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Bucks return home to face No. 2 Broncos this Friday
By BRETT KANE
East Oregonian
PeNdLeTON — after two
weeks on the road, the Pendleton
bucks are ready to come home.
and for their homecoming game,
the stakes couldn’t be higher.
On Friday night, the 5a special
district 1’s No. 1 bucks football
team will host the Parkrose bron-
cos — the league’s second-ranked
contenders. The bucks hand-
ily shook the broncos 41-10 last
season, and if they can pull off
a repeat, they’ll be looking at
another league title.
“If we win this game, we win
it outright,” Pendleton coach erik
davis said. “The kids are han-
dling the pressure pretty good.
Their focus is where it needs to
be. It’s homecoming week, so
there’s some extra distractions, but
they’re not putting those distrac-
tions ahead of their preparation.”
both teams will hit the
round-up stadium with the
momentum of two huge shutouts:
Pendleton took down the confer-
ence’s previous No. 2 seed La salle
Prep 34-0 last Thursday, while
Parkrose defeated Wilson 56-0 the
next day.
“They’re extremely fast and
physical,” davis said of the bron-
cos. “They’re a great football team.
We knew from last year that they
were young, but they had athleti-
cism and speed. We have to match
that. With that being said, I expect
there to be quite a bit of fireworks
on both sides of the ball. They’re
vying for the league title.”
The bucks have some speed of
their own up their sleeves, includ-
ing 6-foot-1, 185-pound junior
running back Zaanan bane, who
ran for 63 yards and two touch-
downs in their win over La salle
Prep last week.
“Zaanan is going to have to
continue that,” davis said. “It
comes down to how our offensive
line handles their front. We hav-
en’t been blocking as well as we
could be. The biggest thing is the
turnover battle — we have to make
sure we win that. We’ll see if we
can’t create a couple of turnovers.”
after two weeks on the bus and
with two back-to-back shutouts
in tow, the bucks will make their
return for their third home appear-
ance of the season.
“It’s always nice to come back
and play on your home field,”
davis said. “We’ll let someone else
travel the I-84. We get that home
field advantage. The Round-Up
Grounds present an ominous envi-
ronment to teams that haven’t
played there before. We’re going to
take advantage of that.”
The team hasn’t dropped a
game since their nonleague season
opener at La Grande, and davis
said he’s noticed a tremendous
growth since that night in early
september.
“We’ve seen the team grow as a
whole,” he said. “They came into
this year unproven at the varsity
See Bucks, Page B2
LEADER OF THE PACK
hermiston’s ryan
arnold runs the defense
on the field, and leads
the team in tackles
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
Staff by Kathy Aney
Pilot Rock/Nixyaawii quarterback
Tanner Corwin launches the ball
during the Rockets’ Oct. 11 game
against the Union Bobcats.
H
erMIsTON —
While this sea-
son has not gone
as planned for the
hermiston football team, there
is one constant every Friday
night — ryan arnold.
Arnold
The 6-foot, 170-pound
senior middle linebacker puts
his helmet on every game and gives his team
an honest effort, to the tune of 13 tackles per
game.
“he’s the leader by example, for sure,” bull-
dogs coach david Faaeteete said. “he knows
his assignments. he does his job to the best of
his ability. he’s our little defensive general —
he manages the defense.”
arnold leads the bulldogs with 77 tackles
this season — 59 solo and 18 assists. he also
has two interceptions. The next man on the list
(Trevor Wagner) has 37 tackles, while sam
cadenas has 31.
“The linemen up front (sean stewart, cade-
nas, Tyson stocker, seilala sepeni, chase brad-
shaw and aJ erivea) are helping me get my
tackles by not getting pushed back every play,”
said arnold, who also led the team in tackles
last season. “If they are getting pushed back,
my vision is limited and I can’t do my job.”
Faaeteete said their defense is designed to
get the linebackers more involved.
“When there is a play to be made, he is
there,” Faaeteete said of arnold. “Our defen-
sive tackles have been doing a great job. sam
and sean allow ryan to have a bigger impact.
It’s a team effort.”
