9A 10A — THE OBSERVER
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2019
SPORTS
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Ronald Bond/The Observer
The La Grande bench celebrates Friday during the final seconds of the Tigers’ 14-0 win over Gladstone.
All
10-0
Ronald Bond/The Observer
7-3
6-4 La Grande’s Chris Woodworth celebrates after sacking Gladstone
6-4
4-7 quarterback Hudson Meyer during the third quarter Friday night.
4-7
4-7
1-10
Reed said. “We knew it would be a
TIGERS
Continued from Page 7A
board early in the second quarter.
The Tigers, immediately after
holding Gladstone on fourth-and-
goal at the 3-yard line, marched 97
yards in nine plays — all rushing
— to open the scoring, with Reed
accounting for 77 of the yards and
finishing from 8 yards out for a 7-0
lead, which was where the margin
stood at the break.
The only other score came again
after a major defensive play by
the Tigers. Gladstone chewed up
nearly six minutes of the clock on a
nine-play drive to open the second
half, but Chris Woodworth sacked
Gladstone quarterback Hudson
Meyer on third and long to force a
punt.
“I just saw the play coming, saw
the guard that was going to pull,
saw (Meyer) dropping back,” Wood-
worth said.
Reed then capped another long
drive, this one of 10 plays and 70
yards, with a 6-yard run for the
final score with 1:53 to play in the
third quarter.
“We had a great game plan,”
tough game. They’re a great team,
but we came out and executed.
But we’re still not satisfied. This
isn’t where we want to end up.
The semifinals isn’t our goal. We’re
happy, we’ll celebrate and get back
to work.”
The defense did the rest, limiting
Gladstone to just 50 yards in the
second half, and only 18 on the
ground.
“We really just played our hearts
out and shut down their run,”
Woodworth said. “They couldn’t
really do anything.”
The matchup of run-heavy teams
quickly turned into a smash mouth
affair, with both teams relying
almost exclusively on the ground
game.
Neither team, in fact, completed
a pass on the only six attempts that
were thrown in the first half. Four
of the passes were intercepted —
two by Ryan Lee of Gladstone, one
by teammate Blake Harman on the
final play of the first half, and one
by La Grande’s Dawson Gaertner
in the first half.
The teams combined to complete
just three passes for 49 yards on
the night, due partly to the rainy
conditions that came and went at
Community Stadium, and due to
the teams throwing just 14 passes.
Each team, by comparison, ran
the ball 39 times, with La Grande
outgaining the Gladiators 282-126
on the ground.
“Our defense was highly pre-
pared,” McIlmoil said. “(Defensive
coordinator Matt) Wolcott spent
hours watching them and breaking
down film, giving (our team) what
they needed to know.”
Gladstone’s best chance to get on
the board came in the first quar-
ter after Lee grabbed his second
interception. The Gladiators used
the 13-play drive — including a key
punt fake by Burgos to get a first
down and keep the drive alive and
a 22-yard run by Mason Scheehean
— to threaten for the early lead.
But Hunter Lehman dropped
a pass in the end zone on fourth
down to give the ball over to La
Grande, which followed with the
go-ahead drive.
Gladstone’s only other major
threat was snuffed out by the inter-
ception grabbed by Gaertner in the
second quarter.
The Tigers will face The Dalles in
the semifinals Saturday in Herm-
iston, with kickoff for the contest
set for 5:30 p.m. The Riverhawks
Ronald Bond/The Observer
La Grande’s Eli Leavitt (64) and Dawson Gaertner (4) wrap up
Gladstone’s Mason Scheehean during the third quarter of Friday’s
quarterfinal game.
outlasted Tillamook in a shootout
in the quarterfinals, 58-51, to earn
their first semifinal berth since
1993.
The teams met in September, a
FOOTBALL
Continued from Page 7A
quarters, keeping the same
energy, and it showed today.”
Eastern trailed 20-14
entering the fourth quarter
and started the final period
with the ball on its own
2-yard line.
