SPORTS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2016
1B
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HEPPNER
Heppner stopped short in semifi nals rematch
Mustangs fall
to Regis Rams
Football
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
HILLSBORO — In
27 years as a head coach,
Heppner’s Greg Grant has
never had a team give up two
kickoff return touchdowns in
a game.
Well, until Saturday after-
noon.
The Regis Rams used two
kickoff return touchdowns
to swing momentum in their
favor before pulling away for
a 27-6 victory over Heppner
in the 2A state semifi nals
on Saturday at Liberty High
School. It was also revenge
for the Rams, who fell 26-3
to Heppner in the 2015 semi-
fi nals.
Heppner
Regis
6
27
“Every time you kick off
you have the momentum, it’s
either the start of the game,
start of the half, or you just
scored,” Grant said after the
game, “and to give up two
big plays I mean, man. I’m
going to lose a lot of sleep
over that because that’s
something we’ve never ever
done, and I just detest. But I
can’t blame my kids so much
as they (Regis) had just had
too many athletes in space.”
The fi rst return came
in the second quarter right
after Heppner scored its only
touchdown of the game, a
six-yard pass from Kevin
Smith to Beau Wolters. On
the kickoff, Logan Grieb
squibbed it to the near side-
line where Regis’ Brandon
Piete corralled the bouncing
kick at his own 20, made
a few moves and outran a
pair of Heppner defenders
down the sideline for the
touchdown.
The sequence was frus-
trating for Grant because it
was the Rams that went to
halftime with the lead 10-6,
despite having just 61 yards
of offense on 19 plays as well
as one turnover in the half
because of a tremendous effort
by the Mustangs defense.
“It kind of makes me sick
that we played that good of
defense and we played that
hard to just have a couple
letdowns on special teams,”
Grant said.
See HEPPNER/2B
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Heppner’s Coby Dougherty is wrapped up by a host of Regis defenders in the Mus-
tangs’ 27-6 loss to the Rams on Saturday in Hillsboro.
STANFIELD
Tigers ride defense to the ’ship
Stanfield beats
Kennedy in 2A
semifinals
Stanfi eld’s
Enoel
Angel and
Jose Gar-
cia bring
down
Kennedy’s
Bishop
Mitchell in
the Tigers’
32-13 win
against
the Trojans
on Sat-
urday in
Hillsboro.
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
HILLSBORO — For the fi rst
time since 1957, the Stanfi eld
Tigers will play for a football
state championship.
The No. 2
Tigers beat the
Football
No. 3 Kennedy
Trojans 32-13
in
the
2A
Stanfi eld
semifi nals
on
Saturday night
at Liberty High
School, exacting
the revenge they
were determined
Kennedy
to get following
last year’s loss to
the Trojans also
in the semifi nals.
“The town of Stanfi eld has
been waiting a long time to get
to a state championship and man
it feels good to do it,” Stanfi eld
coach Davie Salas said with a
See TIGERS/3B
Staff photo by
E.J. Harris
32
13
PENDLETON
College Football
EOU holds on against Doane
Mountaineers
earn fi rst
playoff win in
program history
East Oregonian
CRETE, Neb. — The
fi rst one never comes easy.
The No. 9 Eastern
Oregon Mountaineers came
up with several clutch plays
in front of a hostile crowd,
then was able to rely on its
defense and running game
to close out
T h e
NAIA Playoffs
No. 7 Doane
Mountain-
34-28 for the
eers
(9-2)
p r o g r a m ’s
led nearly
#9 EOU
#7 Doane
first-ever
the
entire
playoff win
game after
on Saturday
senior quar-
at Al Papik
terback Zach
Field.
Bartlow tossed the fi rst of
“Credit to Doane,” four touchdowns less than
said EOU head coach Tim three minutes in, but the
Camp. “They’re a really Tigers (8-3) were never far
good football team, they behind and used a pair of big
played the game of football plays on special teams and
the way it’s supposed to be a steady rushing attack to
played. Eastern Oregon was keep the gap within a score.
Doane returner Drew
able to beat a very good
football team.”
