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Page 2B SPORTS East Oregonian Tuesday, August 23, 2016 NFL Siemian to start Broncos’ third preseason game times and fumbled twice. He was 10 of 17 for 120 yards and was nearly picked off by cornerback Chris Davis. “I squandered a great opportunity to separate myself and put the team in a bad By MICHAEL KELLY situation,” Sanchez said after the game. “No Associated Press excuse for that. Poor, poor quarterbacking play.” ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Coach Gary The Broncos traded for Sanchez after Kubiak named Trevor Siemian the starter Peyton Manning retired and Brock Osweiler for the Broncos’ third preseason game over signed with Houston. Denver was hoping to Mark Sanchez and said he will decide next avoid the uncertainty that persisted last year week who will be under center between Manning and Osweiler. against Carolina for the season Osweiler started seven games opener on Sept. 8. when Manning was out with a “It’s down to the nitty gritty foot injury, but Manning came here,” Kubiak said. “I don’t have on in the season inale to rally to but I’m going to make a deci- the Broncos past San Diego and sion next week and we’re going secure the No. 1 seed in the AFC. to go to work. I’ve seen a lot of Manning was named the starter football from them. We’re going for the postseason and led the to go again this week and we’ll Broncos to a Super Bowl victory make a decision next week.” behind a dominant defense. Siemian Kubiak said Siemian, Sanchez The drama of 2015 has helped and rookie Paxton Lynch will play the players deal with the quarter- an equal amount Saturday against the Los back battle in training camp. Angeles Rams. “A lot of guys were here last year and we Siemian and Sanchez ended training dealt with the situation last year,” tight end camp sharing the No. 1 quarterback spot on Virgil Green said. “We made it work.” the team depth chart but neither has been Kubiak said he isn’t surprised the battle able to claim the job outright. Both strug- has lasted through training camp and deep gled with turnovers in Saturday’s 31-24 loss into the preseason. to San Francisco. “I knew this was going to take some Siemian was 10 of 14 for 75 yards but time,” he said. threw an interception that was picked off The Broncos also got stronger on defense by Ed Reid and returned 42 yards for a with the return of linebacker DeMarcus touchdown. Ware. Ware came off the non-football/injury “I thought Trevor did a good job the other list Monday and is expected to take part in night,” Kubiak said. “Obviously there’s one practice Tuesday. play he’d like to have back or it would have Ware missed training camp while dealing been as good as it could be. I’m going to with a back injury that kept him out of ive give him a chance to do that again.” games in 2015. Kubiak said Siemian took a shot to his NOTES: Kubiak said CB Aqib Talib shoulder trying to make a tackle on the play. will make his preseason debut Saturday. He said the sore shoulder shouldn’t prevent ... The Broncos signed DL Henry Melton him from practicing Tuesday or playing and waived OL Sam Carlson. ... LB Corey Saturday. Nelson suffered a sprained wrist against the Sanchez is the only quarterback on 49ers but is expected to play Saturday. ... the staff with meaningful regular season TE Jeff Heuerman (hamstring) is day to day experience but he struggled after relieving but Kubiak didn’t know if he would play Siemian on Saturday night. He led the Saturday. ... CB Taurean Nixon and S Ryan Broncos to a ield goal but was sacked three Murphy are expected to return to practice. Kubiak to decide on opening day starter next week AP Photo/Ted S. Warren Seattle Mariners Kyle Seager, right, celebrates with teammates Robinson Cano, and Nelson Cruz, left, after Seager hit a three-run home run to score Cano and Cruz in the fourth inning of Monday’s game against the New York Yankees in Seattle. MARINERS: Diaz survives another shaky ninth inning to pick up save Continued from 1B Triple-A Tacoma on July 20, answered in the bottom half with his ninth home run — off Anthony Swarzak (1-2) — to put Seattle ahead 6-5. Cruz added a solo homer, his 32nd, in the eighth. Nick Vincent (3-3) retired all three batters he faced to get the win. Rookie Edwin Diaz survived a shaky ninth, putting runners on second and third with one out before getting Mark Teixeira on a ly ball and Brett Gardner on a grounder to pick up his 10th save in 10 chances. Seattle remained one game behind Baltimore for the second American Leauge wild card. Robinson Cano singled to open the bottom of the sixth and Seager drew a one-out walk, chasing