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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 2019)
SPORTS MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2019 THE OBSERVER — 9A EOU women split, men swept on road Observer staff EOU Athletics photo Alex Navarro, right, broke Don Stearns’ 8K program record Saturday in Lewiston, Idaho. RECORD Continued from Page 7A Eric Griffiths, who posted a time of 24:09 in 2004. “I feel like everyone who’s been to Eastern has had that goal, to beat Don Stearns, but going sub 25 is already presti- gious in itself,” Navarro said. The senior added, though, that he never looked seriously at trying to break that time. “I just didn’t think I was on the same plane as him,” Navarro said. “As cliche as it sounds, you never know who it could be.” Navarro’s effort — largely against NCAA Div. I runners in the front of the pack — led EOU to seventh place as a team. The next four Moun- taineers to cross the finish line did so in a pack. Hunter Schiess finished in 53rd (25:36), Travis Running was 56th (25:44), Brennen LeBel was 58th (25:47) and Hunter Nichols placed 59th (25:50). Two runners competed for the EOU women, as Stormy Bullard took 56th in 19:40, and Lisa Megargee was 62nd in 19:55. The EOU women return to the course Friday at Warner Pacific, while the men are off until Oct. 26 at William Jessup. Ronald Bond/The Observer Victor Dias ran for two touchdowns and threw for a third here during Eastern Oregon’s 45-7 win Saturday. ROUT Continued from Page 7A wanted — as they should have against MSUN, which lost its 32nd straight confer- ence contest. The defensive backs, meanwhile, blanked the Northern receivers, grab- bing three interceptions — one taken back by Eric Prom for a 38-yard touch- down and a 38-7 lead late in the third quarter — and breaking up several other passes. Haziel Ledezma and Zack Jacobs collected the other picks. “We just tried to make plays where the coaches put us in position,” Prom said, adding the secondary focused on receivers Damari Cual- Davis and Marvin Williams Jr. “We definitely keyed in those two guys. We knew (the Lights) wanted to get them the ball. We just had to be ready continuously.” Cual-Davis did finish with 114 yards receiving and the lone Lights’ touchdown, but Williams Jr. was shut out. The defense held Lights’ quarterback Brenden Me- dina to just 149 yards pass- ing — well below his season average — and sacked him three times. Eastern finished allowing 239 yards total, by far a season best. The offense was stronger up front, and the running game matched the physical- ity of its offensive line. EOU amassed 222 rushing yards. Kai Quinn led the way with 113 yards and Dias added 76, both dishing out punish- ment in the ground game. It was perhaps no more evident than when Quinn lowered a shoulder and ran over a Lights’ defender at the end of a 14-yard run early in the second quarter. “We really executed,” Dias said. “Much sharper up front. A big thanks to those guys. That unit up front has worked so hard in these last two weeks with our bye week and our game prep week. Honestly, what they put on film, we’re going to be happy with. They battled up front.” EOU head coach Tim Camp said he shook up the lineup in a few areas Satur- day, including on the offensive line, and got a good effort from center Everett Willard. “I started a freshman center who is going to be freaking awesome,” Camp said. “He went in there and he held the inside down. He is going to be a stud.” Quinn was also sharper in the passing game, complet- ing 24 of 34 passes for 257 yards with a touchdown and two picks. He had com- pleted just 45% percent of his passes coming into the game, but Saturday connected with 10 different receivers. EOU called more plays called in the short passing game, which proved to be effective. “That’s the biggest thing with Kai,” Camp said. “Take what they give you. If it’s open underneath, let’s throw the underneath stuff.” Tanner Zenke led the way with five catches, and Isaiah Thomas had 80 yards. Phoenix Millhollen added 50 yards receiving, 34 of which came from Dias on a half- back pass for a touchdown that pushed the lead to 31-7 just moments before Prom’s pick-six. Eastern (2-4 overall, 2-3 Frontier) hosts Southern Oregon on Saturday. COLLEGE SOCCER