See EOU FOOTBALL/2B
34
28
Rough weekend for Timberwolves
Volleyball and
basketball teams
suffer losses
East Oregonian
TACOMA, Wash. — The
Blue Mountain Timber-
wolves’ reign over NWAC
volleyball was interrupted
by the Lower Columbia Red
Devils as they claimed their
fi rst title since 1991 at the
NWAC Championships on
Sunday.
The four-time defending
T-Wolves
entered
the
bracket as a long shot with
the No. 13 overall seed
after fi nishing fourth in the
NWAC East during regular
season play, but as some of
the tournament’s top seeds
suffered early upsets it
appeared the path to another
title was becoming less
cluttered by the round.
But after getting bumped
into the loser’s bracket
during Friday’s action, the
T-Wolves ran into a very
familiar foe that edged them
from the tournament by the
narrowest of margins.
Coming off a 2-0 win
over Bellevue that started
their day, the T-Wolves were
unable to close out East
Region champion Walla
Walla in a defensive battle
the Warriors won in three,
25-18, 19-25, 15-13.
The teams combined
for 133 digs, the most in
any match on Saturday,
and Blue Mountain was
led there by the 19 each of
sophomores Miah Perez and
Bailey Tillotson. Perez was
the only BMCC player to
earn all-tournament honors,
See TIMBERWOLVES/2B
Sports shorts
Klinsmann fi red by US soccer
NEW YORK (AP) — In a sign of just how
much American soccer has grown up, U.S.
national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann was
fi red after a pair of losses in the fi nal round
World Cup qualifying.
Six days after a 4-0 loss at
Costa Rica dropped the Americans
to 0-2, Klinsmann was terminated
after nearly 5 1/2 years during a
meeting Monday at a Los Angeles
hotel with U.S. Soccer Federation
President Sunil Gulati and
Secretary General Dan Flynn.
Klinsmann
Los Angeles Galaxy coach
Bruce Arena is the favorite to succeed
Klinsmann, and his hiring could be announced
as early as Tuesday. Arena coached the national
team from 1998 to 2006.
Qualifying resumes when the U.S. hosts
Honduras on March 24 and plays four days later
at Panama.
“The play calls were
there, real simple. I
was trying not to over-
complex things, just
stick to my reads and
not think too much.
It defi nitely played
dividends.“
— Marcus McMaryion
Oregon State football quar-
terback after throwing fi ve
touchowns in the Beavers’ 42-17
win over Arizona on Saturday to
end a fi ve-game losing streak. It
was the fi rst time since 2013 that
an OSU passer had thrown fi ve
touchdowns in a game.
Oregon rallies past No. 11 Utah
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Justin Herbert
hit Darren Carrington for a 17-yard touchdown
pass with two seconds remaining to give Oregon a
30-28 upset victory over No. 11 Utah on Saturday,
putting the Utes’ hopes of a Pac-12
championship in jeopardy.
Herbert led the Ducks, who have
struggled all season and suffered
several lopsided losses, on a 10-play,
75-yard drive in just over two
minutes, capping it with the TD pass
to Carrington. Carrington was initially called out
of bounds but that call was reversed after a replay
showed he got a foot down inbounds.
Herbert fi nished the game with 324 yards
passing and three TDs. He also scored on a 1-yard
run in the fourth quarter.
The Utes had taken a 28-24 lead with 2:18
remaining off a Troy Williams 30-yard touchdown
pass but the Ducks then began their comeback
drive.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1875 — Harvard beats Yale
4-0 in the schools’ fi rst football
meeting. With 15 players on
each side, the game is a mix of
rugby and soccer.
1950 — The Fort Wayne
Pistons edge the Minne-
apolis Lakers 19-18 in the
lowest-scoring game in NBA
history. John Oldham leads
the Pistons with fi ve points
and George Mikan had 15 of
the Lakers’ points.
1986 — Mike Tyson
becomes
the
youngest
heavyweight champion ever
when he knocks out Trevor
Berbick in the second round
to win the WBC heavyweight
title in Las Vegas.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com