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Thursday, april 8, 2021
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PREP FOOTBALL PREVIEW
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Weston-McEwen’s Hunter Lantz
(54) carries an American flag ahead
of the game in Athena on March
19, 2021. The Weston-McEwen Ti-
gerScots defeated the Riverside
Pirates 33-6.
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File
Pendleton’s Sam Coleman runs the ball at Round-Up Arena on Friday, April 2, 2021. The Bucks beat Baker 49-26.
W-M, Umatilla
square off for
a second time
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
Pendleton will
have its hands full
with 6A Summit
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
P
ENdlETON — pendleton is not a
team to back down from a challenge.
The Bucks hit the road to play 6a
summit on Friday, april 9, taking on a team
that has twice the personnel and players who
only play one side of the ball.
“They platoon kids, they don’t play both
ways,” pendleton coach Erik davis said.
“They are a 6A football team, they have
horses and good athletic kids. i think it’s a
good matchup, for sure.”
The storm has had an interesting season,
playing Mountain View twice, Bend twice,
and Beaverton once. Summit is coming off
a 15-5 loss last week to Bend.
Summit (2-3) won the first game between
the teams, but last week the lava Bears
took advantage of two storm special teams
mistakes to pick up their first win of the
season.
if the Bucks (4-1) have an edge on the
storm, it could be their team speed.
Tyasin Burns and Zaanan Bane have done
a tremendous job out of the backfield, and
Pendleton’s defense has been able to diffuse
opponents’ game plans.
“They will run some man coverage,
which lends them to be able to bring pres-
sure,” Davis said of the Storm. “If we can
take advantage of them, it will be our team
speed. having two tailbacks opens up our
offense, which creates problems. If we play
like we did against hood river, we will be
OK. if we make the mistakes we did against
redmond, it will be a long night.”
Bane, who took a helmet to the thigh
against redmond, is back to 100%. davis is
moving the 6-foot-1, 170-pound senior from
the secondary to outside linebacker.
“If we play defensively like we did
See Pendleton, Page A11
EOU SPORTS BRIEFING
Eastern drops
five spots in latest
NAIA ranking
KaNsas CiTy, Mo. — The
Eastern Oregon women’s soccer
team dropped in the Naia
Women’s soccer Coaches’ Top-25
Poll, falling five spots in the latest
poll released on Wednesday, april
7.
The Mountaineers now sit at
No. 16 in the Naia after being
ranked as high as No. 9.
Eastern wrapped up regular
season play earlier this week with
a pair of road contests at College
of idaho. The Mountaineers tied
in the first matchup at 1-1 before
dropping a 1-0 bout in the second
game. With regular season play
over for the Mountaineers, they
stand at 7-1-2 overall and finish
5-1-2 in Cascade Collegiate
Conference East division play.
regular season play for the
rest of the conference will wrap
up early next week to determine
the winner of the CCC East divi-
sion. as it stands, EOu leads with
17 points, while C of i is second
with 13. a pair of wins or a win
and a draw for the yotes at Carroll
College would give the yotes the
East division Title.
in this set of rankings, EOu is
the only ranked CCC team. C of i
continues to remain in the receiv-
ing votes category.
The Mountaineers (2-1, 2-1
Frontier) fell one spot in the rank-
ings to No. 21 following a home
loss to No. 6 College of idaho on
senior day.
The yotes outscored the Moun-
taineers 21-7 in the final quarter to
rally from a 38-28 deficit.
The Mountaineers final game
of the regular season will be on
the road this weekend in havre,
Montana, against Montana
State-Northern. Kickoff is set for
11 a.m. on saturday, april 10.
Mountaineers drop
one spot in top-25 poll
Mountaineers
hold steady at
No. 8 in latest poll
KaNsas CiTy, Mo. — a
fourth-quarter collapse cost the
Eastern Oregon university one
spot in the latest Naia Football
Firstdown playBook Top-25 poll,
released on Monday, april 5.
K aNsas CiTy, Mo. —
The Eastern Oregon university
volleyball team remained No.
8 in the latest Naia Women’s
Volleyball Coaches’ poll, released
Wednesday, april 7.
