offensively, the Tigers rushed 24 times for 166 yards, led by Juan Silva, who had a career-high 113 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.

Robert Jackio rushed for 68 yards on six rushes and Jake Hennessey had minus 15 yards on 11 rushes.

Hennessey completed 13 of 23 passes for 218 yards and a touchdown, with one pass picked off.

J.T. Cristobal caught ten passes for 154 yards and a score. Michael Daniels had a catch for 39 yards, Juan Silva had one for 21 yards and Ben Ceccarelli caught one for four yards.

The Cougars rushed the ball 49 times for 329 yards and two touchdowns. They passed just four times, completing two for 43 yards and two scores.

Robert Jackio led the Tigers defensively with nine tackles. Jake Hennessey had eight tackles, Austin Seegrist had five, Jeff Checketts 4.5, Alex Rodriguez 3.5, and Ben Ceccarelli, Gage Curtis and Skyler Podesek had three each. D.J. Hale, Tanner Cook, Joe Gutierrez, Mike Gordon, Soloman Chung Hee and Dion Salinas each had two tackles. William Negri, Doug Long, J.T. Cristobal and David Katsules also had tackles, while Long had a sack.

The Tigers hope to cap off Homecoming Week with a victory over the Nampa Bulldogs this Friday night. The Bulldogs lost to Columbia last week, 35-33.

"They probably have the best athlete in the conference with Devan Lesley," said Coach Floyd. "They're going to run the ball -- they're not being sneaky about it. He's a good player and he's fast. Get him in the field and he's gone. We've had trouble in the past containing him, but I think we can do a little bit better job this year. We need our D-line to step up and when they get to the line to stop and go side-to-side instead of running up the field and creating holes for us like we did against Caldwell."

The Nampa game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Tiger Field with the crowing of the homecoming queen at halftime.