A9 WEDNESDAY October 9, 2019 Mixed week for Outlaws volleyball By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain The Outlaws ladies started out the week in a funk but ended it with a much-deserved victory that coach Lisa Farwell hopes will put the Outlaws back in the winners circle. Wednesday, Oct. 3, saw the ladies facing and falling in four sets in an an away match to Weston-McEwen. Scores were 14-25, 18-25, 25-20 and 17-25. Coach Farwell found some highlights in the contest, however. Carsyn Miller served up four aces and was 16 for 16 serv- ing while Claire Farwell had 29 digs. Ashlyn Gray had fi ve kills and freshman Maci Marr came off the bench and did an outstand- ing job in the front row. Coach Farwell said that the Outlaws started out too slow and allowed Weston to have too many strings of unanswered points that the ladies just couldn’t come back from. “Our defense did a great job of picking up their hits and we made fewer mis- takes at the net,” she said. The ladies next traveled to Grant Union on Satur- day, Oct. 5, for some tour- nament play versus that school and Pilot Rock. The Outlaws did their best against the Prospectors, but Grant Union prevailed in the contest in four sets. The ladies won the fi rst set, 25-16, but dropped the next three, 13-25, 21-25 and 21-25. Highlights included Gray’s usual upscale per- formance as she tallied seven kills while freshman phenom, Maci Marr, added fi ve. Gray also went 18 for 18 serving with four aces. Claire Farwell had 24 digs, and Carsyn Miller added nine assists. The Outlaws fared much better versus Pilot Rock, regaining their for- mer confi dence, handily putting away the Rockets in three sets, 25-18, 25-9, 25-16. Cougar ladies move onward, upward By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain The lady Cougs learned that communication work pays off in spades after spending another busy week on the court, going 2-1 over the span. The ladies started the week on Tuesday, Oct. 1, with a fi ve-set home loss to Imbler that saw the Cougs realize the need for greater communica- tion against the Panthers, who fi elded a strong team. Set scores were: 19-25, 25-22,25-11,19-25 and 13-15. Coach Janea Hulse said that the squad’s lack of trust led to a number of unforced errors, but the team learned an important lesson from the loss. Saturday saw the ladies with an away volleyball dou- bleheader, facing both Gris- wold and Nixyaawii. Both of the squads fell to the Cougs attack. Griswold fell fi rst by scores of 25-19, 25-11 and 25-6. The amazing Shanna Rae Tillery carried the torch with 32 digs, eight kills, fi ve aces and solid serve receive. Hulse said Tillery showed Ellen Morris Bishop Shanna Rae Tillery slams the ball past two Imbler defenders. leadership and worked hard to stay intense. Team Cap- tain Ashlyn Young moved the ball around well with her sets. Hulse noted that Young is defi nitely the team leader and when she shows trust, the rest follow suit. Young had great serves throughout the game including 7 aces. Libby Fisher continued improvement as she battled hard both offensively and defensively. She racked up two blocks and played great defense. Haley Brockamp got kudos for her aggression at the net. A great hitter, she stayed disciplined and transi- tioned well off the net. Brock- amp netted fi ve kills and four blocks in the contest. Nixy’s luck didn’t improve from the previ- ous week as they also fell to the Cougs in three straight. Scores were not available. Hulse said that the team did much better on serves. Bailey Hafer and Tillery each had 13 aggressive serves. Jamie Johnston, Young and Ella Moeller each had 11. Johnston added nine kills for the game and three blocks with 18 digs while Young notched 17 digs and played well on serve receive. The week left the ladies with a 7-2 league record, a record of 16-6 overall and ranked at 15 in the state. Wallowa Cougars drop a heartbreaker to Union Bobcats By Steve Tool and Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa County Chieftain The Wallowa Cougars football squad just missed their fi rst season victory, dropping a 42-40 thriller in the last three minutes of the game. The Cougs started the game tough, drawing fi rst blood as premiere running back, Tristin Bales, snagged a 28-yard pass from quar- terback Lute Ramsden and sprinted away from the Bob- cat defense for a touchdown. Wallowa also added a two- point conversion. The second quarter proved all Wallowa as the Cougs scored three unan- swered touchdowns and succeeded in one two-point conversion. The Cougars held a substantial 28-0 lead at the half. The Union Bobcats came out swinging in the third quarter, scoring three touch- downs while the Cougs answered back with two scores. The quarter’s end saw Wallowa still holding a substantial 40-20 lead. They couldn’t hold on. The Union Bobcats, a 2A squad with plenty of reserve players on the bench, kept up their onslaught against the noticeably exhausted 1A division Cougars. The Bob- cats kept up the pressure, scoring three touchdowns and converting a two-point PAT. The fi nal touchdown, with 3 minutes 26 seconds to go in the game, tied