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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 2019)
E AST O REGONIAN SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2019 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS | FACEBOOK.COM/EOSPORTS B1 EOU men’s soccer has high expectations for this season By RONALD BOND The Observer LA GRANDE — The Eastern Oregon University men’s soccer team has high hopes and expecta- tions entering the 2019 season — in spite of losing more than half its ros- ter from 2018’s best-ever season in program history, including a pleth- ora of seniors. In fact, there is a belief that within the 14 players brought on by sec- ond-year head coach Zach Mills and his staff, 2019 could be an even better year for the Mountaineers. “We lost a lot of players. However, the coaches did a Mills lot of good recruit- ing,” said redshirt senior Carlos Solorio, who led EOU with 12 goals and four assists last fall. “I believe this year (the coaches) brought good reinforcements for the team. We fell short last year in a playoff scenario where we should have won. I believe with the rein- forcements we will be a powerhouse team.” Gone are 16 players from a sea- son ago, including a handful of play- ers — Steven Beaudry, Jesus Trejo, Aldo Rivas and Anthony Leavens — who were among the holdovers from the inaugural 2015 squad. But back are the top three scor- ers for EOU — Solorio, sophomore Connor Young (seven goals, three assists) and redshirt senior Alex Gutierrez (four goals, three assists) — and 10 other returners from a team that went 11-4-4, reached the Cascade Collegiate Conference tour- nament for the fi rst time and fell just short of a CCC title game berth after a 1-0 loss to Rocky Mountain in the semifi nals. It’s a loss that, with the addition of talent from across the U.S. and beyond, players believe could be avenged this fall. “We have a lot of depth, and like Carlos said, we’re coming back to fi nish the business we didn’t fi n- ish last year,” said Gutierrez, who is one of the three original remaining Mountaineers from 2015 — Oscar Munoz and Jorge Chavez are the other two. “If we’re not winning the conference, I think we’re going to win the (CCC) tournament.” Among those players brought in by Mills, assistant coach Jessy Watson and graduate assistant Kee- lan Barker are two 20-goal scorers See EOU, Page B2 OSU FOOTBALL By BOB LUNDEBERG For The Oregonian Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Heppner’s Blake Knowles leaps from his horse in the steer wrestling competition Friday night at the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in Hermiston. Heppner cowboy had the hot run of the night in steer wrestling before the lightning hit By BRETT KANE and ANNIE FOWLER East Oregonian H ERMISTON — Blake Knowles put a surge of electricity through the Farm-City Pro Rodeo crowd Friday night, but Mother Nature upstaged him 30 minutes later with a lightning storm that halted the action just before the tie-down roping. The Heppner cowboy, aboard his 18-year-old horse Smoke, turned in a time of 3.9 seconds in the steer wrestling to move to the top of the second go-round as the applause rained from the grandstands. “It’s nice to be in front of the home crowd, but it’s not easy,” Knowles said. “They think you are talented at this sport — it can go wrong.” Knowles failed to turn in a time on his fi rst run, so go money is all he can hope for with one night of action remaining. “To win the good money, you have to put it all together,” he said. “I had a no time on my fi rst one, and I had a good steer. I salvaged something.” Knowles, who was in the top 15 in the world standings in June, has been in a bit of a slump as of late. He sits 25th, $13, 466 out of 15th, but is hoping Friday’s run will get things going again. “I have been real stagnant,” Knowles said. “The wheels came off in July and that put me in a situation where I am behind. Momentum right now is big. Hopefully making a good run tonight propels me up.” Contestants in the tie-down roping, bar- rel racing and bull riding, who waited out the storm, resumed action at 10 p.m. Saddle bronc riding Canadian cowboy Dawson Hay took a Canadian horse for a wild ride Friday night, earning an 86-point ride on the back of Arriving Kamloops to take the lead in the event. “You never know what he is going to do,” Hay said of the horse. “I’d seen him all year, and I was lucky to draw him. I knew if I got him rode, I could