SPORTS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
MARINERS
BEAT A’S 2B
1B
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PENDLETON
Prep roundup
TigerScots
roll over
Knights
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pendleton’s Shawn Yeager rushes the ball as Nathan Reed attempts a tackle in the Bucks’ 38-12 win against the Tigers on
Thursday in Pendleton.
Bucks take care of business
Pendleton dominates
La Grande, starts
season with win
PREP FOOTBALL
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Pendle-
ton head coach Erik Davis knew
his defensive front seven had the
potential for a special season in
2018, as all four starting line-
backers and four defensive line-
men returned to the unit.
Mixed with some perfect
playcalling from defensive coor-
dinator Fred Phillips on Thurs-
day night in the season opener
at home against La Grande, the
front seven showed Davis —
and the Pendleton fans — just
how special they could be.
The group blitzed through
and overpowered La Grande’s
offensive line from start to finish
and made life tough for Tigers
quarterback Parker Robinson, as
Pendleton
La Grande
38
12
the group sacked Robinson 10
times, recorded a safety and held
La Grande to minus-96 rushing
yards to lead the Buckaroos to a
38-12 victory over the Tigers at
Pendleton High School.
“You saw our defense just
fly,” Davis said. “They’re fast,
they’re tenacious we knew that
going in that they were a spe-
cial group. Coach Phillips talked
throughout the week about
bringing that pressure, because
we’ve always been that bend-
don’t-break defense. But with
these kids and how fast they are
and how hard they work, we
knew putting pressure on a team
The Weston-McEwen volleyball team
kept its hot start to the 2018 season going
on Thursday evening as it shut out Irrigon
3-0 in a non-league match.
The TigerScots (7-0) won 25-20,
25-19 and 25-20 on Thursday, meaning
the TigerScots have dropped only two
sets in the 20 they’ve played so far this
season. Hailey Weaver had 10 kills and
seven blocks for the TigerScots,while
Keree Graves had 16 digs and Bryce Thul
had 10 aces. Haley White led the Knights
(2-2) with nine kills and Brianna Rice had
three.
“We played a great team today and we
learned a lot about ourself,” Irrigon coach
Vanessa Pacheco said. “We will use today
as a growing opportunity.”
STANFIELD WINS TWICE
The Stanfield volleyball team opened
its 2018 season with a pair of victo-
ries on Thursday in Helix, defeating the
host Grizzlies 3-0 and then taking down
Mac-Hi 3-1.
Against Helix, Stanfield won 25-23,
25-22, 25-22. Stanfield stats were
unavailable by press time, but Helix was
led by Arianna Krol with 12 kills and
Lexie Mize had 23 assists.
Then against Mac-Hi, Stanfield won
25-20, 25-18, 23-25 and 25-16.
“Really pleased with the team’s prog-
ress after three weeks,” Stanfield coach
Blaine Ganvoa said. “Girls are working
hard on staying focused on the process it
takes to improve with every touch and it
was nice to see it pay off for them with
two wins.”
Helix wrapped up the tri-match with
a 3-0 win over Mac-Hi (1-3), winning
25-18, 25-22, 25-16. Kyla Harper led the
Grizzlies (3-2) with 12 kills and Krol had
eight. Annie Wood had 18 digs.
RODEO
nearly as dominant. Led by
an experienced offensive line,
Pendleton plowed its way to 446
total yards, 259 of which came
on the ground. Senior quarter-
EUGENE RODEO — The fall rodeo
schedule for the Intermountain High
School Rodeo team began on August
24-26 with two performances in Eugene,
and several local athletes turned in stand-
out performances.
In Rodeo No. 1, Heppner senior Jacee
Currin had the best performance of the
team, winning breakaway roping with
a time of 3.0 seconds and then finishing
See BUCKS/3B
See ROUNDUP/3B
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pendleton’s Everett Willard sacks La Grande quarterback Park-
er Robinson in the Bucks’ 38-12 win against the Tigers.
like La Grande, that’s young up
front, was going to create a real
mismatch there and I think our
kids just really bought into being
that in-your-face defense. I’m
proud of the group.”
