Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 2017)
Thursday, September 7, 2017 SPORTS BULLDOGS: Game will be played on MARINERS: Next host the Angels from 1B Saturday if smoke doesn’t lift by Friday Continued Houston took a 2-0 lead Page 2B East Oregonian route to a 35-14 defeat. Although the outcome was less than ideal, the Bulldogs closing spark was a brief look in to what they are capable of. “We started executing because we got a little bit of momentum by forcing a turnover on defense,” Faae- teete said. If all cylinders are rolling on Friday and the defense can produce big plays, like Adrian Tuia’s interception, and the offense can click early, with an even better performance from Andrew James, than the Bulldogs have a good chance at avenging last year’s defeat. This time around, Lewiston doesn’t have the same offensive threat. After losing quarterback Colton Richardson to graduation, the Bengals are rebuilding with a new player at the helm of the offense and a new coach leading that charge. If the Bulldogs practice what coach preaches, and pay attention to the details a fourth quarter comeback won’t be necessary. “It’s in the little things,” Faaeteete emphasized after yet another practice indoors Continued from 1B are still working out some winkles. But with the first- game jitters behind them, there is an opportunity to show how far they have came in the short week they have had to prepare for a familiar foe. “We’ll take it one play, one snap at a time,” Faae- teete said. “At the end of the day it’s who improves from week to week. They’ve got to deal with this smoke too so it’s not going to be an excuse for either team.” Last year, the Bulldogs entered the match up against the Bengals with the same record and a similar outing to open their season — a large fourth quarter deficit and a late effort that simply wasn’t enough. In Hermiston’s 2017 season opener, the Bulldogs scored only one touchdown the first half while Union (WA) had no problems getting three on the board. The last 10 minutes were the strongest for Hermiston — scoring two touchdowns six minutes apart — but the team continued to trail until the final whistle blew in en Wednesday. Fundamentals like not covering down the correct lane on special teams, drop- ping passes, or simple lazy routes can hurt or help the Bulldogs on Friday. With play makers in the senior class like Tuia and wide receiver Dayshawn Neal, creating havoc for their opponents will be even more special once the lights come on. “They’ve got a lot riding on this season,” Faaeteete said. “You’ve got to leave Oregon with a bang, and if you can’t show up consistently week in and week out then you’re just another should-of, could-of, would-of team.” If the air quality stays at an unhealthy level through Friday, the game will move to Saturday at 7 p.m. If at that time conditions don’t improve the game will be canceled and Hermiston’s 2017 schedule will continue as planned. ———— Contact Alexis at aman- sanarez@eastoregonian. com or 541-564-4542. Follow her on Twitter @ almansanarez. in the fourth when Josh Reddick singled with one out, Yuri Gurriel walked and Gonzalez followed with a two-run double off the base of the wall in right- center. ASTROS MOVES McCullers was acti- vated off the 10-day DL (back discomfort) to start Wednesday night. . RHP James Hoyt was recalled from Triple-A Fresno for his third stint this season with the Astros. Hoyt was 1-0 with a 4.98 ERA in 38 relief appearances this season with Houston. MARINERS MOVE INF Shawn O’Malley was outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma. O’Malley hit .229 in 89 games with Seattle in 2016, but spent most of 2017 on the disabled list. He hit .205 in 20 games at Tacoma. TRAINER’S ROOM Astros: Marisnik, who has been bothered by a groin issue, pinch ran in the ninth. ... 2B Jose Altuve, who leads the A.L. in batting at .351, but is hitless in his last three games, was not in the starting lineup. “Off day. The world’s still AP Photo/John Froschauer Seattle Mariners’ Nelson Cruz hugs Kyle Seager after Seager hit a solo home run on a pitch from Houston Astros starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. during the fifth inning of Wednesday’s game in Seattle. OK and he’ll be back in there the next time we play,” Hinch said. “He’s got a well-deserved off day. I can steal another day tomorrow with the off day, another half-day on Friday before the night game, so this will be a nice break for him. . RHP Michael Feliz pitched one inning in rebab start Wednesday for the Single-A Quad Cities River Bandits, retiring all three batters he faced. UP NEXT Astros: RHP Collin McHugh (2-2, 3.25) opens the four-game series at Oakland on Friday following a day off. Mariners: After a day off on Thursday, RHP Mike Leake (1-0, 2.57) makes his second start for Seattle to open the three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels at Safeco Field on Friday. Leake, acquired from St. Louis on Aug. 30, allowed two-first inning runs in his Mariners debut, but settled in for seven strong innings to pick up the victory in a 3-2 win over Oakland. BUCKS: Consistent running game, stout defense will be crucial on Friday dealing with an unorthodox offense is kind of tough because you can’t simulate the speed and the offensive fronts,” he said, “but we’re all in the same boat here in Oregon. Is it ideal? No. We’d love to be able to get outside and spread things out, but everyone’s in the same boat and we’ll try to move forward and get as much out of it as we can.” Last season, Putnam (1-0) smacked Pendleton around the field in the Week 2 meeting in Milwaukie, sending Pendleton home with a 49-21 loss. The King- smen stumped the Buckaroos defense with a lot of misdi- rection out of the Wing-T formation and sprinted to a 35-7 