Growing up on the gridiron
arnold has been playing football since the
second grade. When he was younger, he always
played up an age group.
“Playing with kids with experience helps a
lot,” arnold said.
as a sophomore, he played on the 2017 team
that won the Oregon class 5a state title.
“My sophomore year I improved a lot,” he
said. “I learned a lot playing with Jonathan
hinkle and Peter earl. I didn’t get to play a
lot, but chase (bradshaw) and I got to play in
the (championship) game. I started on special
teams — kickoff and kick return. I had a few
Staff photo by Kathy Aney, File
Hermiston’s Ryan Arnold (7) gets ready to take down Southridge’s Albersh Kuwa during the Oct.
3, 2019, game in Kennewick. Also in on the tackle is Hermiston’s Garrett Walchli (5).
tackles. It was fun.”
he also got to play his sophomore season
with his older brother Tayler, a right tackle.
Tayler now is a defenseman for the university
of Montana men’s lacrosse team.
Last year, arnold learned from guys like
cash campbell as hermiston entered the
Mid-columbia conference.
“Getting that experience as a junior helped
a lot,” arnold said. “We put up a pretty good
fight for our first year in the MCC, but I think
we could have done better. This year, some of
the scores don’t give you a true feel of the game.
We’ve had some turnovers and shot ourselves
in the foot. you also get a lot more looks from
college coaches (in the Mcc).”
While learning from those next to him
on the field has been invaluable, Arnold also
gleans what he can from Faaeteete, a former
defensive tackle for the university of Oregon.
“coach has helped me tremendously at line-
backer,” arnold said. “he has so much knowl-
edge. he is pretty smart.”
Faaeteete said he knew arnold was going to
be a special player when he was a sophomore.
“We knew he was going to get a lot better,”
Faaeteete said. “Now, he’s teaching guys to do
their jobs. That’s a credit to his parents. he’s a
great kid.”
Giving mom a scare
arnold was a good-sized baby when he was
born — 8 pounds and 21 inches long.
When he was a month old, he had rsV
(respiratory syncytial virus) and had to be life
flighted to Portland. While he was sick, he
dropped to 6 pounds.
Once he recovered, his parents Lizzie and
Jacob thought it would be smooth sailing from
there. They were wrong
The spring of his eighth grade year, arnold
started getting lightheaded, had tunnel vision
and started seeing spots. he was playing
lacrosse at the time, and he would have to take
breaks.
“One time, my heart was beating 228 times
a minute,” arnold recalled.
he was diagnosed with supraventricular
tachycardia (sVT), and had surgery at doern-
becher children’s hospital in Portland.
“It was pretty scary,” Lizzie arnold said.
“We didn’t really know what was going on.
The doctor said it was normal and an easy fix.
It was.”
The worst thing that arnold experiences
now is general aches and pains that come with
playing football.
What the future holds
arnold would like to be an electrician, but
hasn’t dismissed playing college football or
lacrosse (he led hermiston in scoring last year).
“I haven’t gotten any offers yet,” he said.
There is one thing he does know — his love
of football goes beyond the game.
“It will be sad when it’s all over,” he said.
“you have played since second grade, and you
never know when it will be your last game. you
go from playing all your life to not playing at
all. When you play football, you are a family.
you can fall back on the team, and the coaches
are there for you.”
Cross-country: Nygard, Sanchez finish in the top 5
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
KeNNeWIcK, Wash. — On
an ideal day for a run, the herm-
iston boys and girls cross-country
teams posted some of their best
times of the season Wednesday at
the second Mid-columbia confer-
ence meet at Lawrence scott Park.
Amanda Nygard finished fourth
for the bulldogs in a time of 18
minutes, 24.61 seconds, with team-
mate cydney sanchez a couple of
steps behind at 18:27.60.
ella Nelson of Walla Walla took
top honors at 17:50.89, followed
by richland’s Natalie ruzauskas
(17:51.90) and Kennewick’s Geral-
din correa (17:59.90). The trio led
the race from start to finish.
