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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2016)
Page 2B SPORTS East Oregonian Friday, October 7, 2016 Uncertainty over Hurricane Matthew still affecting sports By TIM REYNOLDS Associated Press MIAMI — Fear of the damage that powerful Hurricane Matthew may cause prompted two college football postponements Thursday, and had the NFL plotting just-in-case scenarios for games sched- uled in Tampa and Miami this weekend. A pair of college games set to be played Saturday — LSU at No. 18 Florida, as well as Charlotte at Florida Atlantic — were postponed. The Tigers-Gators game that was scheduled for Gaines- ville is off indeinitely, and the Charlotte-FAU game scheduled for Boca Raton is now tentatively planned to be played Sunday. Saturday night’s game that has No. 23 Florida State visiting No. 10 Miami remains on as scheduled, though oficials remain somewhat cautious. Also, the Georgia at South Carolina game has been pushed from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon, Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said on his radio show. A major issue with games in Florida this weekend isn’t the weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday, because those days look to be generally ine around the state. It’s whether police, irst responders and other key personnel needed at football games that draw massive crowds will be deployed to assist in areas that will take the brunt of Matthew’s wrath. “This is a potentially cata- strophic event for the state,” Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said, “and public resources need to be employed where they’re most needed.” Florida State originally planned to ly to Miami on Thursday evening; the Seminoles remained home and now plan to make the trip south Friday. Miami moved into its home-game hotel ahead of schedule, in part because its campus was closed and classes were canceled. “Our hope is to be able to play at Hard Rock Stadium,” Miami athletic director Blake James said. “Obvi- ously, things can happen that prohibit that.” The NFL hopes to play at Hard Rock Stadium as well — the Miami Dolphins are to host the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. The metro Miami area was not taking the brunt of the storm, and sunshine is even in Friday’s forecast. But there are things to assess before deciding if the FSU-Miami and Titans-Dolphins games can absolutely be played, namely if it’s safe for fans to be on the roads and whether police departments have the resources to simultaneously SOCCER: Avalos knocks in Pirates’ game-winner Continued from 1B Hernandez far corner. It was a pretty shot that Hernandez said she got a good look at, “It was just one of those goals where you barely can’t get it.” Riverside was quickly back down in front of Umatilla’s net with a corner kick, which didn’t result in a goal but did see Moreno land awkwardly after going airborne to turn away the threat. She stayed on the turf for several minutes while the coaching staff attended to her before limping to the sideline with a twisted ankle. “She honestly just wanted to take a quick break and get back in there,” Lee said. “She’s our rock whether she’s on the ield or in the goal.” But she wasn’t able to make it back in before the Pirates could take advantage of Moreno’s freshman backup. At about the 65th minute, Wightman penetrated to the end line, faked out Umatilla defender Patty Burres and lofted the ball to the front of the net where Brendy Avalos stood all alone. Avalos redirected the ball into the empty goal for the eventual game-winner. “With Maria going down for the second time with her ankle, I think it kind of pushed us into a little defen- sive mindset and allowed them to get that second goal,” said Lee. Moreno checked back in after the goal, and the Vikings were able to advance the ball deep into Riverside’s half repeatedly during the inal minutes, but just couldn’t get off a clean shot with Pirates sweeper Faith Rosen leading the defensive stand. Winning close games wasn’t something the Pirates were able to do last season, but each of their last two wins have come by a single goal and coach Carlos Velasco said it’s a result of a mind set the team established early in the year. “They’ve been preparing mentally and physical a lot better, and they’ve got in their head what they need to do and what they want to do, and where they want to go,” he said. “I believe it’s a big mind change on their part, and I’m happy for them.” The win keeps Riverside atop the SD2 standings while Umatilla dropped to fourth with six more games still to play. Next up for Riverside is a road game at Horizon Christian on Tuesday at 4:15 p.m. Umatilla will host Port- land Christian on Tuesday at 4:15 p.m. ——— Contact Matt Entrup at mentrup@eastoregonian. com or (541) 966-0838. Staff photo by Matt Entrup Riverside’s Yoanna Lopez (15) tries to get around Uma- tilla defender Patty Burres (6) during a girls soccer game on Thursday in Boardman. told reporters a day