Mistakes prove costly as Tigers fall to Knights

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Mistakes and turnovers did the Tigers in again Friday night as they dropped a 32-10 conference football game to the visiting Knights of Bishop Kelly High School.

Any thoughts the Tigers would be down after their homecoming loss the week before soon disappeared as Mountain Home came out strong, going 74 yards in six plays with Skyler Podesek rambling 37 yards for a touchdown. With Tony McKenzie's point-after try, the Tigers led by seven with nine minutes left in the opening quarter.

Mountain Home started strong on both sides of the ball as the Tigers' defense forced a three-and-out by the Knights on Bishop Kelly's first possession.

The Tigers' second possession was not as successful as they tried going to the air, but three passes fell incomplete. On fourth down, Mountain Home faked a unsuccessful punt and to pick up the first down. Unable to convert, Bishop Kelly took over on downs at the Tigers' 42 yard-line.

Helped out by the short field and a 15-yard penalty, Andrew Spanglerrushed for 27 yards in four carries, including the final two yards for the Knights' first score of the evening. With the PAT, the game was tied at 7 with six minutes left in the first quarter.

Mountain Home then began a time-consuming drive that ended on the first play of the second quarter when Tony McKenzie booted a 25-yard field goal to give the Tigers a 10-7 lead with 11:46 left in the half.

The defenses took over for a while, and with time winding down in the first half, it looked like Mountain Home might go into the locker room up by three.

That changed when Spangler intercepted a pass and ran it to the Tigers' 35 yard-line. With a short field, Bishop Kelly went the 35 yards in seven plays, Spangler again scoring from two yards out. The PAT was no good, but the Knights led 12-7, with 2:37 left in the half.

The Tigers hoped to go back down the field and score before halftime. But two plays later, Bishop Kelly recovered a Mountain Home fumble on the Tigers' 35.

Presented again with a short field, the Knights would score with Bowen Ogata connecting with Josh Poole on a 26-yard touchdown pass. With the PAT, the Knights led, 19-10, with just under 42 seconds left in the half. Mountain Home managed to move the ball from its own 33 down to the Bishop Kelly 35 before the first half ran out.

Bishop Kelly received the ball to start the second half but fumbled on third down as Joe Gutierrez recovered the fumble for the Tigers at the Knights' 42 yard-line.

Unfortunately, Mountain Home couldn't take advantage of the turnover and short field as the Tigers fumbled the ball right back to Bishop Kelly three plays later.

The two teams then traded punts before a 46-yard run by Spangler put the Knights on the Mountain Home 12. Ogata capped off a five-play drive, going in from the one. With the PAT, the Knights led, 26-10, with 3:51 left in the third quarter.

Mountain Home got a good drive going its next possession, moving the ball from its own 12 yard-line to the Bishop Kelly 26 before the drive stalled and they turned the ball over on downs. The Knights then moved the ball 74 yards in 11 plays with Blaze Gamboa scoring from five yards out to put the Knights up, 32-10, with 5:22 left in the ball game.

Mountain Home's next drive moved from the 35 down to the Knight's 23 before they turned the ball over on downs. Bishop Kelly was able to get a couple first downs and run out the clock for the win.

Mountain Home head coach Brian Floyd thought his Tigers got off to a great start.

"We came out fast like we wanted to and kind of dictated to (the Knights) what we were going to do, which was good to see. I thought we played extremely physical in the first quarter, and we continued it throughout the game, which was good to see, but the turnovers hurt us."

The Tigers rushed the ball 36 times for 151 yards, led by Podesek, who rushed for 62 yards and a touchdown on 15 rushes. Jake Hennessey had 36 yards on eight carries, Juan Silva had 17 yards on four rushes, while J.T. Cristobal added 15 yards on one carry.

Gage Curtis rushed three times for nine yards for Mountain Home while Robert Jackio had two rushes for seven yards and Ben Ceccarelli rushed three times for six yards.

Hennessey completed 14 of 23 passes for 115 yards and had one pass picked off. Cristobal caught seven passes for 63 yards, Ben Ceccarelli had three catches for seven yards, Juan Silva caught two for 18 yards, Mike Daniels went one for 14 while and Ricky Castillo was one for 13.

Mountain Home steps out of conference play this week as the team travels to Jerome to take on the Jerome Tigers. Both Mountain Home and Jerome are 0-5 on the season.

"They usually have a physical front five, but I think that we can get to their quarterback this week," Floyd said. "The pass defense that we've been working on these last couple weeks are a perfect fit against Jerome, so I'm excited to see what we can do."

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