Page 12A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Saturday, October 28, 2017
FOOTBALL: Hermiston won its state title in 2015
Continued from 1A
“I really feel this is going
to be a hiatus, not the end,”
he said.
5:20 p.m. Spoken like
a true politician, Umatilla
County
Commissioner
George Murdock split his
loyalties down the middle
as he prepared to enter the
stadium gates.
Murdock’s granddaughter,
Leslie Browning, attends
Hermiston High School,
though on Friday he stood
alongside Susan Bower,
whose son, Nick, plays quar-
terback for the Buckaroos.
“Hermiston folks are
certainly our friends, but
when it comes to football, it’s
fun to have a good time,” said
Bower, president of Eastern
Oregon Business Source.
Murdock lamented the
loss of what he described as
a fun rivalry between friendly
cities.
“There’s been people
coming to these games for
years,” he said. “It’s kind of
hard to let it go.”
5:50 p.m. Two school
buses filled with members of
the Hermiston High School
dance team and cheerleading
squad file into lot near the
livestock pens behind the
Round-Up arena.
Hermiston
Athletic
Director Larry Usher is
helping out at the grill as
Bulldog students and fans
gathered for burgers at the
pre-game tailgate.
Usher isn’t very romantic
about the end Pendle-
ton-Hermiston rivalry. In fact,
he doesn’t think Hermiston
would care that much about
Friday’s game if it was earlier
in the season and didn’t affect
playoff position.
“I disagree with the people
that think that it’s a shame
that it’s going away,” he said.
Hermiston High School,
with its 1,648 students, is
more than double the size of
its counterpart in Pendleton.
Usher pointed out that
Hermiston’s other former
rivals on the Interstate 84
corridor — La Grande, Baker
and Ontario — had already
dropped off their schedule.
While
Hermiston’s
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Hermiston’s fans cheer after Dayshawn Neal scored a touchdown in the first quarter
of the Bulldogs’ 42-15 win against Pendleton on Friday in Pendleton.
population advantage has
lead to better results on the
field against the Bucks, Tom
Ditton can remember the time
when results were reversed.
When Ditton attended
HHS in the 1960s, the town’s
population was 1,050, fewer
people than there are high
school students today.
Ditton’s teams lost all
three years he played for the
Bulldogs.
“I used to say it was kind
of like a graduation require-
ment,” he said. “To come up
here and get beat.”
Despite the lopsidedness
of the games back then,
Ditton said the rivalry was
friendly and has continued
that way until the very end.
He still counts some of the
boys he played against as his
friends.
For Ditton, there won’t be
any bragging rights regard-
less of who wins the game.
“There’s nothing to brag
about,” he said. “We’re all in
this together.”
5:50 p.m. Standing in
the former Albertsons parking
lot for the PHS tailgate party,
Chuck West made no bones
about his rooting interest.
“I’m a true blue Buck-
aroo,” West said, wearing a
bright green PHS jacket.
West is a retired teacher
and assistant coach for the
Buckaroos varsity basketball
team, though his family has
plenty of ties to Hermiston.
His wife, Dorene, was an
HHS cheerleader, and while
their son Shann was a four-
sport athlete at PHS, he is
now the Hermiston tennis
coach.
Even West himself spent
six years teaching at HHS —
he was there in 1984 when
the Bulldogs defeated Pend-
leton for the first time in 62
years. Despite the apparent
conflicts, both he and Dorene
insisted there is no feuding at
the dinner table.
“I’ve been on both sides,”
Dorene West said. “Now that
I don’t have kids playing, I
can’t lose.”
6
p.m.
Buckaroos
players arrive at the tailgate,
high-fiving excited fans who
cheer as they run past.
Two students, sophomore
Vanessa Schmidt and senior
Kacey Robbins, wore the
jerseys of their boyfriends,
Buckaroos receiver Tanner
Stephan and linebacker
Brendan Bedolla, respec-
tively. Schmidt said the week
at school has been intense as
they prepared for the game.
“I feel like everybody has
been super hyped,” she said.
While Pendleton and
Hermiston kids are largely
friends, Schmidt said they
are very competitive when
it comes to one-upping each
other in sports.
“We want to make it a
good game,” she said. “We’re
feeling pretty confident.”
