East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, October 26, 2017, Image 10

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East Oregonian : E.O., October 26, 2017, Page Page 2B, Image 10

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Newspaper Page TextPage 2B East Oregonian College Soccer T-Wolves wrap up 2017 season Thursday, October 26, 2017 SPORTS FOOTBALL: Bucks focused on containing Bulldogs’ James, Neal Continued from 1B East Oregonian PENDLETON — The Blue Mountain Timberwolf men’s and women’s soccer teams wrapped up the regular season by hosting Treasure Valley on Wednesday. The BMCC men rallied from a three-goal deﬁ cit and earned a 3-3 draw with the Chukars while the women lost 5-0. For the men, Giovanni Madrigal, Mark Otton, and Anthony Carillo all scored goals for the Timberwolves, while Isaac Munoz-Ortega and Madrigal each had an assist. Goalkeeper Pedro Palacios tallied four saves. The team ﬁ nishes its inau- gural season 1-12-1 overall and 1-10-1 in NWAC East. For the women, BMCC (0-16, 0-14 NWAC East) goalkeeper Ashley Mendes stopped 17 of 22 shots. Hermiston this week, espe- cially on offense. The Bull- dogs’ offense runs through quarterback Andrew James, running back Jonathan Hinkle, and wide receiver Dayshawn Neal, who has caught 51 percent of Herm- iston’s completed passes this season. “I think every coach I’ve talked to that played Herm- iston has high praises of Neal and his ability to be worth a couple touchdowns,” Pend- leton coach Erik Davis said at practice on Wednesday. “The biggest thing that we’ve talked about as a program is what got us here and made us a solid defense is hopefully going to win us that football game, not changing what we’ve done. Do we see him (Neal) being a downﬁ eld threat? You bet. But at the same time we have some pretty tremendous athletes in our secondary matching up and our front 7 has been pretty good at run stopping so hopefully with good scheme and athleticism we can contain the run game too.” It will be interesting to keep an eye on how Pendle- ton’s defense tries to contain James’ dual-threat abilities as well. The last time Pendleton played a true dual-threat QB was Week 1 against La Grande’s Andrew Peasley, who ran around and threw through Pendleton’s defense. But Davis is conﬁ dent in his defense’s improvement from Week 1 to attack James better than it did Peasley. One boost will be the full return of junior outside linebacker Willie Camp, who is a full-go this week after an emergency appendectomy more than three weeks ago. Camp played sparingly last week against Bend, but will give the Buckaroos a boost in the run defense. And offensively, Pend- leton is facing a Hermiston defense that thrives on causing turnovers, but is susceptible to giving up the big plays. Davis says the key will be for the Buckaroos’ offense to run through quar- terback Nick Bower and to limit turnovers. “Nick’s matured as a QB over the last few weeks mainly in taking care of the football and not trying to do too much with it and not turning the ball over,” Davis said. “I truly think this game could come down to turnover ratio, if we give them more chances to be on offense, then we could be in for a long night but if we create some turnovers we’re in a better position to be successful. But Nick has to be good, has to be on, our offensive line has to keep him clean.” ON BULLDOGS SIDE- LINE: Since Hermiston met its own demise against Mountain View in Week 3, the Bulldogs have been playing lights out on offense. Their winning streak is thanks to a balanced attack led by James and reliable targets in the backﬁ eld like Hinkle and fellow senior Peter Earl, and of course Neal — who is on the verge of eclipsing 800 receiving years on the season. The depth of the senior class is undeniable. Behind Neal, senior Tyler Rohrman has racked up 218 yards and two touchdowns on just eight catches and the Hinkle-Earl duo is just as big of a threat on defense. Also on defense, AJ Tuia and Joey Gutierrez pack a punch and have combined for 71 total tackles and Tuia lead the team with three sacks. Hermiston has caused problems for opposing offenses all season, which is most recently highlighted by a 68-yard pick-six by Gutierrez