SPORTS
TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2018
1B
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Prep football
East wins in Shrine Game comeback
By GERRY STEELE
Baker City Herald
The East scored two touch-
downs in the final 7:34 of the
fourth quarter Saturday night to
earn a 20-8 come-from-behind win
over the West in the 66th-annual
East-West Shrine All-Star Football
Game at Baker Bulldog Memorial
Stadium.
The win, the East’s fourth
straight, improves the East’s over-
all lead in the series to 33-30-3.
The game is a fundraiser for the
Portland Shriners Hospital for
Children.
Trailing 8-6 in the fourth quar-
ter, the East rallied on a 57-yard,
8-play drive.
The big play was a 34-yard
pass from Ontario’s Mike Mejia to
Jacob Justensen of Sherman, set-
ting the East up with a first down
at the West 7.
Three running plays later, Stay-
ton’s Jerry Daniels gave the East
the lead for good on a 1-yard
sweep to the left. Mejia connected
with Ben Dunn of Cascade Chris-
tian for the two-point conversion
and a 14-8 East lead.
Approximately three minutes
later, Glide’s Cyller Cunningham
scored on a 1-yard run to cap the
scoring.
The East scored on its first pos-
session in the first quarter when
Cascade
Christian’s
Holden
Schaan connected with Daniels on
a 9-yard swing pass with 5:04 left
in the period.
The score remained 6-0 East
until 10:49 remaining in the fourth
quarter.
Then, the West mounted its
only sustained drive leading to a
44-yard touchdown pass from St.
Paul’s Holden Smith to Brandon
Piete of Regis.
On the play, the left-handed
Smith rolled to his left and found
Piete breaking toward the end zone
at the East 5. Piete caught the ball
over his shoulder and beat an East
defender to the end zone.
The rest of the game saw the
teams combine for seven turnovers
and 17 penalties for 155 yards.
The game was delayed for about
half an hour due to a thunderstorm
that passed through the Baker City
area at about 7:30 p.m.
The storm hit just at the end of
the first quarter, sending the teams
to their respective locker rooms.
Play resumed shortly after 8
p.m. During the delay a bright
rainbow could be seen stretching
from South Baker over Baker High
School toward Virtue Flat.
Daniels led East running backs
with 42 yards on 8 carries. Schaan
finished 9-of-13 passing for 100
yards. Dunn caught five passes for
55 yards.
Dru Cook of Scio led the West
squad with 41 yards on six carries.
Smith was 7-of-16 passing for 99
yards. Wyatt Riedel of Estacada
caught three passes for 34 yards.
Wyatt Stea-
gall (99) from
Heppner,
Brett Speed
(82) from
Weston-McE-
wen and
Chris Weinke
(15) from Pi-
lot Rock pose
for a photo
after the
East-West
Shrine Game
on Saturday
in Baker
City. The trio
played for the
East team,
which won
in comeback
fashion.
Photo contributed by
John Steagall
M’s rebound
after lost lead
to win in 12th
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
By STEPHEN HAWKINS
AP Sports Writer
three of 129 FBS teams last season ran
fewer plays per game than in 2016. Seven
teams averaged at least 80 plays per game
last year, half as many as in 2016 and the
fewest since 2011. There were 31 teams
that ran fewer plays per game last season
than in 2016, but saw their average time of
possession increase.
Championship Analytics Inc., a com-
pany that provides dozens of FBS schools
a weekly advanced metrics breakdown
of their upcoming game, uses drives per
game to measure pace. Responding to a
request from The Associated Press, CAI’s
research showed drives per game have
been decreasing in FBS for the last three
seasons. In 2014, FBS games averaged
25.12 drives per game. Last season that
dropped to 24.39. Points per drive, how-
ever, have remained relatively steady. In
ARLINGTON, Texas — Ryon Healy
had a go-ahead RBI single with two outs
in the 12th inning and the Seattle Mari-
ners beat the Texas Rangers 4-3 on Mon-
day night after blowing an early three-run
lead.
MLB
Mitch
Haniger
scored from second
base when Healy hit a
hard grounder through
Mariners
the left side of the
infield. Haniger had
doubled into the left
field corner off Eddie
Butler (2-2) a pitch
after Jean Segura was
Rangers
thrown out trying to
steal second base.
Sam
Tuivailala
(4-3), the seventh Seattle pitcher, had a
perfect 11th for his first decision in four
appearances since getting acquired July
27 in a trade from St. Louis. Edwin Diaz
pitched the 12th for his majors-best 42nd
save in 45 chances despite allowing a pair
of singles.