6:20 p.m. Before the
crowd begins to migrate to
the arena, the cheerleaders
perform a short routine to
“Sweet Caroline.”
Their audience continued
to mill about the area
before perking up once Neil
Diamond hits the chorus.
Good times never seemed
so good
Holding a sign that
read “Beat the Bucks,”
Hermiston sophomore Max
Rahm doesn’t have a long
institutional memory of the
Pendleton-Hermiston rivalry,
but she does know it’s their
last game against each other,
a fact that escaped some of
the friends hanging out with
her.
Rahm said Hermiston’s
impending move to the
Washington Interscholastic
Activities Association was a
chance to make new memo-
ries for the Bulldogs.
Wearing a crown and a
purple-and-gold scarf, junior
Derek McBride took a similar
position. He respected the
tradition of the rivalry but
was also excited for the new
experience.
One of McBride’s favorite
Pendleton-Hermiston memo-
ries was last year’s game,
where he absorbed the excite-
ment and energy of being in
the student section.
“There’s nothing like a
rivalry game,” he said.
The high school students
interviewed at the tailgate all
agreed that the school that
won had ultimate bragging
rights, or “the final say” as
McBride called it.
6:30 p.m. While some
fans might play down the
significance,
Hermiston
School Board member Jason
Middleton said it would be
huge for the Bulldogs to score
a win in their final matchup
with Pendleton.
“It’s always been one of
the biggest rivalries,” said
Middleton, a 1990 HHS grad-
uate. “It was one we always
enjoyed winning.”
For decades, Middleton
said Pendleton had the upper
hand. But as Hermiston has
grown as a community, that
has helped to even the score.
Off the field, Middleton
said the towns will continue
to thrive hand in hand repre-
senting Eastern Oregon.
“A rivalry’s a rivalry,
but at the end of the day, we
both live in this agricultural
community,” he said. “I think
everybody looks at us as one
group.”
7 p.m. A packed Herm-
iston visitors’ section has a lot
to cheer about after the Bucks
kickoff to the Bulldogs.
The crowd erupts several
times as Hermiston jumps
out to 14-0 lead, only to grow
a little more restless when
Pendleton scores and the
Bulldogs stall on a few drives.
An occasional “Let’s go
Dawgs” or a stray cowbell
punctuates the quieted crowd,
with McBride finding himself
on the arena’s dirt track,
shouting words of encourage-
ment to team.
Highland Hills Elementary
School Principal Jake Bacon
and Micah Mercer, and arts
and multimedia teacher at
Hermiston High School, sat
together and analyzed the
plays as they unfolded.
Mercer graduated in 1999,
and played on a series of
Bulldogs teams that beat the
Bucks.
“It was going to die even-
tually,” Mercer said of the
rivalry.
As for the bragging rights?
Hermiston had already estab-
lished its advantage when it
won its state title in 2015, a
team that counted Mercer as
an assistant coach.
Even in its heyday, that’s
an honorific Pendleton hasn’t
achieved.
7:39 p.m. Standing
side by side, Garrett Later
and Greg Piper made for an
interesting pair.
Later, who proudly says
he is Hermiston born and
bred, wore his HHS letterman
jacket while his cousin, Piper,
had a green PHS shirt under-
neath his jacket. Later, who
graduated from HHS in 2007
and played defensive end for
the Bulldogs, said winning
this game would be icing on
the cake, though he will miss
the game and its legacy.
“I don’t like that they’re
going to Washington and all
that,” he said. “It’s like you’re
walking away from home.”
Piper, whose daughter
teaches at PHS and grand-
daughter runs cross-country
for the Buckaroos, described
the game as Umatilla Coun-
ty’s Super Bowl.
“It’s all about having fun,”
he said.
8:46 p.m. After Pend-
leton dominated the second
quarter, halftime was filled
with award presentations. But
the second half belonged to
Hermiston, and eventually
one crowd got louder while
the opposite side grew silent.
A Hermiston interception and
a quick touchdown gave the
Bulldogs plenty of breathing
room. On their next drive,
the Buckaroos punted on
fourth-and-8, down 35-15
with 8:53 left in the game.
“That’s it,” said someone
in the Pendleton stands,
which began to clear out soon
after the change in posses-
sion. “That’s the end.”
For how the game ended,
and more photos, see today’s
sports section.
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