in the Oct. 13 showdown with Bend. But with the big plays also comes some big mishaps. When the Bulldogs enter Round-Up Stadium, they will need to have their cleanest offense performance to date. Throughout the past eight weeks, Hermiston has fumbled the ball 12 times — only able to recover four of the 12 — and James’ interception tally rose to ﬁ ve after a ﬂ uky play two weeks ago against Bend where a Lava Bear broke through the offensive line and tipped and caught James’ pass. Neal, who is James’ favorite target, accounts for almost half of the fumbles (5). Some of those have been due to an extra effort on the part of Neal. One instance he had gotten the ﬁ rst down, and wanted to add a few more yards but instead lost control of the ball and gave up possession all together. It will be a battle against Pendleton, and Hermiston needs to be in it for the long haul by not only playing hard, but also playing smart. The defense will also need to be mistake free and put the pressure on Bower, who isn’t afraid to get his feet dirty. Stopping the run has been on Hermiston’s to-do list all season. Twice this year, the Bulldogs have given up 300 or more rushing yards and while Pendleton might not be known for their run the defensive line better be ready if and when the secondary diminishes Bower’s options. BUCKAROOS: Don Requa peptalk helped salvage a Pendleton win in 1969 Continued from 1B 21-18. “We were fortunate and lucky to get out of there with a win to keep the streak alive,” he said. The 1969 meeting has become known as “the chicken game” to the locals, and Fouquette still chuckles about it. During pre-game warmups that year in Hermiston, some Bulldog cheerleaders left some dead chickens in the home team’s locker room designed to ﬁ re up their team to try and end the dreadful losing streak. The cheerleaders even left a note behind that was signed by the Buckaroos. Fouquette said he and his team were clueless about the incident until a few years later when he became friends with a few Bulldog players and cheerleaders and was told of the incident. “It’s what makes it a huge rivalry,” Fouquette said. “It’s the biggest game of the year to the citizens of Pendleton and Hermiston. It’s really for bragging rights, Expectations are high for both teams to win.” When Fouquette was a senior in 1970, the Buck- aroos again came into the game 7-0 but this time they were more prepared from the start and went on to win the game 17-7 thanks to a better mindset and, of course, another Requa pep talk. “I can remember Requa saying ‘Most of you guys are going to be living here (Pend- leton) for the rest of your life and if you lose to them, you’ll have to listen to them talk about this at weddings, funerals and graduations, so by god you better get out there, take care of business and win the football game,’” Fouquette recalled. Hermiston ﬁ nally ended the streak against Pendleton in 1984 with a 27-14 come- from-behind victory. But Pendleton again dominated the series for the next decade- plus with 13 straight victories until the Bulldogs ﬁ nally started to build a winning program in the late 1990s and won in 1997 and then again in 1999. Mulvihill has seen both sides of the rivalry now after living in Hermiston for numerous years and as a school administrator and calls it a “very healthy rivalry between communities.” He even remembers the day he interviewed for an adminis- trator position with Herm- iston years ago, the second question he was asked was where he would sit during the game. However, as Pendleton was the big brother in the rivalry for more than half of a century, Hermiston has overtaken that role since the turn of the 21st century. The Bulldogs are 10-7 since 2000 and have won ﬁ ve straight to bring the all-time series record to 76-14-1. But that doesn’t mean that guys like Fouquette, Mulvhill and Boor, who have all made friends with former Herm- iston players, don’t miss the opportunity to reminisce about their dominant days. “You always talk about it, even when I had my 40-and-over baseball team I had guys from Hermiston and we’d always reminisce,” Fouquette said. “There’s some good-natured ribbing that goes on but when you get older and become friends and know