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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 2019)
SPORTS 7A 8A — THE OBSERVER MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2019 Tigers take care of Estacada, get rematch with Gladstone By Ronald Bond The Observer The La Grande Tigers easily dispatched their fi rst-round playoff opponent, and in the process set up a quarterfi nal rematch a year in the making. Parker Robinson threw four touchdown passes, Nathan Reed rushed for 157 yards and two long scores, and La Grande routed the Estacada Rangers, 49-16, Friday in the fi rst round of the Class 4A state playoffs at Community Stadium. “It’s been probably the best week of practice we’ve had all season,” head coach Rich McIlmoil said. “And it really showed. We were ex- ecuting, and the offensive line was executing really well tonight. They looked really sharp. The hard work they put in shows.” The victory, which sent the Tigers to the quarterfi nals for the third year in a row, puts them into a home quarterfi nal contest against a familiar foe, the Gladstone Gladiators. Gladstone, which blew out North Valley 51-14 in its fi rst- round contest, edged La Grande in the quarterfi nals last fall, 30-27. “I’m happy,” Robinson said of getting another crack at Gladstone. “The way it ended last year wasn’t how we wanted it to be. I’m happy that we get another shot.” La Grande scored early, often and, many times, quickly against the Rangers. Five of the Tigers’ scoring possessions were four plays or fewer, as La Grande showed a quick-strike ability both through the air and on the ground. La Ronald Bond/The Observer Justin Frederick dives into the end zone for a fi rst-quarter touchdown during La Grande’s win Friday. Grande’s fi rst TD, a 13-yard recep- tion by Justin Frederick, came on the Tigers’ third play. Robinson, who threw three of his touchdown passes to Blaine Shaw, hooked up with the receiver on passes of 42 and 41 yards — one to cap a three- play drive and one a four-play drive — to help La Grande take a 28-0 lead just 25 seconds into the second quarter. Shaw also had a 33-yard punt return for a touchdown in the fi rst half. “I gotta give all the credit to the D-line and O-line. They did awesome tonight,” Robinson said. “Offensively, the reason we had such big plays running the ball was because of the offensive line. They did their jobs. They did everything we practiced this week.” The lead held at 28-0 at the half when the Tigers put an end to Estacada’s only effective fi rst-half drive. The Rangers drove 69 yards on 14 plays — more yards than they had their previous six fi rst- half possessions — but were held out of the end zone when quarter- back Isaiah Schaffer was stuffed at the 1-yard line on the fi nal play of the second quarter. “We knew our assignments. We were coached up and knew what to do,” lineman Spencer Gerst said of the play of the defense. “We’re starting to really fi gure things out. We’re on a roll.” McIlmoil credited defensive co- ordinator Matt Wolcott for putting together a solid game plan. “He’s got them dialed in,” McIlm- oil said. “He scouted them perfectly. We knew what we needed to do.” Reed, who had 43 yards rushing at the half, broke out for 42-yard and 62-yard touchdown sprints in the third quarter, the latter coming one play after Estacada got on the board for a 49-8 lead. Robinson and Shaw added another 36-yard touchdown connection between Reed’s scores. The Tiger defense stymied the Rangers’ methodical triple-option running game, locking Estacada down to the point that the only way it effectively moved the ball was with a hurry-up pass attack. The Rangers rushed the ball 50 times but managed just 123 yards on the ground. Schaffer accounted for nearly half of that, gaining 61 yards on 20 carries. Schaffer was 11-for-22 passing for 163 yards and two touchdowns — one of 35 yards to Riley McDonald in the third quarter and a 16-yard pass to Nate Hagel in the closing seconds. Estacada managed 286 yards of offense but needed 73 plays to do so, averaging just 3.9 yards per play and 2.5 yards per rush. More than half of the Rangers’ run plays — 29 of them — went for 2 yards or less. La Grande was much more ef- fi cient, running just 36 plays, but gained 348 yards, a 9.7 yard-per- play clip. Robinson was 4-for-7 pass- ing for 132 yards. La Grande, led by Reed’s effort, rushed for 216 yards. The Tigers (9-0 overall) face Gladstone Friday at Community Stadium. “I want revenge. We’re not going to leave it to a 47-yard field goal this time,” Gerst said of the rematch, referencing the field goal made by Gladstone’s Mateo Burgos for the win last year. “I’m excited to play them.” Badger football upends Lowell; Elgin stopped by St. Paul Observer staff head coach Josh Cobb said. “We spread the ball around on offense (and) our defense stepped up huge late.” Cobb said the Badgers recovered a fumble with about two minutes remaining in the game trailing by two points, then scored the win- ning touchdown on Stephens’ reception from Reece Dixon. The score capped a huge night individually for both Ethan Stephens caught the winning touchdown pass in the fi nal minutes after Powder Valley made a cru- cial stop on defense, and the Badgers won a wild shootout on the road in the fi rst round of the 1A state playoffs Friday, edging Lowell, 68-62, to reach the quarterfi nals for the fi rst time since 2016. “It was a great team win,” Dixon and Stephens. Dixon passed for 271 yards, rushed for 61 and accounted for six touchdowns. Stephens had 120 yards receiving, 71 rush- ing and 68 passing and had a hand in fi ve touchdowns. Dominick Grende (114 yards receiving, one touchdown) and Roper Bingham (88 yards re- ceiving, two touchdowns) also had big nights through the air, while Clay Martin added 96 yards rushing. The Badgers totaled 630 yards of offense in a game that saw the teams battle back and forth all night. Powder Valley led 16-12 after one quarter, trailed 34-32 at halftime, and took a 60-56 lead into the fi nal quarter. “Lowell was a very good team