Boys soccer falls a game short

The Mountain Home Tigers boys soccer team came up one win away from advancing to the State Boys Soccer Tourney, losing the third-place game to Middleton at the District III 4A boys soccer tourney at Kuna.

Nampa 3

Tigers 1

After opening district play with a win over Emmett, the Tigers faced Nampa Tuesday in the semi-finals. The Bulldogs came away with a 3-1 win.

Reza Mesmarian scored Mountain Home's lone goal, off an assist by Stephen Bitrick. Josh Lindsay had 10 saves on goal.

Tigers 2

Columbia 1

The loss to Nampa meant the Tigers had to play Columbia on Wednesday in a loser-out game. The Tigers got two goals from Danny Snelgrow and Josh Lindsay made eight saves, as Mountain Home won, 2-1, to advance to the third-place game.

Middleton 1

Mtn. Home 0

The Vikings scored early in the first half, and despite dominance by Mountain Home in the second half, and many opportunities to score, Middleton held on for a 1-0 win, to take third place and qualify for state.

Despite the loss, Tiger boys soccer coach Paul Walsh was pleased with their effort.

"The guys gave it their all, they really did. We played an excellent game. Middleton worked hard, too, and they got that goal. Their keeper was awesome. I lost track of the saves he had, but he had some real big ones, especially towards the end. We had our chances, we just could not find the back of the net."

Mountain Home had 16 shots on goal for the game, but could not get one in the net.

Coach Walsh loses eight seniors from this year's squad that finished 7-9-5 overall.

"We're going to miss those guys. Wish we could have took them to state this year. One game short -- one goal (short)," he lamented.

Walsh is excited about the future of the Tiger soccer program, however, with what he has coming back and coming up.

"We have some kids coming back, and some kids down on the JV that I think will fit right in, and we have some more talent coming up out of the youth soccer program, so I'm really excited."