The Buckaroos’ offense was
Knights slay Tigers to open the season
By BRETT KANE
East Oregonian
STANFIELD — The Irri-
gon Knights opened the 2018
football season by dominating
the Stanfield Tigers in a 34-8
non-conference win.
Stanfield struggled through-
out the night offensively, scor-
ing their first and only touch-
down of the night late in the
fourth quarter.
Irrigon was slow to start as
well, getting on the board when
Payton Smith ran the ball in for
a touchdown with 1:58 left in
the first quarter. Things started
picking up in the second quar-
ter when Ruben Moreno scored
Irrigon’s second touchdown, and
Roberto Ayala caught a touch-
down pass followed by a rush-
ing touchdown by Jaben Boyer
to give the Knights a 28-0 half-
PREP FOOTBALL
Irrigon
Stanfield
34
8
time lead.
Much of the third quarter was
spent around the 50-yard line,
with both teams keeping each
other at bay until Irrigon’s Keith
Flemming rushed the ball to the
32-yard line. On the next play,
Smith carried the ball to the 18
yard line before senior running
back Luis Covarrubia scored
Irrigon’s final touchdown of the
night, making the score 34-0.
With just 1:06 left in the
fourth
quarter,
Stanfield’s
Anthony Keeney finally put his
team on the scoreboard with a
rushing touchdown.
“We’ve got a lot of work to
do,” said Stanfield head coach
Davie Salas. “We need more
practicing. Our first-year players
are still learning the speed of a
varsity game. We did well in the
second half – that’ll give us con-
fidence for next week.”
Irrigon left the game
impressed with their team’s vic-
tory – especially considering
that they were working with an
all-new coaching staff.
“The kids did really well,”
said Irrigon coach Ken Thomp-
son. “Irrigon hasn’t had a ton of
success in football. We want to
establish a culture of hard-work-
ing football players here. We’re
in a tough league, and we’re tak-
ing things week-to-week, but
we’d like to make the playoffs
this year.”
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Lino Covarrubia (12), of Irrigon, puts out a hand to ward off Stanfield’s
Hugo Hernandez during Thursday’s game at the Horyna Sports Complex.
Sports shorts
Manuel shines, Raiders
topple Seahawks 30-19
Arbitrator sends Kaepernick’s
grievance against NFL to trial
SEATTLE (AP) — E.J. Manuel
made a strong bid to be Oakland’s
backup quarterback, throwing for
255 yards and three touchdowns,
and the Raiders closed out the pre-
season with a 30-19 win over the
Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night.
Manuel completed 18 of 22
passes in the competition with Con-
nor Cook to be Derek Carr’s backup.
He hit Keon Hatcher on both of
his touchdowns in the first half and
added a 45-yard TD to Saeed Black-
nall in the third quarter.
PHILADELPHIA — An
arbitrator is sending Colin
Kaepernick’s
grievance
with the NFL to trial, deny-
ing the league’s request to
throw out the quarterback’s
claims that owners conspired
to keep him out of the league
because of his protests of
social injustice.
Kaepernick’s
lawyer
Mark Geragos tweeted a
picture Thursday of a rul-
ing by arbitrator Stephen B.
Burbank.
The former 49ers quarter-
back argues that owners have
colluded to keep him off any
NFL roster since he hit free
agency in 2017.
Kaepernick began a wave
of protests by NFL players
two seasons ago, kneeling
during the national anthem
to protest police brutality and
racial inequality.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1950 — Brooklyn’s Gil Hodges
ties a major league record by hitting
Boston Brave pitching for four hom-
ers in the Dodgers’ 19-3 rout. Hodges
also added a single for 17 total bases.
1977 — John McEnroe plays his
first U.S. Open match and receives
his first Open code of conduct pen-
alty in a 6-1, 6-3 first-round win over
fellow 18-year-old Eliot Teltscher.
1979 — Sixteen-year-old Tracy
Austin defeats 14-year-old Andrea
Jaeger, 6-2, 6-2, in the second round
of the U.S.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com