East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, September 21, 2017, Image 10

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East Oregonian : E.O., September 21, 2017, Page Page 2B, Image 10

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Newspaper Page TextPage 2B East Oregonian DAWGS: In need of a win Continued from 1B As important as momentum changing plays are, Faaeteete will tell you it simply comes down to playing fundamental football. The boys need to be in the right spot every play, tackling well, forcing those turnovers, he continued. While Fernandez did notched his ﬁ rst inception of the season against Mountain View, the other fundamentals including good, tight coverage when playing man and good funneling when playing zone were missing. Hermiston allowed Mountain View to run up and down the ﬁ eld for a total of 333 yards on 49 carries. The Cougars had 406 passing yards on 73 completions, and 12 ﬁ rst downs. If Bledsoe records those type of numbers Friday, then Hermiston will have another long trip back. Summit’s X-factor comes from it’s culture. “They expect to win when they take the ﬁ eld,” Faaeteete said. “After that state championship, it’s what they have been doing.” While the Storm has turned that expectation into a reality, Pendleton proved that any team — even one that hasn’t gotten off the best start — can challenge it. Hermiston’s key will be ﬁ nally ﬁ nding its offensive rhythm. Junior quarterback Andrew James has all the potential to be a true dual-threat QB. He’s leading the team in rushing yards, 383 on 59 carries, and has racked up 428 yards in the air. But his 46-percent completion rate needs much improvement. “What’s missing is his timing is off,” Faaeteete said. “He’s just looking to run because guys drop balls or we don’t complete the pass or we jump offsides — we’re just out of rhythm and that’s pretty much it. If we can get offensive rhythm going, then he will be better but until we can establish that, it is going to be hard.” With the keys to success at Hermiston’s disposal, the 7 p.m. match up has the potential to be every bit as exciting as a playoff game. It’s just going to be a matter of whether or not the Bulldogs can execute for the full 48 minutes. ———— Contact Alexis at aman- sanarez@eastoregonian.com or 541- 564-4542. Follow her on Twitter @almansanarez Thursday, September 21, 2017 SPORTS BUCKAROOS: Aiming for balanced offense Continued from 1B second consecutive less-than-stellar season. The Ravens went 1-8 last year and this year have started 0-3 after most recently falling to Hood River Valley 42-14 in the Special District 1 opener last week. Ridgeview has been outscored 118-47 in its three games this season, but played tough against the Buckaroos in last season’s meeting as Pendleton had to rally in the second half to salvage a 29-25 victory on the road in Bend. Pendleton coach Erik Davis realized the potential for a trap game this week, with the winless Ravens hungry for a victory and his Bucks are feeling conﬁ dent after a near-upset. A sluggish practice on Tuesday prompted a conversation about that exact topic. “We had a long conversation yesterday after practice because I got the same feeling about it,” Davis said on Wednesday. “We talk a lot about you can’t play down to a level of perception. You can perceive an 0-3 team as a bad team, but they took us to the wire and we had to come back and beat them last year. “And we’re a 1-2 team and in no position to think we’re not underdogs in each game and we’re preparing like that. We had a fantastic practice today and that told me they listen and tells me that this team is ready to go.” Offensively, Ridgeview presents a much different challenge than what the Buckaroos faced against the Storm. The Ravens are a run-heavy team that comes at its opponents with a lot of misdirection, motions, and jet sweeps to pick up yards and try to eat up the clock. It puts pressure on Pendleton’s defensive ends and outside linebackers to get containment on the outside and force the ball carriers inside to the heart of Pendleton’s defense. The Buckaroos faced a similar style two weeks ago against Putnam, which they had great success