Tigers' head football coach resigns

Mountain Home Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd submitted his resignation prior to the game Friday night, which saw his team fall 22-15 to the Emmett Huskies to complete a winless season.

"For right now, I just think it's time and something that I need to do," said Coach Floyd. "I sent a letter (of resignation) in. It's very sad, but I'm behind the Tigers 100 percent, and if they need any help next year, for the weight room or video stuff, I'm more than willing to help them out, but that's up to the next guy who's going to hopefully take us into another good couple years of Tiger football."

Floyd was head coach of the Tigers for eight years, taking over as head coach in 2004. The Tigers finished 3-6 last year. In 2006, he was named the 4A Southern Idaho Conference Coach of the Year. In 2008, his team advanced to the state semi-finals.

Floyd was 34-44 as head coach of the Tigers.

After submitting his resignation, he and his team fought hard to score a victory in the final game of 2011, but the Tigers blew several scoring opportunities that proved costly Friday night.

Emmett's opening drive stalled at the Mountain Home 17 and they missed a 35-yard field goal.

Mountain Home's first possession stalled on a fake punt at the Emmett 40-yard line.

Emmett's first score came after Mountain Home's second possession ended with a punt, which Tucker Hyde ran back 48 yards for a score.

The point-after try failed, but the Huskies led 6-0 with 4:49 left in the first quarter.

Mountain Home blew a scoring opportunity midway through the second quarter, when J.T. Cristobal ran back a punt to the Emmett 31-yard line. A few plays later, a 23-yard run by Robert Jackio gave the Tigers a first-and-goal at the Emmett two-yard line. A running play put the ball at the one before the Tigers self-destructed.

An illegal shift penalty moved it back to the six. Robert Jackio scored from six yards out, but an illegal procedure penalty nullified the score and moved it back to the 11. Jackio picked up a one-yard gain to the 10. Then a delay of game penalty moved it back to the 15. After an incomplete pass, Tony McKenzie's 32-yard field goal was no good.

Late in the first half, the Huskies completed some passes to get inside the Mountain Home 10-yard line before the drive stalled. Patrick O'Mahony's 26-yard field goal went through the uprights to extend Emmett's lead to 9-0 at halftime.

Mountain Home finally got on the scoreboard in the third quarter when Jake Hennessey hooked up with Ben Ceccarelli on a 60-yard pass for a touchdown. Tony McKenzie's PAT made it 9-7, Emmett, with 4:23 left in the third quarter.

Emmett scored again late in the third quarter, on a three-play 50-yard drive, Wyatt Watts taking it in from 26 yards out. The PAT made it 16-7 with 0.3 seconds left on the clock in the third quarter.

Mountain Home moved the ball down the field inside the Huskies' 20 before a fumble turned the ball back to Emmett.

The Huskies then mounted an 80-yard, 11-play drive, with Casey Barton hitting Caden Banister on a 30-yard touchdown pass. The PAT failed, but the Huskies led 22-7 with 2:07 left in the game.

Mountain Home then went 74 yards in nine plays, Jake Hennessey hitting Mike Daniels on a 28-yard touchdown pass. Hennessey then threw to Ben Ceccarelli for the two-point conversion to make it 22-15 with 18.4 seconds left.

The on-side kick attempt sailed out of bounds and the Huskies were able to run out the clock on the 22-15 victory.

Mountain Home Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd thought his defense played one of their better games.

"I thought we played very well up front, very few mistakes, very disciplined and they were very spirited. It was really great to see. I wish that was how we played all year. It was Senior Night, and they came to play."

Coach Floyd agreed that failing to score in the red zone on several occasions led to their downfall.

"We had two fumbles inside the red zone and the missed field goal, and, what, we had two touchdowns taken off-- on one of them due to penalties -- so it was frustrating.

"We should have had a lot more points on the board," the coach said. "Everybody all year long has been making us drive the field -- that's been our weakness, putting together those 10-, 12-, 15-play drives. It would have been good if we could have got those in, but I thought the kids played extremely hard. They never quit."

The loss ended a frustrating season that saw the Tigers go winless in nine games. Despite that, Coach Floyd thought his team played hard each week.

"That's been the kids all year, even though we haven't had the best year, I haven't seen them quit. It's been really refreshing. They really keep trying and big credit goes to the senior class because they wouldn't quit -- it didn't matter if they were behind by 21, they'd still be playing -- and my hat's off to those guys."

The Tigers had one of their better nights rushing the ball, picking up 166 yards on 37 rushes. Robert Jackio, who had 135 yards rushing on the season coming into the game, rushed 16 times for 110 yards. Jake Hennessey had 41 yards rushing on 19 carries, Juan Silva rushed once for 14 yards, and Ben Ceccarelli carried once for one yard.

Hennessey, who was just two of 12 for 23 yards passing in the first half, ended the night 14 for 28 and 252 yards and two touchdowns.

Ben Ceccarelli caught five passes for 101 yards and a touchdown, Juan Silva had three catches for 75 yards, Dion Salinas caught three for 34, Mike Daniels had two catches for 33 yards and a score and J.T. Cristobal had one catch for nine yards.

Defensively, Dion Salinas led the Tigers with seven tackles. Jake Hennessey had 5.5 tackles, Kolby Hall and Alex Rodriguez both had four, Ricky Castillo and Doug Long both had three tackles (Castillo also had four pass deflections), Skyler Podesek, J.T. Cristobal and David Katsules had two tackles (Cristobal had a pass deflection) and Jon Ryan, Joe Gutierrez, Luke Filipovich, Jeff Checketts and Austin Seegrist all had one tackle. Filipovich had a pass deflection.