starter Michael Pineda. Left-hander Tommy Layne relieved and retired lefty-hitting Adam Lind. Right-hander Swarzak came on but gave up the homer into the right-ield seats by Zunino on a 3-2 pitch. Sanchez, named AL Player of the Week earlier in the day, had a solo homer in the irst and Castro another in the second to give New York a 2-0 lead. Seager’s three-run homer put Seattle up 3-2 in the fourth. Seth Smith doubled and moved to third on Cano’s single. Smith was then caught too far down the line on Cruz’s high chopper and was tagged out trying to get back to third. Seager got the green light on a 3-0 pitch and hit his 24th homer over the center-ield wall. Mariners right ielder Shawn O’Malley, who came on as a defensive replacement in the seventh, had a sensa- tional catch for the second out of that inning, making a long run into foul territory and reaching over the wall to snag Tyler Austin’s ly ball, hanging on as he tumbled into the seats. UP NEXT Yankees: LHP CC Sabathia (7-10, 4.49 ERA) will start on extended ive days’ rest due to a day off Thursday. Sabathia is 8-1 with a 2.16 ERA in 12 starts at Safeco Field. Mariners: RHP Taijuan Walker, optioned to Triple-A Tacoma on Aug. 8, is expected to be recalled to make the start Tuesday. Walker was 4-7 with a 4.10 ERA in 17 starts with Seattle. TEAM USA: The 51-medal cushion over China largest in more than a century Continued from 1B medals and 121 medals overall, its 51-total-medal margin over second-place China the largest in a non-boycotted Olympics in nearly a century. “This experience has been the dream of a lifetime for me,” said U.S. gymnast and closing ceremony lagbearer Simone Biles, who won ive medals, four of them gold, in her irst Olympics. For the fourth consecu- tive games, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps left with more medals than anyone else. He won six in Rio, while Biles and U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky each won ive to lead to lead a big haul from American women. U.S. women left Rio with 27 golds - by far the most among any team of female Olympians at these games - and 61 medals total. U.S. track star Allyson Felix, now a six-time gold medalist and a winner of nine medals in all, was particularly delighted to learn that women are bringing more medals home to American than the men. “Got ‘em,” Felix said, smiling. By now, the Americans winning the medal race is almost commonplace. But the signiicance in Rio were the sheer amounts of hard- ware. The previous record for U.S. medals at a fully attended Olympics was 110, set at Beijing eight years ago. And the margin between irst and second in the overall medals race this year tops all others (the boycotted games of 1980 and 1984 excluded) since the Americans won 67 more medals than Italy did at the 1932 Los Angeles Games. “We weren’t sure we were going to have that kind of success coming in,” said USOC CEO Scott Blackmun, noting the track and swimming teams had SEAHAWKS: Pope’s chance of making 53-man roster remain slim Continued from 1B tice that showed us the special quickness that he has. He’s very elusive. He has a good burst and a good sense.” Pope’s chances of making Seattle’s roster remain slim. The Seahawks drafted three running backs — C.J. Prosise, Alex Collins and Zac Brooks — to compete with Thomas Rawls and Christine Michael for three, maybe four, spots on the team’s 53-man roster. Hamstring injuries to Prosise and Brooks led the Seahawks to give Pope a chance. Prosise and Brooks are now returning to full health. Rawls is getting close to full speed after beginning camp on the physically unable to perform list, and Michael has inally appeared to fulill the promise that led Seattle to select him in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft. Nevertheless, Pope is no longer just a “camp body.” He’s earned the chance to be in the conversation. With two preseason games to go, Pope will have more opportunities to convince Seattle not to let him leave town. But Pope says he’s not focusing on the last play, or the last game or just how close he came to having to do something else with his life. He’s trying to make the most of every chance and gets and leave a strong impression with the coaching staff. “I don’t want to look back on it. I just want to continue to strive forward toward my dream. That’s all I’m going to continue to do is work toward my dream,” Pope said. AP Photo/Eric Gay The United States’ men’s basketball team poses with their gold medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. plenty of irst-time Olym- pians. But Blackmun was thrilled by the results, and he wasn’t the only one leaving Rio