Tigers to face Jerome in Friday's season opener

The Mountain Home Tigers open their 2013 football season Friday night at Jerome.

Both teams are known as "Tigers," so the old joke of predicting a "Tiger" win always surfaces, but for the Mountain Home Tigers, this is no joking matter. They definitely want a win.

Mountain Home has dropped 22 straight football games, having not won since midway through the 2010 season.

"It's been a while since we've won a football game around here," said second-year Mountain Home head football coach Aaron Rodney.

"We've got to get rid of that streak, and this team is going to do it this year. We face a tough Jerome team on the road opening up, but I feel pretty good about where we're at, and some of the things that we can do, and we'll have a great opportunity there to get one."

Mountain Home had a Black-White scrimmage Friday night at Tiger Field, with the team divided up evenly with junior varsity and varsity members in a simulated game. The Black squad came out on top, 12-6, in overtime.

Reflecting back on the scrimmage, Coach Rodney thought the evening turned out well.

"This is something that we've never done here. We divided the teams up equally, and had several guys that were going to start for us on both sides of the ball, and several JV kids.

"It was interesting to see some of the things. What we were looking for here is guys competing, guys performing, and looking for guys doing the right things. We are still at the point where we haven't decided on a quarterback yet, and this was huge in our evaluation process.

"We'll look at the tape tomorrow and figure it out from there, and hopefully have someone named by Monday.

"I saw some good things," Rodney said. "I saw good things defensively. I thought the defense ran very well.

"One thing we've been preaching to the guys is game tempo, and we played fast tonight, and that's one thing I was pleased with. We played fast, the snaps were good. The offensive line didn't do as well as we would have liked, but part of that is because we had some JV kids mixed in with some varsity guys, so it was kind of an interesting situation.

"One thing I wanted to see was our backs, how were they going to respond to that, how were they going to do things, and they ran hard -- they really ran hard. Next week, as we get into game preparation, we'll split up some more and let kids get reps there, and things like that, but over all, I thought it was very spirited and very competitive."

The Black squad scored first, scoring on a 66-yard pass from Jesse Cobos to Levi Abrahamson, that score coming with 4:18 left in the first quarter.

That would be the only score until the second and final quarter ended with John Cook recovering a fumble in the end zone to give the White a touchdown. The PAT attempt failed, making it 6-6.

They then played a "Kansas overtime," with the White squad trying to score from the 10 yard-line. The Black defense held them on downs.

The Black squad then started on the 10 yard-line and on the first play from scrimmage Jesse Cobos rolled right and took it the 10 yards for the score.

The Black squad rushed the ball 24 times for 64 yards and a touchdown. Ryan Eckstrom rushed 13 times for 52 yards. Jesse Cobos had three carries for 22 yards and a touchdown. Michael Knapp had 13 yards on six rushes and Cody Blakemore was sacked twice for minus 23 yards.

Cobos completed six of 16 passes for 120 yards and a touchdown, and had one pass intercepted. Cody Blakemore had two pass attempts for the Black squad.

Nigel Whitfield caught three passes for 50 yards, Levi Abrahamson had a 66-yard reception for a touchdown, Cole Garrett caught one pass for four yards, and Ryan Eckstrom caught a pass for 0 yards.

The White team rushed the ball 25 times for 60 yards. Jake Ryan had five rushes for 52 yards, Justin Lawrence carried eight times for 10 yards, Jiame Martinez twice for seven yards, Paul Tancred, five for two yards, Jett Cristobal four for minus one yard and Cody Blakemore one carry for minus 10 yards.

Paul Tancredi completed five of 11 passes for 8 yards, and Cody Blakemore completed one of four for one yard.

Chris Canido-Smith caught one pass for eight yards, Tyler Park caught one for five, Jiame Martinez, one for one, Pete Ramadan, one for 0 yards, and Justin Lawrence had two catches for minus five yards.

Defensively, Paul Tancredi had an interception and John Cook recovered a fumble for the White squad. Michael Knapp had a fumble recovery for the Black team.

Coach Rodney expects a battle at Jerome Friday night.

"I expect them to do the same stuff they did last year. Their screen game is very, very good. They have some speed. I know they had to replace some people, but it's going to be a challenge for us -- a huge challenge for us offensively and defensively. They're going to be a tough test for us."

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday night at Jerome.