Mike Zunino homered for the Mari-
ners, who have won back-to-back games
since a season-worst five-game losing
streak.
The Rangers trailed 3-0 before six
consecutive batters reach base in the sev-
enth against starter Wade LeBlanc and
three relievers.
LeBlanc was done after Elvis Andrus’
one-out single that extended his hitting
streak to 17 games, his career best and the
longest active streak in the majors. Adam
Warren then walked a batter, allowed an
RBI double to Jurickson Profar and hit
Robinson Chirinos on his hand on a full-
count pitch to load the bases. Mariners
manager Scott Servais argued the pitch
hit the knob of the bat, but the call stood
after a 2-minute replay review.
Zach Duke walked Joey Gallo, the
only batter he faced, with the bases
loaded to force in a run before Alex
Colome allowed an RBI single to Isiah
Kiner-Falefa for a 3-3 tie.
After Healy led off the sixth with a
double and scored on Cameron Maybin’s
single, Seattle loaded the bases with no
See SLOW/2B
See MARINERS/2B
4
3
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
Oregon’s Vernon Adams Jr. signals to his teammates during the second half of an NCAA college football game against
Arizona State Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015, in Tempe, Ariz. Oregon defeated Arizona State 61-55 in triple overtime. In 2017
scoring was down in college football, a drop of about a point and a half per game per team to 28.8.
Slow down!
Fast-football craze epitomized
in Oregon’s glory years shows
signs of fading in 2017
By RALPH D. RUSSO
AP College Football Writer
he result of the play is a first down
and the offense rushes to the line
of scrimmage and sets up, line-
men in their three-point stances, receivers
out wide. The quarterback directs traffic,
barks out something or other, maybe claps
his hands, and then ... he stops and looks
to the sideline for a play to be signaled.
Hurry-up
offense?
More
like
hurry-up-and-wait.
The fast-paced, no-huddle offenses
made fashionable by Chip Kelly, Rich
Rodriguez and most of the Big 12, fuel-
ing a scoring frenzy in college football
T
for more than a decade, are becoming less
prevalent.
Last season scoring was down in col-
lege football, a drop of about a point and
a half per game per team to 28.8, and
the lowest mark since 2011 (28.3). But a
deeper look into the numbers shows that
defensive coordinators don’t have much
to celebrate. Offenses are still performing
at a high level. They were, generally, just
operating more slowly in 2017. And there
is reason to believe this is the new normal
as the allure of playing fast dissipates.
“I think that what’s happened is you
have a group of us that are playing ultra-
fast and some people that tried to get into
it that really don’t understand it, they’re
playing slower,” Oklahoma State coach
Mike Gundy said this spring.
FBS teams averaged 69.9 plays per
game in 2017, down from 71.6 the season
before and the fewest since 2011. Eighty-
Sports shorts
NASCAR chairman
France takes leave after
DWI, drug arrest
(AP) — NASCAR chairman and
CEO Brian France announced on
Monday he was taking an indefinite
leave of absence following his arrest
in the Hamptons on charges of driv-
ing while intoxicated and criminal
possession of oxycodone.
France was seen blowing through
a stop sign in Sag Harbor on Sunday
and later had a blood-alcohol content
that was more than twice the legal
limit for driving, smelled of booze
and slurred his words, police said.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
UNC: 13 players suspended for selling school-issued shoes
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.
(AP) — Less than a year after
emerging from a long run of
NCAA issues, North Carolina
is dealing with rule violations
again — this time for football
players selling team-issued
shoes.
The school announced
Monday that 13 players will
miss games serving suspen-
sions for the secondary NCAA
violations, which will leave the
Tar Heels shorthanded during
much of the season’s opening
month. While secondary vio-
lations are generally consid-
ered less severe, the penalties
in this case will result in sev-
eral players being forced to sit
out at least a third of the regu-
lar-season schedule.
In all, nine players will
miss four games, two will sit
two games and two others will
miss one contest.
1907 — Walter Johnson wins
the first of his 417 victories leading
the Washington Senators to a 7-2
victory over the Cleveland Indians.
2007 — San Francisco’s Barry
Bonds hits home run No. 756 to
break Hank Aaron’s storied record.
Noticeably absent are commis-
sioner Bud Selig and Aaron.
2016 — Ichiro Suzuki triples off
the wall for his 3,000th hit in the
major leagues, becoming the 30th
player to reach the milestone as the
Marlins beat the Rockies 10-7.
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