Oregon Tech only put three shots on goal, but made all three count, and the Owls sprung the biggest upset in the Cascade Collegiate Conference this fall by knocking off No. 6 Eastern Oregon at home Friday, 3-1, to hand the Moun- taineers their first loss of the season. Eastern and OIT were in a score- less game at halftime despite the fact that EOU had put six shots on goal. All six, however, were stopped by Tech goalkeeper Jenna Stiehr, who ended up with seven saves. The Owls broke the tie when Amanda Seward put in a penalty kick in the 50th minute, then scored twice in nine minutes to break the match open, as Maddie Miller scored in both the 73rd and 82nd minutes. EOU avoided the shutout when Nan Kiebert scored her team-leading sixth goal in the 85th. Eastern rebounded from the rare loss by eking out a 1-0 road win against Southern Oregon Saturday. The lone goal came from Kiebert, who scored her team-leading seventh — and third in as many games — off a pass from Jenna Jensen in the 52nd minute. It was all the EOU defense needed. A day after allowing a season high in goals, the Mountaineers held Southern to just eight shots, and goalkeeper Cydni Cottrell made two saves — one in each half. Eastern countered with 13 shots, putting six on goal. Eastern (8-1-2 overall, 5-1-1 CCC), which is currently third in the con- ference, travels to Rocky Mountain Friday for its final regular-season road match. EOU MEN BLANKED TWICE Three second half goals broke open a close contest and lifted the Oregon Tech Owls to a 4-0 home win over Eastern Oregon Friday afternoon. John Sarna scored twice for OIT, with his goal in the 12th minute the only offense as the Owls took a 1-0 lead into the half. Jake Mitchell and Sarna scored 32 seconds apart in the second half to help OIT pull away, and Brock Rideout added the icer in the 86th. Max Rose had a pair of first half saves for EOU, which took 16 shots, but only pout four on goal which were all stopped by OIT keeper Mitchell Jillson. Rose finished with two saves for Eastern. Eastern finished the road trip with a second straight shutout loss, falling to Southern Oregon Saturday, 2-0, after the Raiders scored two goals in the final 20 minutes. EOU was put at a disadvantage almost immediately, as a red card called on Carlos Solorio left the Moun- taineers playing a man down the rest of the match. Eastern held its own in spite of the disadvantage until Sam Walker scored for Southern in the 72nd minute. Andrew DePaepe iced the game with a goal in the 88th for the final margin. The early red was the beginning of a tough day for Eastern, which was called for an additional six yellow cards. Eastern, with the man disadvan- tage, was only able to get seven shots taken, yet allowed only nine by SOU. Rose had two saves for the Mountain- eers. EOU (4-7-1 overall, 2-5 CCC) travels to Rocky Mountain Friday. HOOPS Continued from Page 7A fluh, who often would send a full slate of five new players on the court at substitution time. “Tonight wasn’t about firming up our starting lineup, it was about firming up some rotations. (We will) continue to use these next three or four games to figure out who plays well together, what combos offensively and defensively work well — (such as going with) two power posts or one finesse post with a power post.” Eastern scored the game’s first 15 points and held a 30-4 lead after one quarter against the Centurions, a National Christian College Athletic Association team from Billings, Montana. Eastern exhibited solid re- bounding — owning a 60-25 edge on the boards — and good passing, assisting on Ronald Bond/The Observer Rachel Fielder scored 17 points in her debut for the Eastern Oregon women’s basketball team. 30 of its 40 made field goals. The Mountaineers also showed strong interior and post-to-post passing, and, Weissenfluh said, did well at making the “extra pass.” “We had exceptional team play,” she said. “Everyone RALLY Continued from Page 7A Bunn’s seventh kill of the set finished it and got EOU on the scoreboard. The Mountaineers had the momen- tum and never gave it back. Eastern took the lead for good in the fourth with a 7-2 run. The teams traded points much of the set, and the War- riors were still close at 21-16 on a kill by Lauren Condon. Eastern took the final four