earlier that no decision had been made. Prukop is listed ahead of Herbert on the depth chart released at the start of the week. “It’s something we evaluate every day,” Lubick said. “When we igure it out, you guys will know.” Washington, meanwhile, is coming off a state- ment-making 44-6 victory at home over the Cardinal last Friday night to move atop the Pac-12 North standings. The Huskies have not been ranked this high in the AP Top 25 since the end of the 2000 season, when they won the Rose Bowl. Washington poses winning. A lot. By the time Stringield had turned ive, he had already won 10 races, which moved him from the beginner to the intermediate class. Then by the time he was six he had won another 20 races and moved up another level into the Expert Class — the highest level racers can reach until they’re old enough to reach the Pro class. Stringield has won so many races that he is disap- pointed over anything less than a irst place trophy. In fact, he has won so many trophies — between 100-200 Tracy estimates — that he started giving them back to the various tracks to re-use or has just given them away. “It just feels good to win,” Stringield said with a wide smile. But with every race, Stringield — a fourth grader at Sunset Elementary — continues to get better and better. A month after defending his state champi- onships, he entered into the BRIEFLY T-Wolves to hold tryouts for locals PENDLETON — Blue Mountain Community College will hold two soccer clinics in November aimed at identifying potential new members for their men’s and women’s teams. The men’s team begins its irst season in 2017, and will hope to ind some players for its irst roster at the Saturday, Nov. 19 clinic that will run from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at Blue Mountain Community College soccer ield. The women’s clinic will be held the next day, Sunday, Nov. 20, and also runs from nine to ive. Registration begins at 8:15 a.m. each day. Cost is $20, and participants need to bring a white and black shirt. The clinics are only open to students at schools in Umatilla or Morrow Counties, and only seniors or recent graduates are encouraged to attend. The Timberwolves are looking for highly motivated student-athletes that are interested in making history on the ield while excelling in the classroom. For more information contact BMCC head soccer coach Art Mota at amota@ bluecc.edu. Twenty questions with Echo’s Devan Craig East Oregonian Staff photo by Matt Entrup Riverside’s Brendy Avalos (1) and Umatilla’s Daisy Mendoza (9) chase down the ball during a girls soccer game on Thursday in Umatilla. problems for whomever the Ducks name as starter. The Huskies had eight sacks last weekend against Stanford. They’re ranked No. 15 nationally for total defense, allowing opponents just about 299 yards a game. And they’ve allowed an average of just 12.8 points a game. “The biggest problem we’ve had, to be honest, is simulating their defense,” Helfrich said. “To get those guys to play their hearts out on the scout team has been a huge deal.” Head coach Chris Petersen seemed uncon- cerned by the apparent disarray among the Ducks. “I think everybody always overinlates every- thing, on both ways,” he said. “That’s what I think. I think that they played some hard-fought games that they had chances to win down at the end and for whatever reason just didn’t do it. That can affect momentum one way or another. And I think they played Washington State, who is a hard team to play, really well. In the fourth quarter, it got away a little bit.” The last time Washington won at Autzen Stadium was in 2002, when the Huskies defeated the No. 23 Ducks 42-14 and then drew the ire of the fans by dancing on the “O” at midield. STRINGFIELD: Competing at Canadian Grands this weekend in Chilliwick, British Columbia Continued from 1B be of some interest to Kaden. So he asked the question to his son and was answered almost immediately with a ‘Yes.’ So a few days later Tracy and his wife, Kristina, drove Stringield to the track with his small kid bicycle that they had purchased at Walmart to give it a shot. “He didn’t really compete well, but he rode and enjoyed it,” Tracy said. Stringield enjoyed it so much that the following week, Tracy took him down to Scott’s Cycle and Sports in Hermiston — which is now Stringield’s sponsor — and purchased the irst racing bicycle. In the next few weeks after, Stringield spent a lot of time on the bike riding it up and down the street near his home as well as on the track in Richland getting a feel for the new ride. And then once he was comfortable, Jayson started to enter him into some races. And then, he started Gamecocks football. “The 100 to 200 troopers that they usually request or need would not be available to them,” Haley said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the game now being on Sunday would change her stance. The Miami Heat got out of town on Wednesday for a couple days of practice in Houston, in advance of their next preseason game in Kansas City