Two wins last weekend over
lewis-Clark state propelled the
Mountaineers to a perfect regular
season at 15-0 overall and an unde-
feated Cascade Collegiate Confer-
ence record at 14-0.
The undefeated season for
EOU is the first in program history
and the league title is the sixth in
program history.
Corban university held on to
its No. 13 ranking, while Bushnell
university and Oregon Tech each
received votes.
Eastern Oregon will enter the
Cascade Conference Tournament
as the No. 1 seed and will host
No. 4 seed Bushnell university on
Friday, april 9, at 7:30 p.m. inside
Quinn Coliseum in one of the tour-
nament semifinal games. In the
4 p.m. game, No. 2 seed Corban
will battle No. 3 seed Oregon Tech.
— EO Media Group
aThENa — it’s round 2 for the
Tigerscots and Vikings.
Weston-McEwen and umatilla
met during Week 2 of the season,
with the Tigerscots coming away
with a 20-7 victory, but a lot has
changed since that time.
“Umatilla is well-coached, and
disciplined,” said W-M coach Kenzie
hansell, who was seeding alfalfa
when reached on Wednesday, april
7. “They have gotten better, and so
have we. it will be a great game. it
will have a playoff atmosphere.”
The teams will play at 7 p.m. on
Friday, april 9, at Weston-McEwen
high school.
The Tigerscots (4-1) are coming
off a 38-12 win over McLoughlin,
while umatilla (2-3) dropped a tight
34-28 game to Grant union last
week.
“We have improved a lot with
our blocking,” umatilla coach dan
Durfey said. “We have had a few
games when we have put up a few
yards. We are starting to get the
blocks, we have kept a simple game
plan, which has helped a lot. Just the
basics and playing football. They are
playing good football and they don’t
have to think that much.”
W-M had a tough time getting
its passing game going last week,
but with short fields on a few series,
and special teams putting out a solid
effort, the TigerScots took what the
game offered.
“We do what’s working during
the game,” Hansell said. “We prepare
for the pass and run, and credit to the
offensive line, they give us options.”
it’s those options that concern
durfey.
“The different formations they
play, we need to pay attention to that
and make sure they are in the right
spot,” durfey said.
It’s the final game of the season
See Prep Football, Page A11
SPORTS SHORT
China warns Washington not to boycott Winter Olympics
Associated Press
BEiJiNG — China’s govern-
ment warned Washington on
Wednesday, april 7, not to boycott
next year’s Winter Olympics in
Beijing after the Biden admin-
istration said it was talking with
allies about a joint approach
to complaints of human rights
abuses.
a Foreign Ministry spokes-
person rejected accusations of
abuses against ethnic minorities
in the Xinjiang region. he warned
of an unspecified “robust Chinese
response” to a potential Olympics
boycott.
“The politicization of sports
will damage the spirit of the
Olympic Charter and the inter-
ests of athletes from all coun-
tries,” said the spokesperson, Zhao
Lijian. “The international commu-
nity including the u.s. Olympic
Committee will not accept it.”
human rights groups are
protesting China’s hosting of the
games, due to start in February
2022. They have urged a boycott
or other measures to call attention
to accusations of Chinese abuses
against uyghurs, Tibetans and
residents of hong Kong.
The u.s. state department
suggested an Olympic boycott
was among the possibilities, but a
senior official said later a boycott
has not been discussed. The inter-
national Olympic Committee and
the u.s. Olympic and paralympic
Committee have said in the past
they oppose boycotts.
White house press secretary
Jen psaki said on april 7 that the
White house is not looking at a
boycott of the 2022 Olympics.
“We have not discussed, and
are not discussing, any joint
boycott with allies and partners,”
she said.
When asked if the u.s. govern-
ment would discourage americans
from traveling to China, psaki said
the Biden administration hopes
that by the time of the event, “we
are at a point where enough people
across the country, and hopefully
around the world have been vacci-
nated” against COVid-19.
Andy Wong/Associated Press
Chinese attendants dressed in winter costumes rehearse the award
ceremony of the men’s 500-meter race during a test event for the 2022
Beijing Winter Olympics at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing
on Wednesday, April 7, 2021.