points, evening the match on another Tibbetts and Taylor block. “We kind of went off each others’ mo- mentum,” Bunn said. “(If a teammate) got a big kill, (we’d say) now I’m going to get one for my team. We kept going, and we kept swinging. The problem with the first couple sets was we kept tipping the ball too much. I think a lot of people focused more on being on the right step and doing our job.” Nearly everybody performed at a high level, and the stat sheet showed got involved. Everyone did what they are capable of doing. It wasn’t a great shooting game for us, but we took great shots.” EOU shot just 9-for-37 from 3-point range but was 40-for-87 overall. as much. Three players had at least 20 digs — McMurtrey (25), Aspen Chris- tiansen (24) and Pilon (20). Breanna Shaffer and Scott added eight and seven kills, respectively. Taylor had 10 block assists, and Pilon had six. Each came up with timely plays, as well. “One thing I loved, it wasn’t just one player that stepped up. Everyone had a moment where they stepped up,” Taylor said. Jessie White added 12 digs off the bench in a position she wasn’t as familiar with. “She hasn’t played a lot in right back,” McLean-Morehead said. “She did a great job of stepping in when we needed.” Pilon, in seeing the balance on the stat sheet, said it showed her the team was doing its job. “The biggest thing is that we were doing what we needed to do,” she said. The win briefly pulled Eastern into a tie with Corban atop the CCC, though Eleven Mounties scored. Rachel Fielder led three players in scoring with 17 points and was sharp from the floor at 8-for-10 shooting. The post player was able to score on the block and showed her range by step- ping out and connecting on several mid-range jumpers. “She is going to give us valuable minutes,” Weissen- fluh said of Fielder. “She’s going to be a zone buster in the middle of that key.” Megan Still added 15 points on 6-for-12 shoot- ing and connected on four 3-pointers, and Beverly Slater added 15 points. Jill Albright led the team in re- bounding with 10, and also in assists with five. EOU (1-0 overall) travels to Portland for a scrimmage against the NCAA Divi- sion I Pilots Thursday, then hosts Simpson (California) Saturday. the Warriors own the tiebreaker based on sets won between the two teams. Corban won in four sets when the squads met in Salem. But Eastern moved into first place alone Saturday with a four-set win over Northwest Christian, while Cor- ban fell in five sets at College of Idaho. The Mountaineers again had to rally on Saturday, dropping the first set to NCU, 25-20, before heating up to take the next three, 25-18, 25-21, 25-10. Bunn was one of three Mountain- eers in double figures in kills with 12. Both Shaffer and Scott had 11 to balance out the attack. Scott was also a force at the net with nine block assists, as the sophomore was in on many of EOU’s 13 team blocks. Taylor and Bunn each had five block assists. Pilon followed Friday’s effort with 37 more assists. McMurtrey had 23 digs, Chris- tiansen added 14, and Bunn had 12. Eastern (21-1 overall, 11-1 CCC) visits College of Idaho Thursday. Grande Ronde Hospital proudly welcomes: Gerrie Gardner, DO, FACC, FACP Joining the Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics team as a Cardiologist Dr. Gardner has been practicing rural general cardiology and invasive cardiology for 20 years in the west. She started her practice in Carson City, Nevada and South Lake Tahoe, then worked in southeastern Wyoming and the panhandle area of Nebraska. After a seven year run at the Providence Medical Center in Everett, Washington -- an inner city, 500 bed hospital, she is moving back to rural practice here in La Grande. Dr. Gardner has a special interest in women and heart disease. She has been Chair for the Heart Failure Quality Committee at Providence and the Clinical Chair for the Regional Heart Failure Task Group for Providence. She thrives on leadership opportunities in medicine and in the community. In Wyoming, she started cardiology telehealth visits and has recently been the Lead Cardiologist for her group. She welcomes the change Gerrie Gardner, and looks forward to establishing in Oregon! DO, FACC, FACP Learn more about Dr. Gardner in our online Provider Directory at www.grh.org today!
