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Monday, October 21, 2019
The Observer
EOU holds off late comeback attempt
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
The Eastern Oregon University
women’s basketball team saw its larg-
est lead of the game — 16 points in
the fourth quarter — whittled down to
three in the final minute, but survived
to move to 2-0 and pass an early season
test.
Beverly Slater had a double-double
with 19 points and 13 rebounds, Jane
Nelson added 17 points, and the Moun-
taineers fended off Simpson University,
68-63, Saturday afternoon at Quinn
Coliseum.
“We didn’t take care of the ball for a
minute there when they were press-
ing us, but we were able to hold our
composure, stick together as a team,
figure things out and work through it,”
Slater said.
When Taylor Stricklin connected on a
jumper — the first points of the fourth
quarter for either team — to make it
58-42 with 6:22 to play, Eastern seemed
to have the game well in hand. But a
barrage by the Red Hawks followed,
as their full-court press forced four
turnovers in a span of 34 seconds and
allowed them to get back in the contest.
A layup and a 3-pointer by Natalie
Campos cut the margin to seven, and
Brianna Clark’s jumper with 3:14 to
play capped an 11-0 run to make it
58-53.
The Mounties responded with a
clutch 3-pointer by Nelson — her fourth
Ronald Bond/The Observer
of the game on a night when EOU
Eastern Oregon’s Taylor Stricklin, right, attempts a
See EOU / Page 10A 3-pointer during the Mountaineers’ game Saturday.
Mounties breeze
past Walla Walla
Ronald Bond/The Observer
Victor Dias, right, rushed for 147 yards and a touchdown, and Kai Quinn, left, added two rushing touchdowns and
passed for 153 yards, but Eastern Oregon’s rally from a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit fell short in a 31-25 loss.
Eastern rally falls short
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
The Eastern Oregon
University football team
was, perhaps, just a couple
of plays away from securing
a sweep in the Small School
Civil War.
In the end, though, it was
Southern Oregon keeping
the trend of road-field advan-
tage alive in the rivalry.
The visiting Raiders
scored 17 straight points
to build a double-digit lead
then held off an Eastern Or-
egon rally to edge the Moun-
taineers, 31-25, Saturday in
Frontier Conference action
at Community Stadium.
“I didn’t see any give up
in our kids,” head coach Tim
Camp said. “Physically, we
brought it to them. I think
we were the more physical
team today, without a doubt.
(But) hats off to (SOU). They
made enough plays and
we came up a couple plays
short of winning the football
game.”
The win by the Raiders,
their third in a row, was the
fifth straight by the road
team in the rivalry, and 12th
in the last 15 contests.
The home team, though,
gave itself an opportunity to
get back in the game after
trailing by 16 points in the
fourth quarter, with the
defense playing a big role in
the comeback effort.
The Mountaineers forced
turnovers on three straight
Raider possessions — an
interception by Garrett
Yunker late in the third and
fumble recoveries by Zack
Jacobs and Yunker early in
the fourth — and turned the
last two of those into points.
A 15-yard touchdown run by
Victor Dias — who rushed
for a season-high 147 yards
— trimmed Eastern’s deficit
to nine, and a 24-yard Jaiden
Machuca field goal made it
a six-point game with nine
minutes to play.
“I thought our kids played
hard. They really did. (Being)
able to come back and put
yourself in position to win
at the end is all you can ask
for,” Camp said.
EOU got two more posses-
sions in the fourth but was
unable to complete the rally.
A drive to midfield stalled
when Tre Holmes and Jake
Regino sacked EOU quar-
terback Kai Quinn, and a
fourth-down completion to
Tanner Zenke fell short of
the line to gain. EOU got the
ball back one final time with
13 seconds left, but a final
deep pass to Saige Wilkerson
was caught at the SOU 15 as
time expired.
The play before, Eastern
receiver Christian Blaser
was ruled out of bounds on a
pass with one second to play
near the 15 that would have
given the Mountaineers a
more legitimate chance to
score on the final play than a
Hail Mary.
“That would have been big
for us (to) be able to throw
the ball in the end zone at
the end,” Camp said.
Eastern did what it want-
ed to do in several facets of
the game, including own the
running game.
“I like the direction of the
offense. It’s more who I am
and it’s making the defense
more physical,” Camp said.
Dias’ big day on the
ground helped the Moun-
taineers to a second straight
200-plus yard rushing effort.
Southern, by comparison,
had just 79 yards rushing.
“He was running downhill.
He did what I asked him to
do,” Camp said of Dias. “He
had the hot hand, and that’s
why I played him.”
EOU also cut its penal-
ties in half, committing just
seven a week after having
15, keeping SOU in check
on third down (the Raiders
Ronald Bond/The Observer
Cambree Scott had eight kills in Eastern Oregon’s
sweep of Walla Walla Saturday night.
