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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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Fishermen host Lions
Friday in quarterfinals
The Daily Astorian
The Astoria Fighting Fishermen
will host the Cottage Grove Lions
Friday, in a quarterfinal game of the
Class 4A football state playoffs.
Astoria is the No. 3 seed and has
won eight in a row, while the Lions
(9-0) are the No. 6 seed.
The winner will face either Cas-
cade or South Umpqua in the semi-
finals, which will be played at a neu-
tral site.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at
CMH Field. Gates open at 5:30 p.m.
for all spectators. Admission is $6 for
adults and $4 for high school-age stu-
dents and younger. Only OSAA-ap-
proved passes may be used for free
admission.
All general admission tickets can
be purchased in advance as the Asto-
ria High School main office through
Thursday this week, during normal
school hours (8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.).
Reserved ticket-holders may pur-
chase their normal reserved seats
by Wednesday at 3 p.m. by contact-
ing AHS athletic department Assis-
tant Emily Delay at 503-325-3911,
ext. 318, or via email, edelay@asto-
ria.k12.or.us. Any available reserved
seats will go on sale Thursday at
8 a.m. Reserved seats may be pur-
chased for $10 or $8, based on avail-
ability and location. The school’s
main office will be closed Friday in
honor of Veterans Day/Remembrance
Day.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Astoria’s Samboy Tuimato will try to pump the Fishermen up for one
more home victory Friday, when Astoria hosts Cottage Grove in a state
quarterfinal game at CMH Field.
Lillard has 38 and
Blazers hold off Suns
AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer
Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, center, drives to the basket past Phoenix Suns center Alex Len during the first half.
By ANNE M. PETERSON
AP Sports Writer
P
ORTLAND — The scoreboard may
say victory, but Damian Lillard sees
work to do.
Lillard scored 38 points, making
key free throws in the waning seconds, and
the Portland Trail Blazers held off the Phoenix
Suns for a 124-121 victory on Tuesday night.
After leading by 18 points early, it
shouldn’t have been so close at the end, Lil-
lard said.
“We talk about just being able to play
the way we want to play for longer spans of
time,” he said. “We’ll play really well for
seven minutes, and then in four minutes we’ll
give up a 15-2 run and give up everything we
just worked for. We got to continue to work
UP NEXT: TRAIL BLAZERS
• Portland Trail Blazers (5-3)
at Los Angeles Clipper (6-1)
• Today, 7:30 p.m. TV: CSNW
on that. The good thing is, we’re able to find a
way to win games while we work on it.”
CJ McCollum added 33 points for the
Blazers, who have won three straight.
Lillard hit a 3-pointer with 6:45 left that put
Portland in front 101-95. Eric Bledsoe made
a free throw to pull Phoenix within 115-114
with just under a minute left, but he missed
the second attempt that would have tied it and
Lillard scored a layup on the other end.
Bledsoe hit two free throws to again get
within a point, but Lillard was fouled with
13.3 seconds left and made both to put Port-
land up 119-116.
Devin Booker made a 3-pointer that pulled
the Suns within 122-121 but Lillard again
hit two free throws with 3.7 seconds left and
Booker missed from some 25 feet has time
ran out.
Bledsoe finished with 31 points and
Booker had 23.
“It’s not tough for us to come back, we
come back a lot,” Suns coach Earl Watson
said. “That’s what we do. Our team is really
close and we have a lot of belief.”
The Suns, who opened the season with
four straight losses before winning two of
their last three, were without Tyson Chandler
because of personal reasons. Chandler has
been in double-digit rebounds in three of the
last four games.
Officiating again story after mistakes in Seahawk’s win
By TIM BOOTH
AP Sports Writer
SEATTLE — Richard Sherman
took the opportunity last week to
criticize NFL officiating for what he
deemed incorrect calls, almost dar-
ing the league to fine him for being
so outspoken.
“Sometimes the truth is the truth,
it’s the truth,” the All-Pro cornerback
said last week. “It is what it is. This
is basically reality TV, so I guess I’m
good for ratings probably.”
So it seemed almost fitting that
just a few days after making some
bold comments, Sherman was at the
center of another officiating flap in
Monday night’s 31-25 win over the
Buffalo Bills.
Once again, NFL refs were in the
spotlight of a prime-time game that
left the league scrambling to provide
explanations of what happened and
the mistakes that were made.
Any time Dean Blandino, the
NFL’s head of officiating, has to send
an explanatory tweet during a game
about a mistake, it’s not a good look
for the league.
