E AST O REGONIAN
Thursday, March 18, 2021
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A8
No fans allowed at EOU football games
La Grande Observer
La GraNdE — Fans will not
be attending Eastern Oregon Foot-
ball games in person this season.
The Frontier conference presidents
and athletic directors voted last
week to continue the policy prohib-
iting spectators at games for the
remainder of the 2020-21 season.
“We are very disappointed with
not being able to allow specta-
tors at our football games but the
Frontier conference is committed
to providing a safe environment
for student-athletes and visiting
programs to compete,” EOu direc-
tor of Athletics Anji Weissenfluh
said in a press release.
In accordance to the policy,
which the league developed in
september 2020, spectators will not
MOUNTAINEERS PICKED TO FINISH THIRD IN FRONTIER CONFERENCE
WHITEFISH, Mont. — The Eastern Oregon University
football team was picked to finish third in the Frontier
Conference by the league’s coaches, according to a
press release from the league.
Eastern picked up 10 points in the coaches’ poll after
finishing 4-7 overall in 2019 and 4-6 in conference play.
Earning the top spot in the preseason poll was College
of Idaho, who totaled 15 points and picked up three
first-place votes. The Yotes were selected as the favorite
after winning the regular season crown in 2019.
be allowed at any Frontier confer-
ence events — including football,
basketball, golf, track and field,
cross-county and volleyball.
Eastern Oregon’s two home foot-
ball games are set to take place on
saturday, March 20, against carroll
Carroll College was picked second in the poll with 13
points and two first-place votes. Rocky Mountain Col-
lege was picked fourth behind EOU with seven points,
while Montana State-Northern was picked fifth with
five points.
Eastern Oregon will kick off its 2021 spring schedule
this Saturday, March 20, and it will be at home open-
er when they host Carroll College. Kickoff is set for
1 p.m. inside Community Stadium against the Saints.
Greninger
college of Montana and on satur-
day, april 3, against the college
of Idaho. EOu will livestream the
contests on the Mountie sports
Network. Fans can catch the games
by going to www.eousports.com/
watch. Kickoff for each home game
is set for 1 p.m.
coaches in the conference
picked the college of Idaho to win
2021 Frontier conference football
championship, with carroll college
coming in second and EOu third
in the five-team pool going into the
spring season.
The conference released the poll
on Friday, March 12. Eastern picked
up 10 points in the coaches poll to
slide in at No. 3 for the preseason.
The Mountaineers enter the spring
season third after finishing 4-7
overall in 2019 and 4-6 in confer-
ence play, according to a press
release from EOu.
The college of Idaho received
15 points and picked up three first-
place votes. coaches selected the
yotes as the favorite after winning
the regular season crown in 2019.
second-place carroll college
received 13 points and two first-
place votes.
rocky Mountain college,
Montana, was picked with seven
points, while Montana state-North-
ern was picked fifth.
PREP FOOTBALL PREVIEW
Heppner puts
2-0 record on
the line against
Prospectors
PENDLETON
HERMISTON
Bulldogs face
tough test
against Lions
umatilla will
be short-handed
against Stanfield
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
“defensively, he’s a pillar,” davis said. “he has
a never-ending gas tank. It’s not something you
can coach. he has that toughness. I’m absolutely
ecstatic I get him one more year.”
Liscom, a first-team all-league linebacker as a
sophomore, led the Bucks in tackles with 105. This
season, he has 31 tackles in two games, including
17 against ridgeview last week.
“he has a really high football IQ,” davis said.
“he’s got a 4.0 GPa. he’s one of those top end kids
you get to coach once in a decade. I honestly can’t
say enough about him.”
Liscom said he can’t take all the credit for the
stops he makes.
“credit to the guys up front,” he said of his
hErMIsTON — It’s back to
basics this week for the hermiston
Bulldogs.
after suffering a 48-0 loss to
Walla Walla last week, hermiston
coach david Faaeteete said his team
just needs to play better.
“No big adjustments,” he said.
“We can’t dig ourselves in a hole we
can’t get out of. It’s the little minute
details we coaches let slide. We need
to focus on the things we can control
and get better.”
The Bulldogs (1-1) need to shore
things up this week as the Kenne-
wick Lions visit Kennison Field for a
Mid-columbia conference matchup
on Friday, March 19.
The Lions come into the game
with a 3-0 record, including a 54-7
victory over hanford last week.
“We just need to focus on how we
execute,” Faaeteete said. “We didn’t
do a good job in our punt game,
our attitude or our effort. Those are
things we can control.”
That includes the five turnovers
the Bulldogs had against the Blue
devils. Four were interceptions
thrown by junior quarterback chase
Elliott.
“he didn’t have the best game,”
Faaeteete said. “he will get better.
It’s his second varsity football
game and he sees his team is down.
he’s trying to make plays and he
overthrows the ball. he owns his
mistakes. We still trust him.”
The team’s run game had its
merits last week, with Elliott picking
up 96 yards on 14 carries, and daniel
Faaeteete 70 yards on 16 carries.