against. Junior linebacker Willie Camp says that the prior game experience will be a big help for the Buckaroos come game time. “Having that experience against Putnam will deﬁ nitely help us for sure,” he said. “They run the ball more, downhill, so we just have to do our job and I think we’ll win the game.” Davis added that Pendleton’s defensive game plan will to try and neutralize their run game. “We want to force them to throw to beat us,” he said. “If we can do that and minimize the majority of their run game, then that puts us at an advantage.” On offense, Pendleton hopes to regain a balanced attack that led to its success and victory in Week 2 where the Bucks ran for more than 108 yards and passed for 199 yards. Against Summit, the Bucks threw for 315 yards with quarterback Nick Bower and ran for just 93 as Summit’s strong front seven won the battle in the trenches. If Pendleton can ﬁ nd that balance and put Bower in better passing situations to distribute the ball to its plethora of receivers, the Buckaroos will be in good shape. But Davis believes the key to the game will come down to how the Buckaroos start out of the gates. “We have to start fast,” Davis said. “The biggest thing is if you get in a hole with a team like (Ridgeview) and they can eat the clock up pretty quick, so we want to get the football in the end zone early and often. And we need to keep the defense off the ﬁ eld as much as possible, establish a run game and try to move the chains, eat up some clock and then let Nick (Bower) get the ball to our athletes I think we’ll be in pretty good shape.” ———— Contact Eric at esinger@eastore- gonian.com or 541-966-0839. Follow him on Twitter @ByEricSinger. PREP FOOTBALL: Stanﬁ eld, Regis meet in rematch of 2016 2A title game Continued from 1B And for the Pirates, River- side rolls in with an unbeaten 2-0 record after throttling Imbler for a 50-18 victory last week. The Pirates last won three games in 2015, 2010 and 2009, and started the 2007 season 2-0 before losing the next seven. But things just feel different for both programs. Mac-Hi has taken some big steps under head coach Gary Robertson’s two years, ﬁ nding a good balance on offense and a steady defense. Riverside has found some offensive success with a ﬁ erce running game, led by senior back Aramis Corpus who has 323 rushing yards and two touchdowns in two games. Mac-Hi has won each of the last seven meetings between the two, most recently a 41-26 win over the Pirates last season in Boardman. Friday’s game starts at 7 p.m. UMATILLA (2-1) at PORTLAND CHRIS- TIAN (0-3), 7 p.m. — The Vikings will hit the road for their non-league ﬁ nale as they look to build upon last week’s victory and head into league play as strong as they can. In Week 3, Umatilla played a bit of a different brand of football as they dipped into 8-man game and beat Enterprise 30-18. The Vikings are averaging 24 points per game and 26.3 points against through three games. Portland Christian has had a rough start to the season, losing three games in blowout fashion, most recently a 48-13 loss to Stevenson (WA) last week. Portland Christian is aver- aging 13 points and 54.6 points against this season. LAKEVIEW (1-1) at IRRIGON (1-1), 7 p.m. — After two weeks on the road, the Irrigon Knights will host their 2017 home opener on Friday against the Lakeview Honkers. Irrigon won its ﬁ rst game of the season last week in a 24-8 win over Tri-Cities Prep (WA). The Knights’ defense is the strength of the team this year, giving up just 22 points in the two games. Lakeview comes in with an identical record after edging out Lost River for a 32-28 victory last week and losing to Burns 41-13 in Week 1. WESTON-MCEWEN (0-2) at UNION (0-3), 7 p.m. — The ﬁ rst two weeks have been a tough go for Weston- McEwen as they dropped a pair of games against some talented programs such as Grant Union and Mac-Hi. But the TigerScots hope things can turn around for them on Friday night, when they travel to take on the Union Bobcats. Union has lost to a pair of 3A schools in Umatilla and Riverside and then lost to Pilot Rock 36-26 last week. STANFIELD (0-2) at REGIS (0-3), 6 p.m. — In a rematch of the 2016 2A state championship