Tigers beat Emmett 28-7 to lock up state playoff spot

The Mountain Home Tigers overcame some turnovers to down the Emmett Huskies 28-7 Friday night at Emmett in SIC 4A football.

The win also assured the Tigers their season would extend into the state 4A playoffs in November.

The Tigers set the tone for the game right from the start as Jesse Donez ran back the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown. Kyle Kerfoot ran in the two-point conversion to put Mountain Home up 8-0, just 16 seconds into the ballgame.

After Emmett went three-and-out and punted on their first possession, the Tigers had good field position at the Emmett 45-yard line. Mountain Home picked up a first down on the Emmett 30, but the drive stalled, and they gave the ball over on downs at the Husky 28-yard line.

The Tigers forced another three-and-out for Emmett, and moved the ball from their own 31 down to the Emmett one-yard line, where Devin Hundley intercepted a Kyle Kerfoot pass to kill the drive.

Emmett picked up a first down on a pass interference call before punting the ball back to the Tigers early in the second quarter.

Devin Hundley picked off another pass to kill another Mountain Home drive, but the Tiger defense held and again forced a Husky punt.

Ethan Crawshaw pounced on a fumbled handoff exchange to give Emmett the ball on the Mountain Home 41. Six plays later, Kasey Griffith took it on from two yards out to get the Huskies on the scoreboard. With the PAT by Kenny McCoy, the Tiger lead was cut to one, 8-7, with 7:05 left in the first half.

Jesse Donez ran back the Emmett kickoff 35 yards to the Husky 47-yard line. Mountain Home picked up two first downs and got to the Emmett 12, but gave the ball over on downs at the Husky 17-yard line.

The Tiger defense again forced another Emmett punt, and Mountain Home took over at the Emmett 45-yard line. Four plays later, Kyle Kerfoot connected with Ricky Lee on a 38-yard scoring strike. The pass for two was no good but the Tigers had extended their lead to 14-7, a lead they took into the locker room at halftime.

Tom Hennessey intercepted a Husky pass late in the third quarter to set up the Tigers at the Emmett 25 yard-line. Six plays later, Tallon Pauley scored from two yards out. With Chris Maholick's PAT, the Tigers increased their lead to 21-7, with 28 seconds left in the third quarter.

Emmett had their longest sustained drive on their next possession, moving the ball from their own 28-yard line to the Mountain Home 39, before the Tigers took the ball over on downs after 11 plays over five minutes later.

The last score of the night came late in the game after Chris Maholick pounced on an Emmett fumble on the Husky 15-yard line. After Tallon Pauley ran the ball down for a first and goal at the Emmett five, the Tigers went to a "heavy" backfield, and normal offensive and defensive lineman Jake Lewis took it in from two yards out for the score. Chris Maholick tacked on the PAT to make it 28-7 with 1:41 left.

That capped off the scoring on the night for both teams.

Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd was pleased with the Emmett win.

"We've got a lot better on our running, which is what we've been working on the last couple weeks. We've got to start working on our pass blocking -- we've been getting a little too much pressure -- and controlling the ball -- we had four turnovers in the first half -- I was surprised we were up at half with four turnovers."

The reason they were up at half was because of the great effort by the Tiger defense.

"It was another good game for our defense," Coach Floyd said. "There was only that one drive they had that they scored on -- those were miscues."

The Tigers rushed for 171 yards on the night, led by Tallon Pauley, who had 96 hard-earned yards and a touchdown. Kyle Kerfoot rushed for 72 yards, Jesse Donez had six, Jacob Viola, four, Jake Lewis, two, and a score, Tommy Miller, minus four, and Nick Stover, minus five.

Kyle Kerfoot completed four of 13 passes for 64 yards and a touchdown. He had two passes picked off. Ricky Lee caught three passes for 62 yards and a score, and Logan Monasterio had one catch for two yards.

The win, which improved the Tigers to 7-1 overall and 5-1 in league play, clinched a state 4A playoff spot for the Tigers.

"Yes! We'll be playing (in November)," Floyd said. "It looks like everybody (Mountain Home, Nampa and Middleton, all won and are tied for first place at 5-1) won. As of right now, we're still sitting in second place (behind Nampa), according to the tie-breaker system, so if we stay this course, then we go up North."

The Tigers close out their regular season schedule this Friday night at home against the Kuna Kavemen.

Despite their record (Kuna is 2-4 in conference play), Coach Floyd expects a battle.

"They've got their quarterback back, they finally got their running back back, and I heard one of their linebackers might be back as well, so maybe one week under them, they're going to be a little bit more affective, but BK really out-physicaled them, so hopefully we can do the same. Their d-line, though, is pretty good, they have one kid, he's their kicker as well, and he's good, so it's going to be tough to corral him on the D-line."

It's Senior Night and the senior football players will be honored before the 7 p.m. kickoff Friday night at Tiger Field.