The Lions, who reached the 3a
state semifinals last year, return
running back/linebacker Myles
Mayovsky, who has wreaked
mayhem in his first three games
See Pendleton, Page A9
See Dawgs, Page A8
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
hEPPNEr — The heppner
Mustangs have been unstoppable the
first two weeks of the season, shut-
ting out their first two opponents and
averaging 40 points a game.
“so far, so good,” heppner coach
Greg Grant said. “Everyone is getting
their seasons going. We will see how
it goes.”
heppner will host Grant union on
Thursday, March 18, in a rematch of
the first game of the season, won by
the Mustangs 35-0.
heppner will be without running
back Blake Wolters for the second
consecutive game. The hard-
charging back has a leg injury.
Brock hisler and Jace coe have
stepped up to fill the void, and quar-
terback Jayden Wilson ran for 84
yards and three touchdowns last
week against Stanfield.
Wilson hasn’t thrown the ball a
ton, but he hasn’t needed to.
“It’s just circumstance football,”
Grant said. “We have thrown a bit,
but not much.”
Grant Union is coming off a 44-7
nonleague win over McLoughlin.
UMATILLA AT STANFIELD:
In what should have been a good tilt
on March 18, the Vikings will go into
the game with 14 players after two
starters were deemed academically
ineligible, and injuries sidelined three
other players.
“I don’t know if my 14 guys can
match their team,” umatilla coach
dan durfey said.
The Vikings only had eight
returning starters to start the
season, and four will be unavailable
See Umatilla, Page A9
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Pendleton’s Kyle Liscom (21) and Isaac Urbina (27) drag down Ridgeview running back Josh Biever (5) during
the Buckaroos’ 20-12 win over the Ravens at the Pendleton Round-Up Arena on Friday, March 12, 2021.
Kyle Liscom is the key to Pendleton’s defense
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
P
ENdLETON — Kyle Liscom could
be a standout player on offense, but the
Pendleton high school junior prefers
defense because it’s a thinking man’s
game.
“I like having to read the play,” he said. “It’s
more strategic to me — I have to judge the move-
ment and make the play.”
Oh, and there’s one more thing.
“I like hitting people,” the 5-foot-10, 180-pound
linebacker said. “I like contact. I like going out on
the field and doing that with my friends.”
Pendleton coach Erik davis said as Liscom goes,
so does the Bucks’ defense.
Eastern Oregon University coach reaches milestone
Kaki McLean
Morehead earns
300th career victory
as head coach
By ANDREW CUTLER
East Oregonian
La GraNdE — When the
cheers were directed her way and not
at the team, Eastern Oregon univer-
sity head volleyball coach Kaki
McLean Morehead was at a loss.
Of course, it was the second of
two 3-0 wins over Warner Pacific
on March 5 that generated all the
cheers. That is when it registered for
McLean Morehead, it was her 300th
win at EOu.
“I act ually
had no idea, to be
completely honest,”
she said. “It’s not
something that
I keep track of.
McLean
so when my kids
Morehead
started chanting
my name at the end
of the game, I was like, ‘you guys,
what are you doing?’ My kids did a
great job of making the day pretty
special. I was completely surprised
and shocked.”
McLean Morehead, who is in her
14th season as head coach, said the
milestone win is something she’s
incredibly proud of, but being in the
same athletic department as women’s
basketball coach Anji Weissenfluh,
who has compiled more than 450
wins in 19-plus seasons at EOu, is
a motivator.
“On one hand, 300 is an accom-
plishment and something I’m incredi-
bly proud of because of what we have
built here at Eastern Oregon,” she
said. “But on the other side of it, you
know, I’m just trying to keep up with
(Weissenfluh) who has 450 wins and
counting.”
The road to 300 has had its chal-
lenges, and none bigger than when
McLean Morehead had to lead the
program after tragedy struck.
a 2004 EOu graduate, McLean
Morehead had coached the Mount-
ies for four seasons, from 2006 until
2009. she stepped down after the
2009 campaign in order to move to
Idaho. McLean Morehead’s succes-
sor, hailey Pearce, was killed in a
car crash just before the start of her
second season in La Grande.
McLean Morehead stepped in as
the interim head coach for the 2011
season, posting a 17-11 record and
a third-place finish in the Cascade
collegiate conference. shortly after
the end of the 2011 season, McLean
Morehead signed on permanently.
“during that time, we realized
that Eastern Oregon is where we
want to be,” she said. “and again,
I am incredibly proud of what my
kids have worked to build and what
we have worked to build. and I
think that, that is something special
and it’s not something that you find
every day.”
McLean Morehead has the
Mountaineers off to a 9-0 start and
a No. 8 national ranking in a season
turned upside down by the cOVId-
19 pandemic. she said the team has
proven to be a resilient and deter-
mined bunch, and one not taking
anything for granted.
“We’re going to try everything
that we can and play our best with
the opportunities that we are given,”
she said.
The Mountaineers put their unde-
feated record on the line with a pair
of matchups on Friday, March 19, and
saturday, March 20, against Interstate
84 rival college of Idaho (4-6 overall)
inside Quinn coliseum. Match times
are set for 4 and 7 p.m., respectively.