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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 2017)
SPORTS WEEKEND, MARCH 25-26, 2017 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS Blue Moun- tain men’s and women’s soccer coach Art Mota, second from left, poses with Umatilla High School seniors (from left) Jac- queline Ortega, Luis Vallejo and Yesenia De La Cerda-Flores after the stu- dent-athletes signed National Letters of Intent to play soccer at BMCC in the fall on Wednesday in Umatilla. PENDLETON Timberwolves sign wave of locals Blue Mountain soccer program builds rosters from region’s schools By MATT ENTRUP East Oregonian When Art Mota was hired as the fi rst head coach of the Blue Mountain Community College soccer team, one of his primary goals was to build the core of his rosters with local talent. That goal is quickly becoming a reality as a new wave of area players have signed National Letters of Intent See TIMBERWOLVES/2B Staff photo by Matt Entrup HERMISTON NCAA Men’s Basketball Dawgs stunned in last minute Altman, Self ready to match wits again Oregon, Kansas coaches met early in careers By DAVE SKRETTA Associated Press Staff photo by Kathy Aney Hermiston’s Tucker Salinas (13) and Alex McAlpine (22), of Hood River, do a face off to start play in their high school lacrosse game on Friday at Kennison Field in Hermiston. Hood River scores three goals in 30 seconds to clinch win By ERIC SINGER East Oregonian The Hermiston lacrosse team stood just 50 seconds away from its fi rst win of the season, as it led the Hood River Eagles 6-5 until the Eagles began a furious fi nal surge. Hood River scored the tying goal with 49.5 seconds left and then scored two more goals in a 28 second span to stun the Bulldogs with an 8-6 victory Friday night to spoil Hermiston’s home-opener at Kennison Field. “Fifty seconds,” Hermiston coach Jacob Arnold said after the game, shaking his head. “We played a solid four quarters and that was our battle last year to have a complete game, we just fell short tonight.” Hood River’s tying goal came with a man advantage as Hermiston (0-3) had a player in the penalty box, and Arnold said that a missed slide from one of the defenders is what opened up a lane for the Eagles’s Jack McCaffrey to slip towards the net and fi re the ball in. Then Hood River (1-0) won the ensuing faceoff and sped right down the fi eld where Cale Brown zipped one into the net Lacrosse Staff photo by Kathy Aney Brady Christiansen (10), of Hermiston, carries the ball downfi eld during Friday’s lacrosse game against Hood River at Kennison Field. for the go-ahead goal with 32.5 seconds left. The next faceoff went Hood River’s favor as well, and just like last time, the Eagles went right down the fi eld where Brown scored the fi nal goal of the game with 21.6 seconds left to make it the fi nal 8-6 score. “Winning the faceoffs gave them the man advantage coming down the fi eld,” Hermiston junior defender Jake Palmer said, “so when they have four guys against our three it’s kind of tricky for us to defend on the quick passes. And they had fast, crispy passes there and fi nished them pretty good.” Hood River Hermiston 8 6 Defensive issues also were problematic for Hermiston early in the game, as Hood River grabbed the momentum and scored three quick goals early in the fi rst period in a span of 1:49 of game time to hold a 3-0 lead with 8:21 left to play in the fi rst. But after that fl urry, Hermiston’s defense tightened up and cut down on Hood River’s shooting lanes and allowed its offense to get to work. “We have some new players on the defensive end and we had some basic mistakes early,” Palmer said, “but we came together and talked about it as a team. We knew what we were all doing after that and we just played lacrosse.” Hermiston fi nally got on the scoreboard with 6:55 left in the second quarter, on an unassisted goal by Brady Christiansen to cut the defi cit to 3-1. Later with 2:33 See DAWGS/2B KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bill Self and Dana Altman fi rst matched wits more than two decades ago, when Self was trying to turn around tiny Oral Roberts and Altman was attempting the same in his fi rst season at Creighton. The young coaches combined to win 17 games that season. My, how far they’ve come. Both eventually succeeded in their rebuilding jobs, to the point they kept getting bigger and more glamorous offers elsewhere. Self would head off to Tulsa and Illinois before arriving at Kansas, where he has the top-seeded Jayhawks one game away from his third Final Four, while Altman would one day land at Oregon, which takes on Kansas on Saturday night. Neither coach could have imagined it when they faced off that November night in 1994. “I’ve known Bill for a very long time,” Altman conceded, pointing out they were also assistants in the Big Eight before becoming head coaches. “Bill has a way of getting the best out of each of his team. ... He’s always been at great programs and made them better.” This may be his best, too — better even than his 2008 national title team. The top-seeded Jayhawks See ELITE 8/3B Elite 8 #3 Oregon #1 Kansas Ducks Jayhawks (32-5) (31-4) • Today, 5:49 p.m. (TBS) • at Kansas City, Missouri Sports shorts Ex-Penn State president found guilty of child endangerment HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former Penn State president Graham Spanier has been found guilty of one count of child endangerment over his handling of a child sex abuse complaint against retired assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Jurors on Friday acquitted the 68-year-old Spanier of the other two counts he faced: conspiracy and another count of child endan- germent Spanier The verdict comes more than fi ve years after Sandusky was fi rst charged with sexually abusing children. An investigator told jurors in Spanier’s case that four of the eight young men who testifi ed during Sandusky’s trial that he had abused them were abused after a 2001 report that Sandusky had abused a boy in a team shower. “I did not feel I was unlucky. … I’m exactly where I need to be. God gave me this journey and I never questioned it for one second.“ — Dylan Ennis Oregon redshirt senior guard, who was once labeled by Sports Illustrated as the “unluckiest play- er in college basketball” after he transfered from Villanova prior to its national championship, and missed his fi rst season at Oregon with a broken foot. Seahawks continue to address depth, sign free agent linebacker RENTON, Wash. (AP) — The Seattle Seahawks have continued to address depth concerns at linebacker by signing veteran Michael Wilhoite to a one-year deal. Seattle announced Wilhoite’s signing Friday. Wilhoite has spent all fi ve of his NFL seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, becoming a starter for parts of the past three seasons. Wilhoite, 30, played mostly as an inside linebacker in the 49ers’ defensive system. He started all 16 games in 2014, 12 games in 2015 and six games last season. Wilhoite had a career- high 87 tackles in 2014 and last season had 55 tackles despite playing mostly in a reserve role. Wilhoite is the second linebacker signed by Seattle this offseason. The Seahawks previously reached a deal with Arthur Brown. THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1934 — Horton Smith wins the fi rst Masters, beating Craig Wood by one stroke. 1972 — Bill Walton scores 24 points to lead UCLA to an 81-76 victory over Florida State and the NCAA title. The Bruins fi nish with a 30-0 record and increase their winning streak to 45 straight. 2012 — In the NBA’s fi rst quadruple-overtime game since 1997, Joe Johnson scores 37 points and Josh Smith adds 22 to lead the Atlanta Hawks past Utah 139-133. The four overtimes tie for the third-longest game in NBA history. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com