game, Friday night’s meeting between Stanﬁ eld and Regis will feature two completely different teams than from the 2016 meetings. After nearly running roughshod through their schedules in 2016, rosters depleted by senior gradua- tions have had a hard time in 2017. Stanﬁ eld has lost a pair of games by a combined 79-24 score and Regis has dropped three by a combined 101-25 score. Last week, Stanﬁ eld lost to Grant Union 52-16 and Regis lost to Knappa 40-13. PILOT ROCK (1-2) at SHERMAN (1-2), 7 p.m. — Pilot Rock’s debut in 8-man football has been ﬁ lled with ups and downs through three weeks. The Rockets came up just short against Elgin in Week 1 before Echo blew them out in Week 2. But last week the Rockets ﬁ nally got into the win column with a 36-26 win over Union. Pilot Rock will try to make it two wins in a row on Friday when they travel to Sherman County to take on a Huskies team coming off of a 54-40 loss to Wallowa. TOLEDO (0-3) at HEPPNER (0-3), 7 p.m. — It has been an unchar- acteristically down season from the Heppner Mustangs so far in 2017, but it’s not nearly unknown territory for longtime coach Greg Grant. Heppner started the season 0-2 twice in 2010 and 2007 and have had three 1-2 starts that all resulted in playoff berths. The Mustangs have played three quality teams to start the season, but there is still plenty of time to turn things around. Next up for Heppner is Toledo, who like the Mustangs made the playoffs last season but sit winless in Week 4. Toledo most recently lost to St. Paul 61-6 last week, the same St. Paul team that Heppner lost 40-0 to in Week 1. ECHO (2-1) at PINE EAGLE (1-2), 2 p.m. — After back-to-back wins to start the season, Echo suffered its ﬁ rst loss last week in a 56-20 beating by Crane. This week Echo looks to turn it back around as they start league play with a road game against Pine Eagle. The Spartans are coming off of a 68-30 loss to Elgin. SOUTH WASCO (1-0) at ARLINGTON (2-1), 7 p.m. — Arlington made it two straight wins and two straight games scoring at least 60 points with a 69-26 win over Perrydale last week. On Friday Arlington hopes to make it three straight against South Wasco County, who comes in with just one game under its belts as a 36-14 win over McKenzie. PIGSKIN PICKERS Week 3 Overall: Last Week: Hermiston at Summit Ridgeview at Pendleton Riverside at Mac-Hi Echo at Pine Eagle Utah at Arizona Washington at Colorado Oregon at Arizona St. Seahawks at Titans Browns at Colts Cowboys at Cardinals Mike Appleton Ron Gibbs Eric Singer John Airoldi Jodi Bloomberg Weston Putman Clint Shoemake Zachary Orem Brandon Case Alexis Mansanarez 17-3 7-3 Summit Pendleton Mac-Hi Pine Eagle Utah Washington Oregon Titans Browns Cowboys 17-3 8-2 Hermiston Pendleton Mac-Hi Echo Utah Washington Oregon Titans Browns Cowboys 16-4 9-1 Summit Pendleton Riverside Echo Utah Washington Oregon Titans Colts Cowboys 15-5 7-3 Summit Pendleton Riverside Echo Utah Washington Oregon Seahawks Colts Cowboys 15-5 7-3 Summit Pendleton Mac-Hi Echo Utah Washington Oregon Titans Browns Cowboys 15-5 7-3 Summit Pendleton Mac-Hi Echo Arizona Washington Oregon Seahawks Colts Cowboys 15-5 8-2 Summit Pendleton Mac-Hi Echo Utah Washington Oregon Titans Browns Cowboys 14-6 8-2 Summit Pendleton Mac-Hi Echo Utah Washington Oregon Titans Colts Cowboys 12-8 5-5 Hermiston Pendleton Riverside Echo Arizona Washington Oregon Seahawks Colts Cardinals 12-8 6-4 Summit Pendleton Riverside Pine Eagle Utah Washington Oregon Seahawks Colts Cardinals 4 SEASON’S PAINT CO. SHERRELL CHEVROLET ST. ANTHONY HOSPITAL HERMISTON HERALD ROGERS TOYOTA IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR M IKE A PPLETON C LINT S HOEMAKE J OHN A IROLDI R ON G IBBS J ODI B LOOMBERG GOOD LUCK! Mid Columbia Producers, Inc. 345 N. 1st Place, Hermiston, OR 97838 541-289-5015 www.mcpcoop.com 211 S.E. Byers, Pendleton 541-966-0800 541-567-6211 www.eastoregonian.com EAST OREGONIAN ELMER’S IRRIGATION IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR EASTERN OREGON HEATING & AIR B RANDON C ASE IS ROOTING FOR Z ACHARY O REM A LEXIS M ANSANAREZ MID COLUMBIA PRODUCERS, INC. IS ROOTING FOR W ESTON P UTMAN NW METAL FABRICATORS IS ROOTING FOR E RIC S INGER