lead by halftime. Putnam’s offense is led by sophomore quarterback Marcellus Kenion and senior running backs Isaiah Schum- acher and Curtis Hoyle, Continued from 1B Pendleton junior Brendan Bedolla said at practice on Wednesday. “We all know we can play better than Week 1 and we want to be able to work on it and show it but the conditions right now are really constricting on how we can practice and prepare ourselves.” Pendleton coach Erik Davis said that he and his coaches discussed how a possible full week of indoor practices could be beneficial to the health of the team, with kids possibly being fresher come game time without a week of practice bumps and bruises. However, he said one issue could be timing between quarterback and receivers as well as the Buck- aroos defense trying to learn the complex Wing-T offense that Putnam runs. “Going into a week who led the Kingsmen to a 14-7 victory over Molalla in Week 1. Schumacher ran for 70 yards on nine carries and Hoyle ran for 67 yards on six carries, while Kenion went 4 for 8 for 60 yards and a touchdown. “We know what’s coming, but stopping it is a different story,” Davis said of Putnam’s offense. “It’s an interesting offense, shows a lot of misdirection and it we don’t play assignment football, it’ll be a long night. But if we do, we believe we have the athletes to take care of it.” Here are some other storylines to watch for on Friday night: SMOKED OUT? School officials for both Pendleton and Rex Putnam have been in constant contact this week about contingency plans for Friday’s game in case the smoke does not let up enough. Pendleton athletic director Troy Jerome said on Wednesday that primarily he’s not only worried about the smoke but also if Inter- state 84 will be open and safe enough to allow the school buses to travel on. He also added that there have been alternatives discussed, No. 1 being moving the game to Milwaukie if the air clears up there but not in Pendleton. The last option is to push the game to Saturday afternoon, hoping it buys a little more time for the smoke to clear. “Us as a coaching staff we just have to get the kids prepared for a Friday night game here at the high school,” Davis said, “and if things changed we’ll adjust on the fly.” RUN DEFENSE A POSITIVE: It is easy to say that the Pendleton run defense struggled against La Grande in Week 1, but at a closer glance it was not as bad as the game showed. La Grande QB Andrew Peasley was the thorn for the Buckaroos, running for 119 yards and three TDs. However the Tigers’ two primary running backs ran for just 25 yards on 14 carries and Pendleton tallied 10 tackles for loss in the game as the Buckaroos’ front was stout at pressuring the backfield. The issues came in the inability to tackle in space and set an edge when Peasley started to scramble. “Watching film, we got beat by a very good D-I athlete (Peasley), but we did play well at times,” Davis acknowledged. “We got them into third-and-long situations ... it’s never easy to have the conversation with an 0-1 team but there we some positives there and I didn’t have to make anything up. We played good run defense and now we have to do it again this week.” RUN, BUCKS, RUN: The ground game was not utilized a whole lot by Pendleton Week 1, but when it was it was a bright spot for the team. With running backs Shawn Yeager and Aiden Patterson, Pendleton aver- aged 5.6 yards per carry, with Yeager gaining 36 yards on eight attempts and Patterson with 32 yards on four attempts. “We did what we were asked,” Yeager said. “We tried pushing for more and got what we could and it worked ... I know our offen- sive line has been grinding and I like them.” ———— Contact Eric at esinger@ eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0839. Follow him on Twitter @ByEricSinger. PIGSKIN PICKERS Week 1 Putnam at Pendleton Lewiston at Hermiston Stanfield at Cascade Heppner at Grant Union Boise State at WSU Nebraska at Oregon Minnesota at OSU Seahawks at Packers Giants at Cowboys Chargers at Broncos Ron Gibbs John Airoldi Clint Shoemake Eric Singer Pendleton Lewiston Cascade Grant Union WSU Oregon Minnesota Packers Cowboys Broncos Pendleton Hermiston Stanfield Heppner WSU Oregon Minnesota Packers Cowboys Broncos Putnam Hermiston Stanfield Grant Union WSU Oregon Minnesota Seahawks Cowboys Broncos Putnam Lewiston Cascade Heppner WSU Oregon Minnesota Packers Cowboys Broncos Mike Appleton Jodi Bloomberg Weston Putman Alexis Mansanarez Pendleton Pendleton Pendleton Pendleton Hermiston Lewiston Hermiston Lewiston Cascade Cascade Stanfield Cascade Grant Union Grant Union Grant Union Grant Union WSU WSU Boise State WSU Oregon Oregon Oregon Oregon Minnesota Oregon State Oregon State Minnesota Packers Packers Seahawks Packers Cowboys Cowboys Cowboys Cowboys Broncos Broncos Chargers Broncos Zachary Orem Brandon Case Pendleton Putnam Hermiston Lewiston Stanfield Cascade Grant Union Grant Union WSU WSU Oregon Oregon Minnesota Oregon State Seahawks Packers Cowboys Giants Broncos Chargers Mid Columbia Producers, Inc. 345 N. 1st Place, Hermiston, OR 97838 541-289-5015 www.mcpcoop.com IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR MID COLUMBIA PRODUCERS, INC. C LINT S HOEMAKE M IKE A PPLETON SHERRELL CHEVROLET 4 SEASON’S PAINT CO. HERMISTON HERALD NW METAL FABRICATORS IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR W ESTON P UTMAN R ON G IBBS E RIC S INGER ROGERS TOYOTA ELMER’S IRRIGATION IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR J ODI B LOOMBERG B RANDON C ASE IS ROOTING FOR GOOD LUCK! 211 S.E. Byers, Pendleton 541-966-0800 541-567-6211 www.eastoregonian.com EAST OREGONIAN ST. ANTHONY HOSPITAL IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR EASTERN OREGON HEATING & AIR J OHN A IROLDI IS ROOTING FOR Z ACHARY O REM A LEXIS M ANSANAREZ