A 98-yard drive followed,
with two Tanner Zenke
receptions — the second
a 39-yard completion on a
deep fade route — helping
get EOU into Carroll terri-
tory. Kaler Moore reached
the end zone four plays later,
scoring a 34-yard touchdown
on fourth-and-1 to give the
Mountaineers a 21-20 lead
with 11:54 to play.
“The kids played for each
other,” Camp said. “They
wanted to send the seniors
out as winners. We had a good
week of practice (and built) off
the win from last week.”
EOU’s defense then kept
Carroll out of the end zone
despite the Saints marching
into the red zone and having
first-and-goal at the EOU
2-yard-line. Matthew Bur-
gess, who had rushed for 157
yards on the afternoon, was
stopped on three of the runs,
including getting stuffed
on fourth down short of the
goal line with about eight
minutes to go.
“I think they were trying
to send a message, saying,
Ronald Bond/The Observer
Eastern Oregon’s Eli Teuteu tackles an airborne Shane Sipes during Saturday’s contest
against Carroll College. The Mountaineers won, 28-26.
‘We’re going to power it
in right here,’” Camp said
of why Carroll went for it
on fourth down instead of
taking a short field goal
attempt. “That was a big
goal-line stand.”
Eastern followed with a
99-yard drive, again taking
to the air. Completions of 33
and 13 yards to Saige Wilk-
erson and a 42-yard bomb
to Zenke moved EOU to the
Carroll 15, and Wilkerson’s
10-yard catch two plays later
gave the Mountaineers a 28-
20 lead with just 3:06 to go.
Camp said the Mountain-
eers threw a few more deep
passes down the field than
they had in recent weeks,
and it paid off.
“The attitude going in was
we were going to take shots
on (Carroll’s) corners. We
know when they’re in man
coverage there’s an oppor-
tunity,” he said. “Our kids
made plays today.”
The passes weren’t the
only times EOU gambled, ei-
ther. The Mountaineers ran
a successful punt fake, at-
tempted an onside kick after
their go-ahead touchdown in
the fourth quarter, and went
for it on fourth down near
midfield in the third quarter.
“We had nothing to lose.
We were going to take a
couple shots,” Camp said,
adding he had plans to run
another fake punt later in
the game. “I was a riverboat
gambler today.”
Carroll’s last-ditch effort
resulted in a 12-yard touch-
down catch by Joe Farris
at the left pylon on fourth
and goal, but on the ensuing
2-point conversion for the tie,
game won by La Grande, 48-14.
The Dalles has had some players
return from injury, though, who
weren’t on the field in the first
contest.
Prom stepped in front of the
would-be receiver short of
the end zone to break up the
pass after Carroll QB Devan
Bridgewater was forced to
scramble.
“I just recognized the
formation. I was shouting it
to my team,” Prom said of the
2-point conversion. “We were
able to get great pressure and
I was where I needed to be.”
The victory was the fifth
in a row in the series for the
Mountaineers. Each of the
last three have been nail-
biters, too — a 41-34 win by
EOU in overtime in 2017, an
8-7 win by the Mountaineers
in Helena, Montana, last
year and Saturday’s thriller.
Eastern fell behind 7-0
early, but battled back to tie
the score at 7-7 late in the
first quarter on an 18-yard
touchdown catch by Con-
ner Falk and a 14-7 lead
on Moore’s 1-yard run with
3:23 to play in the first half.
Carroll tied the score going
into the break on a 26-yard
Shane Sipes TD catch, then
retook the lead, 20-14, on
Tony Collins’ 18-yard TD
catch.
EOU quarterback Kai
Quinn saved his best perfor-
mance of the season for last,
completing 23 of 39 passes
for a season-high 290 yards
and two touchdowns. Zenke
(121 yards receiving) and
Wilkerson (69) led Eastern
through the air.
The Mountaineers finish
with an overall record of 4-7
and 4-6 in the Frontier Con-
ference, but the team won its
final two games, and three of
the last six, to rebound from
a 1-4 start to the season.
“It’s been a tremendous
blessing, and it speaks
volumes of Coach Camp
and the program and the
guys we have,” Dias said.
“All I saw was guys laying
it on the line for each other
all year, and today was no
different.”
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