E AST O REGONIAN
Tuesday, augusT 13, 2019
FOLLOW US ON
TWITTER @EOSPORTS |
FACEBOOK.COM/EOSPORTS
A8
EOU women look to take next step after historic 2018 season
By RONALD BOND
EO Media Group
a close-knit, winning culture
has been built within the eastern
Oregon university women’s soc-
cer team.
and with most of the starters
returning from a team that shared
the Cascade Collegiate Confer-
ence title and picked up its first-
ever win at nationals a year ago,
players and coaches have every
NFL
Seahawks
rookie
Blair draws
attention in
first game
reason to believe this culture will
continue in 2019.
“With the caliber of play-
ers we have and the team chem-
istry we already have, as long as
we can keep that together, I think
we’re capable of doing some nice
things,” third-year head coach
Jacob Plocher said.
among the 14 returners for
eOu are eight players who started
14 or more matches last fall for the
Mountaineers, who went 16-3-2,
shared the CCC title, reached the
CCC tournament title game and
secured a 2-1 road playoff win
against grace, Indiana, before
falling in the round of 16 to even-
tual national champion William
Carey, 3-0, at the final site in
alabama.
In that match with William
Carey, EOU played to a first
half draw, and senior goalkeeper
Cydni Cottrell — who last year
was a first-team all-CCC keeper
— said eastern saw what the next
level of soccer looks like.
“In the first half of that game,
we kept up with them, so we know
what to expect now,” she said,
adding that the team learned from
that match about “the pace of how
they play, and we know what kind
of teams we’re going to be going
up against (at that level).”
Plocher noted that there were
times in the second half of that
game when eOu made mistakes
that William Carey took advan-
tage of as it scored three goals.
“We played a good first 45
(minutes), and then had moments
where we had lapses, and the
great teams will make you pay for
that,” he said. “We’re capable of
being a great team, it’s just (elimi-
nating) those lapses and letdowns.
With this group’s focus so far and
everybody’s buy-in, it’s hopefully
See Soccer, Page A9
Biglow has record
night at FCPR
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
ReNTON, Wash. — When
safety Marquise Blair was drafted in
the second round by the seattle sea-
hawks, he brought with him to the
NFL the reputation as a big hitter.
That’s what happens when you’re
ejected twice from college games for
targeting.
so it shouldn’t come as a surprise
that one of the most notable moments
from seattle’s preseason opener cen-
tered on Blair and riding that fine
line between what’s a legal hit and
what will draw a flag in the NFL.
“I’ve been working on it since I
left utah, I’ve been working on mov-
ing my shoulder,” Blair said. “I’m
going full speed out there, it’s what-
ever they see.”
In drafting Blair, the seahawks
are hoping they’ve found the next
version of Kam Chancellor — a big
safety with the strength and size to
be a force against the run but the
skills to also defend the pass. and
it didn’t take long into his first NFL
preseason game to see the thumping
he could add to the secondary.
It was the fourth quarter and
denver’s drew Lock attempted to
hit Nick Williams downfield. Blair
came across and rocked Williams as
the ball arrived, soon followed by a
flag. It was a hit that drew oohs, but
also a review to see if Blair was sub-
ject to ejection.
Blair appeared to avoid making
helmet contact but his mistake was
making the hit with his right shoul-
der, instead of his left. seattle coach
Pete Carroll said the teaching point
in that instance was for Blair to
have tried making the hit with his
left shoulder so his head was fur-
ther away from the contact with the
receiver.
“The cool thing was that he was
there. He made a great break on the
football, his timing was excellent,
his toughness was demonstrated.
Now there is a little technique issue
to make sure that doesn’t happen
again,” Carroll said.
Not surprisingly, doing drills
to replicate that play was one all of
the seahawks’ defensive backs were
doing on sunday.
“That flag is all about inches,”
seattle safety Bradley Mcdougald
said. “If he goes two inches lower
then it’s a clean, legal play. We can’t
let that flag or the referees diminish
how we play the game. We just have
to practice, drill those things at prac-
tice, getting the right strike range, the
right target area and stay there and
rep it enough that it becomes second
nature.”
Blair was “scrambling” as Carroll
described it in the preseason opener.
He was flagged for the hit on Wil-
liams and made the incorrect read on
a pass play going after the quarter-
back when he should have stayed on
the receiver releasing off the line. He
also made a perfect, legal hit along
the sideline later in the fourth quarter
and added a tackle for loss.
He played 36 defensive snaps,
the most of any player in seattle’s
secondary.
“some plays I was getting lined
Clayton Biglow leaps high on Asian Orchid to win bareback riding Saturday night with a score of 89 points, which puts him in a
three-way tie for the Farm-City Pro Rodeo arena record.
See Seahawks, Page A9
See Rodeo, Page A9
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
California bareback
rider closes Farm-City
by tying arena record
By BRETT KANE
and ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
ERMISTON — In his fifth
appearance at the Farm-City
Pro Rodeo, Clayton Biglow
decided to open the show in
record fashion.
The Clements, Calif., cowboy not
only won the bareback riding title with
his 89-point ride saturday night, but
also moved into a three-way tie for the
event’s arena record.
Biglow, 23, matched andy Marti-
nez’s 2006 ride, as well as austin Foss’
in 2017.
“It’s great just to be in first,” Biglow
said. “It’s awesome. But tying a record is
just the cherry on top right there.”
at a young age, Biglow has already
established quite the name for himself in
the world of rodeo. He’s the No. 2 bare-
back contender in the Pro Rodeo Cow-
boy association World standings, and
has amassed $140,166.43 in earnings so
far.
“I just gotta keep doing this,” he said.
“I’m second in the world, so my year’s
been going pretty good.”
Biglow’s talent is hereditary — his
father Russ competed in the PRCa as
a bareback rider and team roper from
1980-1995.
“The Northwest is my favorite place
H
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Thor Hoefer, of Priest River, Idaho, rolls out from under a bull after being tossed at
the Farm-City Pro Rodeo.
to come rodeo,” Biglow said. “My dad
rode up here a lot. I spent a lot of time
up here as a kid. There’s nothing like it.”
Biglow’s record was set on the back
of asian Orchid. He’ll get a bit of a break
before his next performance, which is
scheduled for Thursday.
“I have some friends that live around
here, so I’ll stay with them,” he said.
“I’m just going to hang out and work out
until my next rodeo.”
Clint Robinson of spanish Fork,
utah, won the all-around title, earning
money in tie-down roping and team rop-
ing. Robinson, who competed Wednes-
day, was the 2014 FCPR tie-down
champion.
Bull riding
The big beasts ruled the event this
week, shutting out the cowboys on two
nights.
saturday night, Josh Frost of
Randlett, utah, was not going to be fro-
zen out of a paycheck. He turned in an
87.5-point ride on the back of Damn