“We are absolutely going to
address it,” Blandino told NFL Net-
work late Monday night. “Anytime
you have a sequence like that at any
point during the game, we want to see
what happened and just walk through
the steps of where the breakdown
was. Regardless of the outcome of the
game, we are going to address the sit-
uation with our crew.”
Officiating controversy and Mon-
day night games in Seattle have
become almost a regular occurrence.
For the third time in five seasons, the
day after a Seattle Monday win was
spent breaking down the role of offi-
ciating mistakes in the Seahawks’
victory.
The latest black eye for the refs
came when Walt Anderson’s crew
chose not to flag Sherman for unnec-
essary roughness as he attempted
to block Dan Carpenter’s field goal
attempt at the end of the first half.
Sherman was penalized for being
offside — and was determined to be
unabated to the kicker — but the play
was not stopped in time to prevent
Sherman from getting a piece of the
kick and crashing recklessly into Car-
penter’s legs.
“Whenever it comes to player
safety, we want to look at these
fouls,” Blandino said. “It’s something
that we stress with our referees when
it comes to the quarterbacks and the
kickers with roughing the kicker and
roughing the passer, so we certainly
don’t want to miss calls like that.”
The fact that no unnecessary
roughness call was made created
a whole other set of problems —
including an injury timeout against
Buffalo that forced Carpenter off the
field — that weren’t handled well by
Anderson’s crew. Most damaging for
the Bills was the play clock not being
properly reset.
AP Photo/Butch Dill
Seattle Seahawks cornerback
Richard Sherman (25) talks to
an official in the first half of an
NFL football game against the
New Orleans Saints in New Orle-
ans on Oct. 30. Richard Sherman
spent last week criticizing what
he believed were incorrect calls,
only to be at the center of another
officiating flap Monday night that
this time went Seattle’s way.
NFL HALFWAY
Cowboys
have built
comfortable
lead in NFC
By DAVE CAMPBELL
AP Pro Football Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — How ‘bout
them Cowboys?
They’ve built a healthy lead on
the rest of the NFC at the midpoint
of this season, for starters. They’ve
been playing like they’re capable of
finishing on top, too.
Defying so many of those
pre-September predictions from
the punditry, Dak Prescott and the
Dallas Cowboys have followed a
one-point loss in their opener with
seven straight victories. This, of
course, with an all-rookie backfield
of Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott per-
forming well beyond their years.
“We’re so dynamic it’s crazy,”
said two-time Pro Bowl wide
receiver Dez Bryant, whose three-
game absence due to a knee injury
went largely unnoticed.
That’s partly because of the pol-
ish and poise displayed by Prescott,
the fourth-round draft pick from
Mississippi State thrust into action
when Tony Romo hurt his back
during the preseason. The other sig-
nificant factor in the first-half surge
by the Cowboys, as sure a sign as
any that it’s sustainable, is the suc-
cess Elliott has had carrying the ball
behind that dominant offensive line
built by three former first-round
draft picks.
This fall has has been so fruitful
for Dallas that Romo isn’t guaran-
teed to get the job back.
“It’s hard for me to say it’s
Tony’s team, it’s my team or any-
body’s team,” Prescott said. “It’s a
true team, and everybody is playing
their part in it.”
That fearsome five the Cowboys
(7-1) can pass and run behind is not
the only factor in their command of
the NFC playoff race. Another rea-
son they’re ahead is the struggles
by other contenders, namely Seat-
tle and Minnesota, to solidify the
blocking up front.
The Seahawks (5-2-1) have had
trouble getting their offense going
this year, with running back Mar-
shawn Lynch now retired and Rus-
sell Wilson grinding through ankle
and knee injuries that have ham-
pered his mobility. The revamped
line remains a work in progress.
The Vikings (5-3) had the
NFL’s last undefeated record, until
their bye week arrived. Since then,
they’ve lost all three straight games
with issues on offense, defense and
special teams all influencing the
streak. With both starting tackles on
injured reserve and left guard Alex
Boone recovering from a concus-
sion that kept him out of the over-
time loss to Detroit on Sunday, the
protection for quarterback Sam
Bradford is going to be a yearlong
concern.
After the crushing loss at home
to the Lions, coach Mike Zimmer
at least sounded satisfied that some
confidence had been restored.
“I’m hopeful they’ll continue
to carry it forward through the rest
of the season, because if we do that
we’re going to win some games,”
Zimmer said.
The Atlanta Falcons (6-3) have
already escaped their October skid,
having rallied to beat Green Bay by
one point on Oct. 30 and breezed
by Tampa Bay four days later. The
league’s highest-scoring team, at
34 points per game, has assembled
more threats than just Julio Jones.