Tigers falter at Jerome in 2009 season opener

A slow start for the Mountain Home offense spotted Jerome 14 points in the first half, and it proved to be the difference in the game, as Mountain Home came up short, 28-14, at Jerome last Friday night.

A fumble recovery by Deion Brown stopped Jerome's opening drive at the Mountain Home 37-yard line.

Mountain Home's opening series produced no yards, a fake punt pass came up three yards short of a first down, and Jerome started its second possession at the Mountain Home 44.

Mountain Home's defense held and Jerome gave the ball back to Mountain Home on downs at the Mountain Home 39.

Mountain Home then had its best offensive series of the first half, moving the ball down to the Jerome 19, before the drive stalled at the 20.

Jerome then took the ball down the field 80 yards in 10 plays, 75 of those yards coming through the air, the final 10 on a Cameron Stauffer pass to Jake Hollifield for the score. With the Caleb Zuniga PAT, Jerome led 7-0, with 1:40 left in the first quarter.

Mountain Home failed to make it into Jerome territory the rest of the first half, and Jerome's other score of the half was set up on a failed fourth down fake punt, Jerome getting the ball at the Mountain Home 41-yard line. Three plays later the home Tigers were on the scoreboard again, this after a 30-yard pass from Cameron Stauffer to Gus Callen. With the PAT by Caleb Zuniga, Jerome led 14-0, a lead they would take into the locker room at halftime.

Mountain Home received the ball to start the third quarter, and put together an 81-yard, 13-play drive that consumed nearly half the quarter, Tommy Miller running it in from three yards out. Juan Silva's PAT kick brought Mountain Home back within seven, 14-7, with 6:14 left in the third quarter.

Jerome, helped out by a kickoff return to midfield, wasted little time scoring again, Cameron Stauffer connecting with Gus Callen on a 20-yard pass. Caleb Zuniga's PAT pushed the Jerome lead back to 14, at 21-7, with 4:29 left in the third quarter.

Mountain Home answered with a score of their own, a six-play, 47-yard drive capped off by a five-yard run by Tommy Miller. With the PAT by Juan Silva, Mountain Home was back within seven, 21-14, with 1:26 left in the third quarter.

Jerome countered with a 10-play, 61-yard scoring drive capped off by a three-yard pass from Cameron Stauffer to Jake Hollifield. Caleb Zuniga's PAT once again pushed the margin back up to 14 points, 28-14, with 10:07 left in the ball game.

Mountain Home managed to get down to the Jerome 31-yard line on its next possession, before a quarterback sack on fourth down turned the ball back to the home team.

The visiting Tigers held and forced Jerome to punt for the first time in the ballgame, but an interception stalled Mountain Home's next possession.

Jerome moved the ball down to the Mountain Home two-yard line before Mountain Home held and took over on downs.

Mountain Home managed one first down before turning the ball back over to Jerome on downs at their own 15. Jerome then ran out the clock for the 28-14 win.

Despite the loss, Mountain Home Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd thought his team played well.

"We played pretty well. To hold a team like Jerome to 28 points total, and 14 points when you consider some of the field positions we gave them, I'm ecstatic. I think that's going to be their lowest point total of the year. What I saw from this was the improvement we made from the Jamboree to this week. It was night and day, on defense anyway, and even on offense, once the kids finally got out of that funk there.

"We ask a lot of our players, and I'm not making excuses or anything like that, and we had some guys make the wrong calls, but that happens in football, and we're getting better every week.

"You know you can't win state by the first game, and you can't go to the playoffs by winning that game. We have to work on ourselves getting better, and the improvement that we saw on offense and the defense from last week was huge."

After a dismal first half offensively, with just 47 yards rushing and 29 yards passing, the Tigers performed better in the second half, ending with 144 yards on the ground and 120 through the air.

Tommy Miller led the Mountain Home ground attack with 77 yards and two touchdowns on 20 rushes. Colton Zamora rushed for 39 yards on 15 carries. Juan Silva carried twice for 14 yards, Jake Hennessey had 14 yards rushing on eight rushes, Curtis Jackson had two carries for one yard and Brock Morris carried once for a minus one yard.

Jake Hennessey completed seven of 18 passes for 113 yards. He had two passes picked off by Jerome.

Tom Hennessey completed his only attempt for seven yards. Trevor Woodruff caught five passes for 83 yards, Curtis Jackson had one catch for 24 yards, Tommy Miller had one catch for seven yards and Brock Morris caught one pass for six yards.

Mountain Home takes on the Caldwell Cougars in a non-conference game this Friday night at Tiger Field. Coach Floyd sees the Caldwell game, like the Jerome game, as an opportunity to get ready for the conference schedule.

"They had a Jamboree and we were at that. They're running some double wing, which is good, because we're going to see that against Middleton, and hopefully we'll see it against Hillcrest later this year, and they also run a little bit of what Columbia runs, so we'll see some of that, and they run some twins stuff like Emmett does, so these first two games are setting up pretty well for us.

"We won't see a team that passes like Jerome until we see Emmett, and with Caldwell, it's good to get work against the double wing.

"It's also a big game for us, because it's an SIC game -- even through they're 5A, it's an SIC game -- and there's a pretty long history between Mountain Home and Caldwell, so the kids are fired up about it. They saw the improvement that they made, and they still know how much they can improve, so we're excited."

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday night at Tiger Field in Mountain Home.