Injuries prove costly as football squad falls to Kuna

The Kuna Kavemen scored early and often on their way to a 56-7 SIC 4A conference football win over an injury-plagued and under-manned Mountain Home Tiger squad Friday night at Kuna.

Missing five players due to injuries, and a few more for three quarters because of a violation of team rules, the Tigers could not get anything going offensively or defensively and the Kavemen rolled to a 35-0 first quarter lead and a 56-0 halftime advantage.

There is no mercy rule in Idaho high school football at the 4A level, but Kuna head coach Lee Leslie instructed the officials to stop the clock only on called time outs during the second half.

Mountain Home finally found the end zone in the fourth quarter, Ryan Eckstrom capping off a 65-yard, 11-play drive with a touchdown run with 6:30 left in the game. Jiame Martinez booted the PAT to make it 56-7.

Mountain Home had another drive that went to the Kuna 12 yard-line before an interception ended it and the clock ran out.

All things considered, Tiger head coach Aaron Rodney thought his guys played hard.

"The last three weeks have been really, really rough. We've been just so decimated by injuries, and we had a couple disciplinary issues that we had to take care of and sit kids for a little bit, and we're getting down the depth chart with people being decimated by injuries, and it really shows against a team like Kuna.

"They're really big, they're fast, they're strong and they've got all the tools for a good football team, and that's where we want to get.

"The injuries have really taken its toll because we just don't have the depth," Rodney said. "We've got three linebackers out and we've got two offensive lineman out that started the year, so we're having to resort to young guys, and they're getting their stripes, there's no question. We're just trying to battle through and it's been kind of an unfortunate year as far as injuries go.

"I don't know that I've seen a time when we've been so decimated by injuries, and those things are going to happen when you can't put your normal starters on the field, but our guys came back and really didn't quit. Did they physically dominate us at times -- sure -- but that goes back to the injury bug.

"As I've said all along, we're a work in progress.

"One thing that we really have to do around here is get more kids out in the program, we've got to get in that weight room and we've got to build some depth. What has hurt us this year the most is depth, we just haven't had a lot of depth. A lot of teams in this conference, the bigger schools like Kuna, Bishop Kelly, Skyview, they have a lot of kids out, and they don't really have that depth problem.

"We have a great group of kids here that are coming up, and I think we're building a good foundation and we're going to be better off. Overall, I thought the effort was better this week that the last two weeks and I'm pleased with that. It's something to build on."

Justin Lawrence led the Tigers rushing with 34 yards on 19 rushes. Ryan Eckstrom had 28 yards and a touchdown on seven rushes. Jordan Pendleton rushed twice for eight yards, Jesse Cobos had two yards on five carries and Jake Ryan rushed twice for minus five yards.

Jesse Cobos completed three of 15 passes for 27 yards. He had two passes picked off. Jordan Pendleton caught one pass for 14 yards, Nigel Whitfield caught one for 10 yards, and Justin Lawrence had one catch for three yards. The Tigers close out their football season Friday night at Middleton. Coach Rodney hopes to close out the season with a win over the Vikings, who have struggled this season as well.

"They've struggled a heck of a lot. I know they graduated something like 27 seniors and they're struggling and don't have the athletes that they typically have had. They're struggling scoring points and they're giving up some points.

"We're going to try to get some guys healthy this week and see what we can do to maximize what we have and it's a game that we really can win. I know injuries have hit them, injuries have hit us, injuries have hit Caldwell. You have several teams that are just limping through the year, and Middleton is a team that is very beatable. They're not the Middleton team they've been the last two or three years. They have one victory on the year -- they beat Caldwell as well -- and we're looking forward to close out the season against them and try and figure out how to maximize our personnel on offense and defense and throw everything out on the table to win this game and get going for the future in the right direction."

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday night at Middleton.