Tigers beat Middleton, start 3-0

The Mountain Home Tigers improved to 3-0 on the season with a 21-6 win over the Middleton Vikings in their conference opener Friday night at Tiger Field in Mountain Home.

Middleton's Dean Coombs ran back the opening kickoff to the Tiger 45-yard line, but a holding penalty wiped out the run, and the Vikings had to start on their own 15-yard line instead, where they went three-and-out and punted the ball to Mountain Home.

The Tigers started on the Middleton 49 and moved the ball down the field. They had a first-and-goal at the Viking seven-yard line, but a couple penalties pushed the ball back to the 20. A fourth down pass got the ball back down to the four, where the 11-play drive stalled, Middleton taking over there.

The Vikings went three-and-out again, and a 22-yard punt set the Tigers up in good shape at the Middleton 27-yard line.

The Tigers took advantage of the short field, going the 27 yards in five plays, Tallon Pauley taking it the final four yards for the score. A penalty on the PAT made it a 25-yard field goal, and Chris Maholick missed right -- his first miss in six kicks this season -- and the Tigers led, 6-0, with 1:12 left in the first quarter.

Middleton picked up a couple of first downs on their next possession, before the drive stalled at midfield, and they were forced to punt.

Mountain Home started their next drive on the 16-yard line, and moved the ball 84-yards in seven plays, Tallon Pauley taking it in from 27 yards out. Kyle Kerfoot passed to Daniel Katsules for the two-point conversions, and the Tigers went up 14-0 with 6:51 left in the half.

Middleton mounted a drive from their own 35 to the Tiger 30-yard line before it stalled and the Tigers took over on downs.

Dean Coombs intercepted a Kyle Kerfoot pass on the first play of the series, and Middleton had the ball back on the Mountain Home 40-yard line.

The Vikings picked up a first down on the Tiger 24, but four plays later the Tigers took over on downs at the Mountain Home 22.

Mountain Home managed a first down before the clock ran out, ending the first half with Mountain Home up 14-0.

The Tigers received the ball to start the second half but had it for less than a minute as Middleton intercepted a pass and ran it back to the Mountain Home 40-yard line. From there the Vikings took it the 40 yards in nine plays, Skylr Davis throwing to Dean Coombs for 14 yards and a score. The two-point conversion failed but the Mountain Home lead was cut to 14-6, with 7:50 left in the third quarter.

The Tigers had a couple bounces go their way on their next possession. Kyle Kerfoot had pass intercepted and returned into Mountain Home territory, but Jesse Donez stripped the ball from the interceptor and the Tigers recovered it on their own 21.

Mountain Home picked up a first down before the drive stalled and they were forced to punt. The punt bounced off a Middleton player and the Tigers recovered on the Vikings' 23-yard line.

The Tigers then had a bad bounce as they moved the ball down to the Middleton one-yard line but then fumbled into the end zone, the ball recovered by Eric Foreman of Middleton as the third quarter came to an end.

The Vikings were unable to move the ball and punted it back to the Tigers, who had good field position, starting at the Middleton 42-yard line.

Mountain Home took the ball 42 yards in four plays, Tallon Pauley scoring for the third time on the night, this time from seven yards out. Chris Maholick booted the PAT to put the Tigers up 21-6 with 8:54 left in the game.

The Vikings then took 18 plays to move the ball from their own 26 down to the Tiger 11-yard line, but a penalty and a Jacob Viola sack ended the drive at the Mountain Home 23, the Tigers taking over on downs with 1:56 left in the game.

The Tigers were unable to pick up a first down and punted the ball back to Middleton with 29 seconds left.

Tom Hennessey intercepted a Skylr Davis pass with 19 seconds left and the Tigers won, 21-6.

"We're the luckiest 3-0 team in the state," said Tiger head football coach Brian Floyd. "Four turnovers two weeks in a row -- we lucky that extra effort by Jesse (Donez) popped the ball out on that one interception -- that helped us out huge.

"We had a lot of miscues -- small things -- nothing huge, very small things, and it's a lot of things we've been trying to coach up to these last two weeks, so we got after the kids when we went over the film, because they're not changing, they're still doing the same stuff, and it's really, really basic stuff, and that's what's holding us back."

Tallon Pauley led the Tiger rushing attack with 156 yards on 24 carries. Jesse Donez had 56 yards on seven carries, Ricky Lee had one carry for 11 yards and Kyle Kerfoot had minus 10 yards on four carries.

Kyle Kerfoot completed eight of 20 passes for 117 yards. He had three passes picked off.

Ricky Lee caught three passes for 33 yards, Logan Monasterio had two catches for 30 yards, Jesse Donez caught two for 23, Tallon Pauley caught one for 17 yards and Tommy Miller had an eight-yard reception.

Billy Derome led the Tigers defensively with 10 tackles. Ethan Standlee, Jesse Donez and James Bailey each had seven tackles and Ricky Lee four as Middleton rushed the ball 45 times, picking up just 138 yards.

The Tigers are on the road this week to Nampa to face the Columbia Wildcats. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.