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
Ronald Bond/The Observer
Garrett Yunker celebrates after recovering a fumble
during the fourth quarter Saturday afternoon.
were 2-for-12), winning the
time of possession battle, and
forcing four turnovers while
committing two.
But one of those, a fumble
on a punt return early in
the third quarter as the rain
picked up, gave Southern
new life after it went three-
and-out to start the second
half. Hykeem Massey scored
on an 11-yard reception two
plays later for a 24-15 SOU
lead. The margin swelled to
its largest after an Eastern
three-and-out and a 50-yard
drive by Southern, which
Trent Banner finished with
a 2-yard run with 5:54 to
play.
“The one thing that sticks
out in my mind is the big
stop coming out the third,
and then them punting the
ball and then we fumble it.
We give the ball back on the
special forces,” Camp said.
“That’s tough.”
EOU held the Raiders to
261 yards of total offense,
with Southern largely gain-
ing yardage off the arm of
quarterback Wyatt Hutchin-
son, who was 20-for-31 pass-
ing for 182 yards and two
scores. The Raiders’ success
in the passing game was due
to Hutchinson effectively
reading the run-pass option.
“That’s them hitting the
zones where they are read-
ing (the linebackers), and we
needed to stay put and rally
to the run,” Camp said.
Quinn was 10-for-17 pass-
ing for 153 yards and added
22 yards rushing and two
first half scores, the second
of which gave EOU a 15-14
lead with 5:46 to play in the
first half.
EOU finished with 360
total yards.
Eastern (2-5 overall, 2-4
Frontier) travels to Butte to
face Montana Tech Saturday.
Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity’s volleyball team used
balance on the offensive end
to shake off another slow
start and earn a sweep over
Walla Walla.
Cambree Scott had eight
kills, Breanna Shaffer
added seven, and the No. 5
Mountaineers got past the
Wolves, 25-20, 25-12, 25-14,
Saturday in Cascade Col-
legiate Conference action at
Quinn Coliseum.
“We have been starting
matches a little bit slower,
and that is something we
will continue to work on,
but I think the important
thing is as the match pro-
gresses we are progressively
getting better,” head coach
Kaki McLean-Morehead
said. “That’s a good thing.
That’s something that will
benefit us later on.”
The match against the
Wolves, who are winless in
CCC action, never was in
doubt, but Walla Walla did
hang around in the first set
and got as close at 19-18
after three straight aces by
Anja Cole.
“We were doing the
right things (but) they just
weren’t going our way, and
(the Wolves) were playing
really tough,” Scott said.
“We weren’t making a ton
of big errors. We were trying
to put the ball in the right
places, it just wasn’t going
our way at first.”
A pair of Walla Walla
errors, though, helped EOU
reassert control, and a kill
by Scott and another by
Taylor Tibbetts two points
later gave Eastern the set.
Scott said communication
to work through the stages
of early-match struggles is
key to getting into the flow
the team wants to be in.
“We come together and
talk about it, and figure out
what we’re doing wrong and
push forward from there,”
she said. “Once we get go-
ing, we start to play like us.”
The rest of the match
was all EOU as it found a
rhythm.
Three kills by Jet Taylor,
two by Shaffer and two by
Scott were all part of a 9-1
run that built a 13-3 lead in
the second. The margin in
the set reached as much as
15 points after kills by Scott
and Megan Bunn and a
Walla Walla error.
Tibbetts had two kills
and teamed with Scott for
a block on a similar run to
start the third set — this
one of 9-2 — and the lead
reached as much as 18-7 on
a Kaci Cox kill.
“Offense was distributed
fairly evenly, which was nice,”
McLean-Morehead said.
Along with Scott and
Shaffer, Taylor added six
kills and Bunn had five.
EOU also saw both Madison
Pilon (20 assists) and Brooke
Dodge (10 assists) get into
double figures as it ran a 6-2
rotation most of the night.
“It was a good opportuni-
ty for them to grow and get
Obser
better (in the 6-2),” McLean-
Morehead said.
Pilon added seven digs, perfo
and Kiley McMurtrey led Nyss
Rink
the category with 14.
as th
Eastern (23-1 overall,
the G
13-1 CCC), which could
year
climb higher when the
latest NAIA coaches poll McL
comes out Wednesday,
Gran
visits Northwest Friday
and Evergreen Saturday in
actio
Washington.
The
“We definitely need to
make our blocking a focus nent
this week. Evergreen exploit-
ed that weakness last time, pone
and Northwest is a lot like the le
us. We need to throw a few nine
more tricks in our bag (on berla
offense),” McLean-Morehead
leagu
said looking ahead to the
up th
next matches.