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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2018
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Pendleton
La Grande
Buckaroos
Tigers
(0-0)
(0-0)
Thursday, 7 p.m., at
Pendleton High School
Bucks
ready for
Tigers
With lofty goals, Pendleton
aims to start 1-0
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
had slumped in recent years, winning just
10 of their last 27 games.
Away from the college game, Kelly
went 28-35 with the Philadelphia Eagles
and the San Francisco 49ers from 2013-
16, getting fired from both teams after
losing seasons. He was an ESPN football
analyst last fall.
Since opposing teams have pretty
much adapted to the up-tempo spread
offense that Kelly popularized, he’s no
doubt looking for a new way to stump
the league.
PENDLETON — In 2017, La Grande
snapped a three-game losing streak
against Pendleton as the Tigers came
away with a 36-29 victory in Week 1. The
game spoiled Pendleton’s highly antici-
pated home opener under the brand-new
lights, and dashed any dreams of an unde-
feated season right from the start.
The Buckaroos and Tigers are sched-
uled to meet once again in the season
opener at 7 p.m. Thursday night at Pend-
leton High School, though the Buckaroos
aren’t looking for any sort of revenge, per
se.
“I don’t know if I’d use the word
revenge,” Pendleton head coach Erik
Davis said during Tuesday’s practice. “I
think if you go into a game with that idea
of ‘Gotta get them back for something that
happened last year,’ it takes you out of the
game plan and our kids aren’t doing that.
They’re focused on simple things and try-
ing to come out with the W.”
The Buckaroos will see a much-differ-
ent La Grande team on Thursday night.
The Tigers graduated their stud quarter-
back Andrew Peasley, who fleeced Pend-
leton’s defense for 335 total yards and
four touchdowns last season, as well as
running back Isaac Chamberlain, receiver
GT Blackman, and five offensive line-
men. But that doesn’t mean that the Buck-
aroos won’t be facing a talented team, led
by a new starting quarterback in Parker
Robinson.
“La Grande’s always a really good
team, and they’re going to be a good
opponent,” said Pendleton senior and for-
mer La Grande Tiger, Willie Camp. “But
we’re going to treat it like every other
opponent and try to be 1-0 at the end of
the day.”
On the other sideline, Pendleton
returns much of the same team that took
the field against La Grande last season,
though now those Buckaroos bring more
experience to the field. The only uncer-
tainty, really, is at quarterback, where
See PAC-12/3B
See BUCKS/3B
AP Photo/Eric Gay, File
Stanford running back Bryce Love (20) is pursued by TCU cornerback Jeff Gladney (12) as he runs for a touchdown during the
Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on Dec. 28, 2017. Love bucked popular opinion by sticking with the Cardinal rather than declaring
early for the NFL draft.
Year of the return
Chip Kelly is back, Bryce
Love, too, in the Pac-12
for the 2018 season
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
hip Kelly, who haunted opposing
teams with his blur offense for the
Oregon Ducks a few years ago,
returns to the Pac-12 this season as head
coach at UCLA. He’ll make his season
debut with the Bruins this Saturday at
home against Cincinnati.
But Kelly is not the only one who is
back this season. Stanford’s Bryce Love
bucked popular opinion by sticking with
the Cardinal rather than declaring early
for the NFL draft. Quarterback Jake
Browning similarly decided to play out
his final year of eligibility at Washington.
And of course Jonathan Smith has
returned to Oregon State as coach after
a stellar playing career for the Beavers.
So perhaps it’s the Year of the Return
in the Pac-12.
Kelly, who left the league four years
ago to try his hand at the NFL, joked
about the changes since his tenure with
the Ducks.
“I think when I first came into this
league there weren’t many spread
offenses and we were the only team
that had shiny helmets, and now every-
body runs the spread offense and every-
body has shiny helmets,” he said at the
league’s annual media day.
C
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly speaks at the Pac-12 Conference NCAA college
football Media Day in Los Angeles.
