Tigers defense falls short in 14-27 loss to Skyview

Skyview's quarterback Sam Cook came into Friday night's game against Mountain Home averaging over 300 yards passing per game. The Tiger defense put a lot of pressure on him, but he still managed to pass for over 300 yards in a 27-14 Skyview win at Skyview in SIC 4A football.

The Tiger defense started well, picking off Cook's first pass of the night, Brock Morris returning it to the Skyview 28-yard line. But four plays later the Tigers turned the ball over on downs at the Hawks' 28.

After forcing a three-and-out by the Hawks, Mountain Home got a good drive going, moving the ball from their own 20 down to the Skyview 25 before turning it over on downs.

Skyview then put together a long drive, moving it down to the Tiger 12, before Tyler Wright sacked Sam Cook back at the 23. After two straight incomplete passes, the Hawks' Luke Cornilles attempted a 40-yard field goal, but slipped when he kicked it and it fell way short, returned back to the 24 by Brock Morris.

The Tigers then fumbled the ball back to the Hawks on the Mountain Home 25. Three plays later, Sam Cook passed to Greg Krahenbuhl for a 24-yard touchdown. The point-after try failed, but the Hawks led 6-0 with 8:23 left in the first half.

Mountain Home managed to pick up a first down on their next possession before the drive stalled and they were forced to punt. However, James Simmon bobbled the snap from center and was tackled back at the Mountain Home 37 as the Hawks took over.

Skyview's Cook passed to Luke Austin down to the Tiger seven-yard line, but Mountain Home held, and forced a field goal by Luke Cornilles from 22 yards, which was no good.

The Tigers had the ball just two plays before Mike Lordanescu intercepted a Jake Hennessey pass and returned it to the Mountain Home three-yard line.

Cook quarterback-sneaked to the two on first down. A penalty on second down put the ball at the seven where Cook then threw an incomplete pass. Cook was sacked by Tyler Wright back at the 18 on third down, and on fourth down an incomplete pass gave the ball back to the Tigers.

The Tigers went three-and-out and punted the ball back to Skyview. Luke Austin returned the punt to the Mountain Home 24.

On first down, Cook connected with Travis Gropp for a 24-yard score. The PAT was no good, but the Hawks increased their lead to 12-0, a lead they took into the locker room at halftime.

Mountain Home came out in the "wildcat" formation to start the third quarter, and got their offense going, moving the ball 75 yards in seven plays, the drive ending with Jake Hennessey passing six yards to Tyler Wright for the score. The snap from center was bad on the PAT, which failed, but the Skyview lead was cut to 12-6 with 8:34 to go in the third quarter.

The Tigers forced a three-and-out by Skyview and got the ball back, moving it to the Skyview 38 before turning the ball over on downs.

The Hawks then went 61 yards in 11 plays, Sam Cook taking it the final yard for the score. Charlie Kido then ran in the two-point conversion to make it 20-6 with 2:57 left in the third quarter.

A three-and-out by the Tigers gave Skyview the ball back on their own 41. Two plays later, Cook hooked up with Austin again on a 57-yard scoring strike, and then booted the PAT to extend the Skyview lead to 27-6, with 20 seconds left in the third quarter.

Austin intercepted a Jake Hennessey pass at the Skyview 11-yard line to kill the Tigers' next drive, which had reached the Hawks eight-yard line.

Skyview then moved the ball down to the Tiger 14 before the drive stalled and Luke Cornilles missed a 31-yard field goal.

The Tigers then put together an 80-yard, 12-play drive, capped off by a three-yard run by Tommy Miller for the Tigers' second score of the night. Jake Hennessey passed to Trevor Woodruff for the two-point conversion, as the Tigers made it 27-14, with 48 seconds left.

The Tigers went for the on-side kick, but Skyview got it and ran out the clock for the win.

"We started the game out great," said Tiger football coach Brian Floyd. "The second play we pick him (Sam Cook) and go down and try to at least get down in field goal range, but were real close." Penalties and missed blocks throughout the game were major problems on the night, he said.

"We started out really good and had another good drive and just couldn't quite get it in. We come out the second half and do the same thing, and scored, everything's working, but we lost Drew Hopkins to a groin injury in the second quarter, and Drew's a really good player -- I use him in about three or four different roles on defense -- and with him out our flexibility on defense goes way down, and that kind of hurt a bit.

"But Skyview made some great plays and great catches. They scored on those two pretty long passes, and that was pretty much what we didn't want them to do -- we wanted to try and make them go all the way down the field and keep everything in front of us. For the most part we did that, but those couple over the middle kind of hurt."

The Tigers rushed the ball 43 times for 196 yards, led by Tommy Miller, who had 140 yards and a touchdown on 27 rushes.

Juan Silva rushed for 28 yards on five carries, Curtis Jackson rushed the ball three times for 22 yards, Jake Hennessey had 11 yards on three carries, Tom Hennessey carried four times for 8 yards and James Simmon had one for minus 13 yards.

Jake Hennessey completed 12 of 22 passes for 102 yards and a touchdown. He also had two passes picked off.

Tommy Miller caught three passes for 31 yards, Tyler Wright caught two passes for 14 yards and a touchdown, J.T. Cristobal caught two passes for 21 yards, Tom Hennessey had three catches for 13 yards, Curtis Jackson had one catch for 11 yards and Trevor Woodruff caught one pass for two yards.

The Hawks rushed the ball 24 times for just 17 yards, as Sam Cook was sacked for minus 43 yards. Cook completed 17 of 33 passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns. He had one pass picked off.

Defensively, Tyler Wright led the Tigers with six tackles, 3.5 sacks, a tackle for loss and a pass deflection. Deion Brown had five tackles, including a tackle for loss. Brock Morris, Tom Hennessey and Kevin Anderson all had four tackles, Morris had a pass interception and a pass deflection and Hennessey had a pass deflection. Colton Zamora, Curtis Jackson and James Simmon all had three tackles. Jackson had a half a sack.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 1-7 on the season and 1-5 in conference. They close out their season with a home game Friday night against Emmett. The Huskies are winless in conference, but Coach Floyd says they have played everybody tough.

"They're going to come play hard, every single time. They're a very aggressive team, especially defensively. It's going to be our Senior Night, and we deserve to send these seniors out well. These guys have worked really hard this year, and if they go out and play like they can, we'll have a good Senior Night."

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.