people better, some of that stuff goes away, but you’ll always have bragging rights if your team wins. For us our teams were successful against Hermiston, and now we get to listen to those people from Hermiston that have been successful against us. It’s not a lot of fun but they have the right, they won the game and can say what they want and we just have to grin and bear it because we’ve been there and that’s part of the rivalry.” Which also makes it harder for Buckaroo alumni to hear that Friday’s Pend- leton-Hermiston game will be the 92nd and likely ﬁ nal meeting. With Hermiston leaving the OSAA for the WIAA starting with the 2018-19 season, the Bulldogs will have just one non-league game with a ﬂ oating bye week year-to-year, which makes scheduling a game with Pendleton very difﬁ cult. On top of that, Hermiston’s enrollment is nearly twice the size of Pendleton’s which begins to create a compet- itive balance issue, which is enforced more in today’s OSAA than it was when the two schools began playing. “There’s a lot of factors involved,” Hermiston athletic director Larry Usher said. “One of them is we only get one non-conference game a year, and it is during a rotating bye week. At the same time both of our schools, while we are really competitive in all sports including football, are really going different directions. Our community is continuing to grow and grow, and if there is a sport in high school athletics where numbers is an issue, it ends up being football.” Understandably, Buck- aroo alumni are devastated that the rivalry is ending. “I wish they could keep the rivalry,” Fouquette said. “The atmosphere is always good no matter where you’re playing. It’s still a very healthy rivalry that gets the kids excited, gets the coaches excited, and certainly gets the fans excited. I hate to see that go away, but like a lot of this redistribution within the OSAA a lot of rivalries have gone away like this one.” “Being on both sides of it, it makes me sad,” Mulvihill added. “We used to have rivalries with La Grande, Baker, Ontario, all of these east side competitive games and were’ losing another part of that tradition. The games are great communi- ty-bonding, quality entertain- ment that’s being taken away and it’s disappointing.” ———— Contact Eric at esinger@ eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0839. PIGSKIN PICKERS Week 8 Overall: Last Week: Hermiston at Pendleton Bend at Mt. View Arlington at Pilot Rock Burns at Irrigon WSU at Arizona USC at Arizona State Utah at Oregon Texans at Seahawks Steelers at Lions Broncos at Chiefs Ron Gibbs Clint Shoemake 56-14 9-1 Hermiston Mt. View Arlington Burns Arizona USC Utah Seahawks Steelers Chiefs 55-15 9-1 Hermiston Mt. View Arlington Irrigon WSU USC Utah Seahawks Steelers Chiefs ST. ANTHONY HOSPITAL IS ROOTING FOR J OHN A IROLDI Eric Singer Zachary Orem John Airoldi 54-16 52-18 50-20 6-4 7-3 7-3 Pendleton Hermiston Pendleton Mt. View Mt. View Mt. View Arlington Arlington Arlington Burns Burns Irrigon WSU WSU WSU Arizona State Arizona State Arizona State Utah Utah Oregon Seahawks Texans Seahawks Steelers Steelers Steelers Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs MID COLUMBIA PRODUCERS, INC. IS ROOTING FOR W ESTON P UTMAN Mike Appleton Jodi Bloomberg Weston Putman Brandon Case Alexis Mansanarez 50-20 7-3 Hermiston Mt. View Arlington Burns Arizona USC Oregon Seahawks Steelers Chiefs 47-23 5-5 Pendleton Mt. View Arlington Irrigon WSU Arizona State Utah Seahawks Steelers Chiefs 45-25 6-4 Hermiston Bend Arlington Burns WSU USC Oregon Seahawks Lions Chiefs 46-24 7-3 Hermiston Mt. View Arlington Irrigon WSU USC Oregon Seahawks Steelers Chiefs 37-33 4-6 Hermiston Mt. View Arlington Irrigon Arizona USC Utah Seahawks Lions Chiefs EASTERN OREGON HEATING & AIR ELMER’S IRRIGATION IS ROOTING FOR B RANDON C ASE A LEXIS M ANSANAREZ IS ROOTING FOR ROGERS TOYOTA IS ROOTING FOR J ODI B LOOMBERG GOOD LUCK! 211 S.E. Byers, Pendleton 541-966-0800 541-567-6211 www.eastoregonian.com HERMISTON HERALD SHERRELL CHEVROLET NW METAL FABRICATORS 4 SEASON’S PAINT CO. EAST OREGONIAN IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR IS ROOTING FOR R ON G IBBS C LINT S HOEMAKE E RIC S INGER M IKE A PPLETON Z ACHARY O REM