Kelly was in charge of the Ducks
from 2009-12, during which Oregon
went 46-7, won three conference titles
and reached four major bowl games —
including the BCS championship game
following the 2010 season.
He took over a UCLA program that
hasn’t won a conference title since 1998.
But his addition, along with the Bru-
ins’ new $65 million training center, has
Westwood excited.
Kelly was given a five-year, $23.3
million deal to replace Jim Mora, who
went 46-30 and twice tied UCLA’s sin-
gle-season wins record. But the Bruins
Prep roundup
Vikings thump East Linn Christian to win opener
Alanis, Castro each net
two goals for Umatilla
East Oregonian
UMATILLA — Jose Alanis
scored two goals and netted two
assists and Luis Castro netted
two goals and one assist as Uma-
tilla thumped East Linn Christian
Academy, 6-2, on Tuesday in its
season opener.
The Vikings (1-0 overall) took a
1-0 lead just five minutes into the
game when Alexis Ruiz buried a
goal off of a pass from Jefri Coria.
After East Linn Christian tied it in
the 10th minute, the Vikings took
the lead back in the 14th min-
ute when Coria netted his second
assist of the game with a pass to
Alanis who buried the goal for a
2-1 lead.
From there, the Vikings cruised
to the win. Coria finished with a
goal and two assists, while Ruiz
had one goal and one assist and
Emmanuel Arredondo had one
assist.
The Vikings will go for two
wins in a row on Thursday when
they host Mac-Hi for a 4:30 p.m.
kick.
VOLLEYBALL
WESTON-MCEWEN JAM-
BOREE — At Athena, Irri-
gon, Helix, Enterprise and
Weston-McEwen had a busy day
of volleyball, competing in a one-
set pool play format before ending
the day with traditional matches.
Weston-McEwen was perfect in
pool play, defeating Helix 25-13,
Irrigon 25-18 and Enterprise
25-12. Helix also lost to Enterprise
26-24 and lost to Irrigon 25-7.
In the best-of-five matches, the
TigerScots (6-0) defeated Irrigon
3-1, winning 25-18, 25-20, 18-25
and 25-18. Haley White led the
Knights (2-1) in the match with
10 kills and Brianna Rice had six
kills, while Myka Davis led with
eight blocks.
Team leaders for Weston-McE-
wen for the day included Hai-
ley Weaver with 21 kills, Tyree
Burke with 18 kills, 12 blocks and
seven aces, Emma Olso and Keree
Graves with 35 digs, and Bryce
Thul with 42 assists.
For the Grizzlies (2-1), they lost
to Enterprise in their best-of-five
match 3-0, losing 25-17, 25-18 and
25-17. Arianna Krol led the team
with five kills and three aces and
Annie Wood had 17 digs.
Sports shorts
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
Players face brutal conditions at steamy US Open
NEW YORK (AP) — Players scrambled
for relief from the heat and some retired
from their matches when they couldn’t find
it at an overheated second day of the U.S.
Open.
Novak Djokovic said he felt sick during a
changeover in his match on a day when con-
ditions were so difficult because of the heat
that U.S. Open officials extended to men
an extreme heat rule that only exists on the
women’s tour.
The WTA rule allows women to leave the
court for 10 minutes between the second and
third sets, and on Tuesday men were allowed
to take similar breaks between the third and
fourth sets.
Even that wasn’t enough on a day when
a heat advisory in New York went into effect
at 11 a.m., the same time play began, and
was to remain until 9 p.m. Wednesday, with
temperatures in the mid-90s and heat index
values in excess of 100 degrees (38 Celsius).
“Ten minutes? I would have needed an
hour and a half,” said Leonardo Mayer, an
1974 — Nineteen-year-old
high school basketball star Moses
Malone, signs a contract with the
Utah Stars of the ABA to become
the first player to go directly from
high school into major profes-
sional basketball.
1998 — Toms River, N.J., wins
its first Little League World Series
with a 12-9 victory over Kashima,
Japan. Chris Cardone hits home
runs in consecutive at-bats —
including the game-deciding two-
run shot.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com