“I look forward to running
against them,” Nygard said of
the top three runners. “I like the
competition.”
richland won the girls team title
with 44 points,
with hermiston
sixth with 125.
Nygard gets
pushed
every
day by san-
chez in practice,
Sanchez
which has helped
them stay in the
top pack of runners.
sanchez said she liked the
3-mile course, which is relatively
flat.
“I like the faster courses,” she
said. “It’s easier to push yourself.”
hermiston’s No. 3 runner,
alexis serna, clocked in at 19:33.33
(26th), while ellie ernst was 42nd.
Julianna Joyce was 48th.
“Our four and five runners were
a little further back than we would
have liked,” hermiston coach Troy
blackburn said. “amanda and
cydney are two of the top runners
in the state. They are looking good.
alexia ran under 20 minutes for the
first time. I’m really proud of all
three of them.”
Kamiakin dominated the boys
race, placing its top five runners
among the first seven across the
finish line, led by sophomore Isaac
Teeples (14:34.17) and senior stan-
ford smith (14:36.64).
The braves won the team title
with 20 points, with Walla Walla a
distant second with 66. hermiston
was fifth (130).
hermiston’s Greg anderson ran
a steady race, staying in the 13th
spot over the course of the four
laps.
“I was trying to be in the top 14,”
said anderson, who ran a 15:54.73.
“This was a Pr for me. This course
is great. It’s fast and it helps us pre-
pare for the championship season.”
anderson said competing
against the Kamiakin runners has
helped him improve his times.
“This competition is not like
anything I’d seen before in Ore-
gon,” he said. “We didn’t run
against teams like Kamiakin on a
consistent basis.”
Logan springstead (16:18.61)
was the second bulldog across
the finish line, followed by Jack-
son shaver (16:21.39), adrian del-
gado (16:54.60) and Pedro Pacheco
(16:57.46).
“he had not broke 18 (minutes)
until a couple of weeks ago,” black-
burn said of Pacheco. “he is mak-
ing great strides. Our top five were
under 17 minutes — we didn’t have
that last year.”
The bulldogs will get another
look at Kamiakin, Kennewick and
southridge on Oct. 24 at the Mcc
3a championships at Leslie Grove
Park in richland.
“That’s what we train for, to
keep up with Kamiakin,” black-
burn said. “We had the summits
and craters with the same tradition,
but we only saw them once or twice
a year, not on a weekly basis.”
Pilot Rock-
Dufur game
is the one
to watch
both teams are
undefeated in
league play at 4-0
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
PILOT rOcK — One of the big-
gest football games in eastern Ore-
gon on Friday night will be played
by two of the smaller teams.
Pilot rock/Nixyaawii will play
a special district 3 game at four-
time defending 1a state champion
dufur. both teams are 4-0 in league
play, and their scores against the
other teams in the league are nearly
identical.
“We are playing a mirror image
of ourselves,” Pilot rock coach
Mike baleztena said. “They are
well-coached. It’s unreal how he
(Jack henderson) has kept that pro-
gram going for so long.”
henderson, who is in his 33rd
year at dufur (4-2, 4-0), has coached
the rangers to 10 state titles.
“If I wasn’t coaching this game,
I’d go watch,” henderson said. “It’s
eerie how similar we are. hopefully,
it is a good game.”
The rockets (5-0, 4-0) have got-
ten a lot of mileage out of junior run-
ning back Tyasin burns — who has
more than 1,400 yards in five games.
He will benefit this week with the
return of fullback caden Thornton,
who missed last week when he was
under concussion protocol.
“caden is a beast,” baleztena
said. “he is one of the best defensive
ends in the league, and with him
back, the blocking will be there for
Tyasin.”
The rangers, who dropped their
first two games of the season to
adrian/Jordan Valley and st. Paul,
have won their past four games, but
henderson said that won’t make a
difference come Friday night.
“We are going to have to compete
really, really well to compete with
them,” henderson said of the rock-
ets. “We will have to show up to be
in the game at all. They are pretty
athletic.”
dufur will be without the
services of running back/line-
backer asa Farrell, whose sea-
son is over because of lingering
See Rockets, Page B2