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.
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Gerrie Gardner,
and looks forward to establishing in Oregon!
DO, FACC, FACP
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