do good. I always like to get on Calgary (Stampede) horses. I’d gladly ride him again. Hay, 21, the 2018 saddle rookie of the year, is ranked 10th, but a good paycheck in Hermiston could move him up a spot or two. “It’s been quite the year,” Hay said. “I had some stuff to iron out, but I’m with a great group of guys (Zeke Thurston and Jake Watson) and they have taught me a lot.” Bareback riding After several weeks of healing, Red- mond cowboy Steven Peebles was back in top form just in time to post Friday’s high- est bareback score at 81.5. Peebles had torn his oblique ab muscle in a performance earlier in the summer, and his showing at Farm-City was his fi rst back in the arena since. “I’m feeling good,” he said. “This is an awesome rodeo to come back to. I couldn’t have picked a better way to start back up again.” Peebles was one of four cowboys who See Rodeo, Page B2 CORVALLIS — A defensive unit that has nowhere to go but up is get- ting promising returns from its line- backing corps early in preseason camp. Jonathan Smith singled out the group on Monday and Oregon State defensive coordinator Tim Tibesar echoed the head coach’s sentiments Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve certainly improved from where we were at a year ago,” Tibe- sar said after practice at Reser Sta- dium. “The guys who are back look a lot more comfortable than they did a year ago at this time … and then obviously some of the new guys like Addison (Gumbs) and Avery (Rob- erts), they have really bolstered the quantity and quality of that room.” Roberts, a redshirt sophomore who transferred to Oregon State from Nebraska, opened each 11-on- 11 session at inside linebacker next to returning starter Shemar Smith. Hamilcar Rashed, Andrzej Hughes-Murray and Gumbs, also a redshirt sophomore transfer (from Oklahoma), all received fi rst-team reps at outside linebacker. There is also plenty of depth behind the Beavers’ top fi ve line- backers, a fact Hughes-Murray brought up after practice. “Guys are making huge strides,” the senior said. “We’re really work- ing on our techniques. It being our second year in the system is really helping us out. A lot of it feels like review, and we’re only going up from here.” Roberts arrived in Corvallis last fall and worked his way into a start- ing role during the spring. He has solidifi ed that spot through six camp sessions. The solid 6-foot-1, 231-pound Roberts fl ies around the practice fi eld and possesses the necessary strength to win inside. “He’s got great instincts,” Tibesar said of Roberts. “When he arrives, he can arrive with some stopping power and he’s just doing a really good job right there in the middle of our defense.” Gumbs suffered an ACL injury last August while at Oklahoma and did not participate in spring ball for See Beavers, Page B2 SPORTS SHORTS By JENNA FRYER AP Auto Racing Writer McLaren will return to full- time IndyCar competition next season for the fi rst time since 1979 in a partnership with exist- ing team Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. The new venture will be renamed Arrow McLaren Racing SP and rely on SPM’s current infra- structure. McLaren will be respon- sible for technical expertise, com- mercial experience and marketing. It will be a two-car team but switch next season to Chevrolet. “IndyCar has been part of McLaren since our early years of racing, and the series today pro- vides not only a commercial plat- form to continue to grow our brand in North America, but competi- tion with some of the best teams in international motorsport,” said Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Rac- ing. “We come to IndyCar in full respect of the sport, our competi- tors, the fans and the task ahead. “At our core, we at McLaren are racers and where there’s competi- tion that puts us to the test, we will race.” The team currently fi elds cars for James Hinchcliffe and Marcus Ericsson, and Hinchcliffe is a long- time Honda ambassador and star of ads for the automaker in North America. Brown said Ericsson is under a one-year contract that will be reviewed, but Brown answered “yes” when asked by The Associ- ated Press specifi cally if Hinch- cliffe is expected to drive for the team next year. AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File In this July 19, 2019, fi le photo, James Hinchcliff e stands next to his car during qualifying for the IndyCar Series auto race at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa.