happy. Even with far fewer athletes competing in Rio than it had in London four years ago - and no home- ield advantage this time, either - Britain got more medals than ever in the modern games. The British won 67 medals in Rio, 27 of them gold. “The atmosphere at the GB house has been amazing in the village,” said Mo Farah, who won gold for Britain in the 5,000- and 10,000-meter races to match the feat he pulled off at London in 2012. “Winning medals and just one after the other. Gold, silver, bronze. The atmosphere has been brilliant. To be able to go even further than London, I think as a nation we should be proud.” The Russians and the Chinese probably didn’t feel the same. China won 26 golds, just over half as many as it won in Beijing in 2008. Russia - with its track team told to stay home because of the doping probe and a cloud hovering over its athletes who were in Rio, some of whom got publicly called out by competitors - inished with 19 golds and 56 medals overall, both well below its normal showings. U.S. swimmer Lilly King beat Russia’s Yulia Eimova for the 100-meter breast- stroke gold, doing so after saying the games should have no room for dopers. Eimova has twice been banned. “I stand by what I said,” King said. “It was not positive,” Eimova told the BBC. “It was like war.” There were plenty of posi- tives for others, however. Usain Bolt inished off his triple-triple - three Olympics, three sprint golds in each - for Jamaica, in what he said was his last games. Neymar’s game-winning penalty kick decided a shootout and clinched the men’s soccer gold medal for Brazil, a host that wasn’t a factor in the medal standings but got the gold that it prob- ably wanted most. And 10 teams - including the independent team - won their irst golds, including Monica Puig in women’s tennis for Puerto Rico. “That island has given me so much,” Puig said. “So much love and support throughout my career and I just wanted this one for them.” BUCKAROOS: Average size is 6-foot-1, 200 pounds Continued from 1B the utmost conidence in Josh Linehan, our offensive line coach. I have no worries at all.” Anderson started at right tackle last season and will guard quarterback Nick Bower’s blindside this season while Lee (a converted running back) remains at left guard. Kennedy started at tight end last year. “I’ve got a lot of guys that aren’t natural offensive linemen,” Linehan said. “They came up and they were asked to switch into that position, and the thing that I’ve liked is their attitude towards that.” Harshield started for the junior varsity last season and Willard makes the jump to varsity from the freshman team. “It’s deinitely like a new tempo,” Willard said. “The game’s a lot faster at this level. It’s somewhat of a tough transition but I think that’s something that I’ll adapt to.” “I think he’s going to do alright,” Linehan said of Willard. “He’s a smart kid and he’s got the attitude for it, and he’s one of the hardest workers. He’s one of those guys that didn’t miss a workout this summer and I think because he knows hat he’s going to be in Pendleton Jakob Harshield blocks during football prac- tice on Monday at Pendle- ton High School. Harshield is one of two new- comers to the Buck- aroos starting lineup this sea- son. Staff photo by Matt Entrup there and that as a sophomore on varsity you’re going to take your lumps.” The Bucks know there may be times when they all take a few lumps, because they’ll be out-sized by most teams they face. Average size for the line is about 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, and Harshield is the biggest at 6-1, 250. “It’s going to be interesting to see,” Harshield said. “Just keeping low and just using our legs and driving, keep our footsteps short.” With so much riding on their ability to set the tone on the ield, the linemen are taking it upon themselves to be the most prepared. Every day the offensive line is the irst position group on the practice ield at Pendleton High School. They arrive about half an hour before everybody else to work on their blocking techniques. “I will guarantee that offen- sive line puts in more practice time than any other position group,” Davis said. “That’s where they become a unit. Because they know they’re working more than anybody else, putting more time in I should say.” “We’re not the biggest guys,” Kennedy said, “but we sure are the hardest working.” ——— Pendleton will host its annual Buck Bowl on Thursday starting at 4 p.m. at the practice ield at Pendleton High School. Players are selling tickets for a tri-tip dinner that will be served at the game. ——— Contact Matt Entrup at mentrup@eastoregonian.com or (541) 966-0838.