on Saturday. “You always err on the side of caution,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You can’t leave late in these things. It’s one of the few natural disasters that happen that you have an opportunity to plan for.” Athlete of the Week DUCKS: Have not lost to Huskies at home since 2002 Continued from 1B Sheldon High School in Eugene, Herbert worked his way up the depth chart in fall camp. He beat out Terry Wilson and Travis Jonsen for the backup job. Helfrich did not name a starter Thursday, his last media availability before the game. But he said the team had “clarity” after a good week of practice. “We’re going to put the best guy out there, at that and every other position, to help us win this game,” he said. Despite reports that Herbert was starting against the Huskies, offensive coordinator Matt Lubick handle football crowds and storm-devastated areas. “As always, our overriding concern is for public safety and not doing anything that will divert important resources away from communities that may be in distress,” the NFL said in a statement. “Consistent with that, we are conducting contingency planning for the Tennessee at Miami game as well as the Tampa Bay at Carolina game.” Tampa Bay is to play at Carolina on Monday night. Resources were also a factor in South Carolina, where Gov. Nikki Haley said state troopers needed to be free this weekend for hurricane detail — not Gold Cup Championship in Eugene on Sept. 16 — which brought the best riders from the Paciic Northwest as well as states such as California and Nevada together. For his two races, in the 24-inch Cruiser Class and the 20-inch, Stringield turned in third place performances, inishing just behind the top two ranked racers in his age group. His ultimate goal is to qualify for the US Grands — the national inals of BMX racing — which take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma each year during the week of Thanksgiving. Tracy says Stringield has his sights set on the Grands for next year, when he will compete and hopefully qualify in the national race in Redmond right after he advances into the 10-year-old age group in March. Now, Stringield is trying to inish off his season strong and will head north of the border this weekend to do so. He is traveling with his Atomic Air racing team, based out of Richland, to Chilliwick, British Columbia to compete at the Canadian Grands. The hope is to parlay some late-season success into next season, where Stringield hopes to garner a National Age Group ranking, which is for the top 20 riders in the nation. Even at just nine years old, Stringield envisions himself sticking around in the sport for a long time, and Tracy believes his son is still just scratching the surface at his potential. “He’s one of those kids that’s always taking it up a notch and trying something new,” Tracy said. “Kids that are 2-3 years older than him, (Kaden’s) doing the same jumps and trying the same stuff as them. “He loves to be in the air, and he loves to ly.” ——— Contact Eric at esinger@ eastoregonian.com or (541) 966-0839. Follow him on Twitter @ByEricSinger. EO: When did you irst start playing football? DC: 10 years old, lag football What is your favorite part of playing football? Running the ball Do you play any other sports? Basketball and track (long jump) What is your favorite sport to play? Basketball What is your favorite sport to watch? Football Do you have a favorite team? Not really What’s your favorite TV show? The Walking Dead Who do you think Neegan killed in the Season 6 inale cliffhanger? I have no idea What’s your favorite movie? I don’t really have one, but I’ve seen Suicide Squad twice. If you could have a super power what would it be? To ly What is your favorite subject in school? Science Have you thought about what you’d like to do for a career? Athletic trainer What’s your favorite food? Hawaiian pizza What’s your favorite music to listen to before a game? Whatever the team has on, usually rap. Do you have any supersti- tions/lucky charms? A padded undershirt Do you have any hobbies? Being outside, camping What’s your favorite thing about growing up in Echo? Being in a small town. Everybody knows every- body. Where’s your favorite place to visit in Oregon? Crater Lake If you could live anywhere in the world where would you choose? Probably North or South Dakota. I just like the country. Who has had the largest inluence on your athletic career? Deinitely my coaches, Coach (Ben) Campbell and (Rick) Thew. ATHLETE OF THE WEEK DEVAN CRAIG Echo Sophomore Football Quarterback Devan passed for 158 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 146 yards and four touchdowns to help his Cougars to a 52-26 victory over Wallowa last week. P ROUDLY S PONSORED B Y : • General Orthopedics • Sports Medicine • Arthroscopy • Foot & Ankle • Hand Surgery • Joint Replacement • Workman’s Comp Injuries Advanced Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Institute 620 NW 11th St., Ste. 201, Hermiston www.hermistonortho.com 541-289-7075
