SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016
1B
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BOARDMAN
College Football
Eagles break through in second half Helfrich’s
No. 1 Catlin Gabel
outlasts No. 4
Riverside in semifi nals
East Oregonian
PORTLAND — No. 1 Catlin
Gabel scored four times in the
second half, led by a hat trick
from senior Charley Ward, and
advanced to the 3A/2A/1A state
championship with
added their fourth
Boys Soccer
a 4-1 win over No.
goal to push Catlin
4 Riverside on
Gabel to its 16th
Tuesday.
state championship
It was the fi rst Riverside Catlin Gabel appearance and fi rst
goals scored on
since 2010.
either team in eight
Senior midfi elder
games, and through
Alejandro Llamas
one half of play the score was still scored for the Pirates (12-4-1),
which put seven of their 16 shots
knotted at 0-0.
That wouldn’t last, though, on goal. Catlin Gabel also had 16
and Ward scored three times shots with nine on frame.
Riverside had eight corner
after intermission for the Eagles
(17-0-1) and Luke Van Buskirk kicks to Catlin Gabel’s two.
1
4
future in
doubt
The Pirates will graduate
fi ve seniors, but will return 10
juniors, two sophomores and three
freshmen from a team that went
6-0 in Special District 4 to win the
league title and then won in the
playoffs for the 10th straight year.
Catlin Gabel will face No. 2
Portland Adventist in the champi-
onship on Saturday in Hillsboro.
———
Ducks’ slide could
force school into
money decision
RHS
0
1 —
1
CG
0
4 —
1
Goals — RHS Alejandro Llamas; CG Charley Ward
3, Luke Van Buskirk.
Saves — RHS Adolfo Bedolla 5; CG Goalkeeper 6.
By RYAN THORBURN
The Register-Guard
NBA
EUGENE — Mark Helfrich
hasn’t lost his sense of humor
during a bleak season.
During Oregon’s 45-20 loss to
USC on Saturday night, an ESPN
sports business reporter tweeted
that Phil Knight is willing to fund
a $10 million salary for a coach to
get the Ducks back in contention
for a national
championship.
“That’s the
nature of the
profession,”
Helfrich said
at his weekly
Sunday press
conference at
the
Knight-
f u n d e d
Helfrich
Hatfield-
D o w l i n
Complex. “It would be cool if it
was that easy.”
Before answering a follow-up
question, Helfrich joked: “I take it
that wasn’t me that was getting the
$10 (million)?”
The athletic department is still
paying the fourth-year coach to get
the program back on track after the
Ducks fell to 3-6 overall and 1-5 in
the Pac-12.
Helfrich said Oregon’s young
team didn’t have any issues dealing
with a late-arriving, laid-back
homecoming crowd at the Los
Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
But some players said they were
not ready for the Trojans.
“It’s very strange to say the
least,” senior tight end Johnny
Mundt said of being on the wrong
end of lopsided scores two years
after dominating opponents en
route to a Pac-12 championship and
the College Football Playoff title
game. “There’s downs where we’re
just getting stuffed in the backfi eld,
and I feel like we don’t know what
the heck we’re doing out there.
“But we’re fi guring it out, we’re
learning as we go. We’ve just got
to pick up things a lot quicker
and keep the momentum going,
See HELFRICH/2B
Trail Blazers hold off Suns
Portland
Trail Blazers
guard
Damian Lil-
lard, center,
drives to
the bas-
ket past
Phoenix
Suns center
Alex Len
during the
fi rst half
of an NBA
basketball
game in
Portland,
Ore., Tues-
day, Nov. 8,
2016.
AP Photo/Craig
Mitchelldyer
Lillard scores 38, McCollum adds 33 in a Portland victory
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Damian Lillard scored 38
points, including 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.
CJ McCollum added 33 points for the
Blazers, who have won three straight. Portland
Phoenix
Portland
121
124
led by as many as 18 points early in the game
but the Suns threatened down the stretch.
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 Portland up
119-116.
See BLAZERS/2B
NFL
Offi ciating again the story after mistakes in Seattle’s win
NFL says it is ‘absolutely
going to address’ situation
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
AP Photo/Butch Dill
In this Oct. 30, 2016, fi le photo, Seattle Seahawks cor-
nerback Richard Sherman (25) talks to an offi cial in the
fi rst half of an NFL football game against the New Or-
leans Saints in New Orleans.
SEATTLE — Richard Sherman took
the opportunity last week to criticize
NFL offi ciating for what he deemed
incorrect calls, almost daring the league
to fi ne 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 fi tting that just
a few days after making some bold
comments, Sherman was at the center
of another offi ciating fl ap 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 offi ciating, 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 Network 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 situation with our crew.”
Offi ciating controversy and Monday
night games in Seattle have become
almost a regular occurrence. For the
third time in fi ve 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 fl ag Sherman for unnecessary
roughness as he attempted to block Dan
Carpenter’s fi eld goal attempt at the end
of the fi rst 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
See OFFICIATING/2B
Sports shorts
Mariners trade for veteran catcher
SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle Mariners
have acquired catcher Carlos Ruiz from the Los
Angeles Dodgers in exchange for left-handed
pitcher Vidal Nuno.
The clubs announced the trade Monday at
the start of the general manager
meetings. The Mariners have
exercised the option on Ruiz
for the 2017 season worth $4.5
million.
The acquisition of Ruiz fi lls an
immediate need for Seattle after
the Mariners declined the option
Ruiz
on Chris Iannetta for 2017. Ruiz,
who will turn 38 before the start of next season,
hit .264 with three home runs and 15 RBIs in 62
games last season with the Phillies and Dodgers.
Ruiz was traded from Philadelphia to Los
Angeles in August.
Nuno appeared in a career-high 55 games last
season for Seattle and was 1-1 with a 3.53 ERA.
“I do coach my own
guys but I forgot, I guess
I should have asked Pete
when somebody asked
me a question about
one of his players, I
should have asked Pete
about the appropriate
response I guess.“
— Rex Ryan
Buffalo Bills coach in response to
criticism from Seattle Seahawks
coach Pete Carroll, who took
issue with an answer Ryan gave
reporters when asked about Sea-
hawks CB Richard Sherman.
Washington moves to No. 4 in
latest CFB playoff rankings
(AP) — Washington moved into fourth in
the College Football Playoff rankings, putting
the four remaining unbeaten teams from the
Power Five conference at the
top of the selection committee’s
second top 25.
Alabama, Clemson and
Michigan still hold the top three
spots. The committee’s fi rst
ranking of the season caused a bit of a stir
because the unbeaten Huskies were behind
Texas A&M last week. The Aggies then went
out and lost at Mississippi State to clear up the
mini-controversy.
Ohio State is behind Washington, but the
Buckeyes are still in fi ne shape. Ohio State
plays Michigan on Nov. 26 in a game that
could decide the Big Ten’s East division.
Louisville moved up a spot to sixth,
followed by Wisconsin and Texas A&M.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1953 — The U.S. Supreme
Court rules 7-2 that baseball is
not subject to antitrust laws,
maintaining the game is a
sport, not a business.
1996 — Evander Holy-
fi eld pounds Mike Tyson into
submission at 37 seconds of
the 11th round to win the
WBA heavyweight title
in Las Vegas. Holyfi eld, a
7-1 underdog, becomes the
second man to hold thetitle
three times.
2010 — Seattle’s Ichiro
Suzuki wins his 10th straight
Gold Glove to tie the AL
record for Gold Gloves by
an outfi elder shared by Ken
Griffey Jr. and Al Kaline.
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