Mountain Home loses conference game to Emmett

One week showed a ton of improvement for the Mountain Home Tigers over their opening effort against Jerome. However, it still did not produce a win for the Tigers, as they lost their conference opener at Emmett, 20-7.

Emmett received the ball to start the game and moved it down the field from their own 28 to the Mountain Home 15-yard line before the Tigers held and took over on downs. Mountain Home picked up two quick first downs on pass plays before their drive stalled and they were forced to punt the ball back to the Huskies.

After forcing the Huskies to punt on their next possession, Mountain Home, helped out by a successful fake punt, drove down to the Emmett 15 before a penalty moved them back to the 25. A 42-yard field goal attempt by Jack Richelieu was short.

The Tigers got the ball back two plays later when Jared Cantrell intercepted an Emmett pass and returned it to the Emmett 19-yard line. Four plays later, Ben Ceccarelli connected with Levi Abrahamson on a 12-yard pass play for a touchdown.

With Jack Richelieu's point-after try, Mountain Home led 7-0 with 3:22 left in the opening half.

Nathan Hundley then ran back the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for an Emmett score to start the third quarter. The pass for the two-point conversion fell incomplete and Mountain Home led 7-6 with 3:09 left in the half.

That was the score at halftime.

Mountain Home received the ball to start the second half and moved the ball from their own 17 down to the Emmett 19 where they had a first down. On second down, Ben Ceccarelli was sacked at the 34. He then passed to Jose Rodriguez down to the 17 but a 34-yard field goal attempt by Jack Richelieu was a bit off the mark, and the Tigers came up empty.

Emmett then put together an 80-yard, 12-play drive, overcoming several penalties to take the led. Hunter Larson scored from four-yards out. A pass play to Austin Schroeder made it 14-7, Huskies, with 1:29 left in the third quarter.

The deepest the Tigers got the rest of the game was to the Emmett 43-yard line on two different occasions, before giving the ball up on downs.

Emmett scored once more late in the game, going 57 yards in eight plays. Wyatt Smith took it in from three yards out to make it a 20-7 final.

The Mountain Home offense was one-dimensional, as Emmett shut down the Tigers running game. Mountain Home rushed 19 times for minus four yards. Jared Cantrell had one run for seven yards. Tanner Sessions picked up four yards rushing, and Michael Daniel one. Ben Ceccarelli, who was sacked twice, carried eight times for minus three yards and Jake Ryan rushed six times for minus 13 yards.

Ben Ceccarelli completed 19 of 30 passes for 176 yards and a touchdown. Malik Whitfield caught seven passes for 33 yards, Pete Ramadan caught four passes for 61 yards, Jose Rodriguez caught three passes for 36 yards. Meanwhile, Jordan Pendleton had three catches for 26 yards for the Tigers while Levi Abrahamson caught one for 12 yards and a touchdown and Paul Tancredi had one catch for 10 yards.

The Tigers are back on the road this Friday, traveling to Columbia High School in Nampa to face the Wildcats.