with tremendous ath- letes. My hat’s off to them,” Cobb said. BOBCATS The Badgers (7-3 overall) hit the road again in the quarterfi nals when they travel to face Camas Valley Saturday afternoon. HUSKIES ELIMINATED The Elgin Huskies trailed by just two points early and still hung around at halftime, but St. Paul pulled away in the second half for a 58-6 win in the fi rst round of the 1A state playoffs Friday After another successful state championships and two more tro- phies for the Bobcats, Sheehy said much of it comes from preparing to peak at the right moment. “Everything is preparation throughout the season except for district and state,” he said, noting that the runners may focus on hill running, positioning or other technical aspects at other meets. “We don’t go out every time and try to do our absolute best. It has to be saved for when it matters.” Continued from Page 6A season, the team had begun run- ning better together down the stretch of the season, Sheehy said. But entering last week’s Special District 3 Championships, Union/ Cove was ranked fourth behind Burns, Wallowa County and Hep- pner/Ione, which all topped the state rankings as well. Needing a top-two fi nish to qualify the team for state, a gutsy performance last Friday got the Bobcat girls 76 points, just four ahead of Wallowa County, and second place. The effort left Sheehy in tears. “I’ve been coaching for 18 years. That was one of my top-fi ve mo- ments,” he said. After the girls squad earned the unlikely opportunity to compete as a team on Saturday, Sheehy and the coaching staff put a plan in place to make the most of it. Expecting Burns to be the heavy favorite for fi rst place, the coaches identifi ed the few teams they thought would be competing for second and focused their efforts on winning those individual matchups during the race. “Since as coaches, we can’t focus on everybody in the race, we focused on who we thought was going to be the third and fourth teams and that’s where we put our efforts,” Sheehy said. “Coaches a lot of times are like ‘you can beat anybody on any day,’ but we took an intellectual approach to it.” Senior Jaimee Baxter led the girls team with a sixth-place fi nish LHS BOYS, GIRLS BOTH PLACE IN THE TOP 10 Kim Tingelstad photo Jaimee Baxter took sixth overall to help the Union/Cove girls team place second in the 3A/2A/1A girls race. in 19 minutes, 32.3 seconds, while Audrey Wells, Danielle O’Reilly, Ashlee Burtch and Kaitlin Martens each fi nished in the top 50. “I’m really, really happy for that girl,” Sheehy said of Baxter, who was racing in her fi rst state championship after fi nishing sixth at district as a junior. “She is such a hard worker. She’s really a good team leader.” On the boys side, freshman Taylor Fox paced the Bobcats with a ninth-place fi nish in a per- sonal best 16:38.3. Senior Andrew Lackey just missed out on the podium at a personal best 16:41.3 for 11th, and junior Israel O’Reilly ran 16:54.8 for 14th. In total, all seven of Union/Cove’s runners placed in the top 52. But after winning the last two team state titles — and three of the last four — the boys were hoping for a little more. “Guys were a little disappointed because we were fi rst the last two years,” Sheehy said. “But nobody was running with St. Stephens today. Maybe we run it again a dif- ferent time we could get them, but today they were good.” Later on Saturday, the La Grande Tigers overcame injuries and achieved its season goal with two top-10 team fi nishes in 4A. The boys team fi nished ninth with 278 points, while the girls team was 10th with 204 points. “They all ran the best race they could,” Tigers coach Alma Crow said. Cristian Mendoza ran a sea- son best 17:07.3 and was the top fi nisher for the boys at 36th. In total, fi ve boys ran their season or personal best on Saturday. Jacki Martini ran 19:41.2 to fi n- ish 16th and pace the Tigers in the girls race. Senior Maia Vandervlugt was 29th in 20:16.1. Much like Union/Cove’s girls team, just qualifying for the state meet was an accomplishment for La Grande. Crow knew all year that fi nishing in the top two at last week’s district meet was going to be tough, so she spent much of the season preparing to peak then. “I had to taper them off earlier in St. Paul. Tristan Simpson con- nected with Cody Harvey for a touchdown midway through the fi rst quarter that pulled Elgin within 8-6. St. Paul added two more scores to take a 24-6 lead into halftime, then took off in the second half. The loss brings an end to the Huskies’ season with a fi nal record of 5-4 overall. than usual during the season just to get ready for that,” she said. The district meet became that much more challenging for the girls when Martini got the fl u just a day before and was unable to run. After taking a few days to recover — and looking gray throughout them, according to Crow — Martini impressed her coach with the top 20 fi nish on Saturday. Just as impressive was the boys ability to recover from going all out last week to running a handful of personal-bests on Saturday. “It just shows their determina- tion and how hard these kids work,” Crow said. Saturday also marked the end of Vandervlugt’s time in Crow’s cross country program, which she’s been a part of since seventh grade. “It’s hard. She’ll be the runner to leave a huge footprint on this pro- gram,” Crow said. “It’s just going to be weird not having her around the team. She brought such a positive and calming energy. She’s the core of my team. When the girls were down the slope, she’d be the one to get them back up.” But as the Tigers say goodbye to Vandervlugt, Crow expects to welcome in a talented crop of freshmen from the middle school program. And with nearly every other member on both teams set to return, this year’s top 10 fi nishes may be the launching pad into a bright future. “It just means our program is go- ing to get better and better,” Crow said. “I’m really excited about next season.” Imagine The Difference You Can Make Serious speed! 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