the score at 40-40. That demor- alizing TD resulted from a “pick-6” off of a Lute Rams- den pass that tipped into the hands of a waiting Bobcat defender. Union’s 2-point conversion was just barely successful, giving the Bob- cats a two point lead, 42-40. The Cougs never gave up, gaining yardage up the fi eld in the last few minutes, but ultimately turned the ball over on downs with about a Ellen Morris Bishop Lute Ramsden runs a quarterback sneak in for a touchdown near the end of the fi rst quarter. Ellen Morris Bishop Tristin Bales gets a facemask full of hand from a Union ballcarrier, but four strides later completed the tackle. minute to go. Although freshman QB Ramsden threw three picks, he was also 11 for 25 on completions with 148 aerial yards, including a TD pass. Leading receivers included Bales with fi ve receptions for 57 yards and Kolby Mandal with 40 yards air delivery. Rushing saw the excel- lent Bales grind out a mas- sive 193 yards on 19 touches along with striking pay dirt twice. Zeb Ramsden hauled in 183 ground yards on 16 carries along with a score. Both proved they could leave Bobcat defend- ers in the dust. Lute Rams- den aided the cause with 67 yards on four carries while also scoring twice. His fi rst touchdown called for a skilled, evasive run that required, bobbing, weav- ing, and traversing the entire width of the fi eld. Defensively, freshman Justin Bales led the squad in take downs, with nine while adding fi ve assists. Zeb Ramsden hauled in seven Bobcats along with four assists and an interception while Tristin Bales nailed six aspiring ball carriers while aiding in three tackles. Perhaps the most exciting and energetic tackle of the game came in the third quar- ter. Playing defense, Kolby Mandal sprinted to intercept a Bobcat ball carrier, made an open-fi eld tackle, spun him around and literally fl ung him airborne toward the sideline. “It was a bummer to lose a game we should have won,” Coach Matt Brock- amp said. “The kids just ran out of gas.” He added that with only nine players tak- ing the fi eld, exhaustion was bound to happen. The coach noted that the exhaustion caused a num- ber of missed tackles, par- ticularly in the game-defi n- ing fourth quarter, and along with some special teams’ errors, sealed the loss for the Cougs. “We were dominating the game early,” Brockamp said. “We were playing fast and got things really rolling in the second quarter and early in the third quarter. They (the Bobcats) returned a kick for a touchdown, recovered an onside kick and got the pick-6 to end it.” The coach noted he was proud of the way the offense performed, with more than 400 yards total rushing and nearly 150 yards passing. “We out-gained them, offensively,” he said. “We just ran out of gas. We basi- cally had eight guys who never left the fi eld.” Steve Tool Munch and Crunch — A Sherman/Condon runner fi nds himself in a familiar place — sandwiched between Eagles’ defensemen during Joseph’s Saturday, Oct. 5, 61-6 win. Eagles steamroll yet another opponent By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain The Joseph Eagles grid- ders continued their dom- inance over opponents, steamrolling Sherman/Con- don by a 61-6 score. The Eagles scored on their fi rst possession and never looked back. The score stood at 18-0 at the end of the fi rst quarter with the squad in total command of the fi eld. Carson Littlepage ran like a wild man through a Con- don defense that struggled to even lay a hand on him. He tallied 216 yards rushing and four touchdowns. Juston Rogers had 38 yards rushing for one touchdown. Passing wasn’t ignored. Quarterback Trace Col- lier was 9 for 11 with pass- ing for 143.5 yards and three touchdowns. Star end, Had- ley Miller, caught a touch- down pass and also caught the point after touchdown as well. Littlepage and Rogers each caught a touchdown pass. Total offensive rushing yards were 265 and passing was 153.5 yards. Defensively, Juston Rog- ers led the squad with 11 tackles followed by Car- son Littlepage with nine and Hadley Miller with fi ve. Guylen Snyder and Hayden Hite each brought down three. Snyder and Rogers also snagged an interception each. An unlikely star is kicker and transfer student from Italy, Federico Buoncom- pagni, who wowed the crowd and opponents alike with his soccer-style kick- ing skills, which included a point after touchdown kick as well as a number of touchbacks on kickoffs. He also ran in a PAT for good measure. “It was a great game,” Coach Duncan Christman said. “Pretty much every- one got to play. What I love about our team is that I can take people out and put other people in their positions, and it’s like there’s no differ- ence at all.” He also noted he thought the game would have been closer in score had their opponents not lost seven players due to a sus- pension for vaping. “The team they brought was still tough and very competitive,” Christman said. The coach also gave credit for the victory to the drive of his players. “It’s the players and their drive to be better than last season,” he said. They’re really working hard to make this their season and not chasing the coattails of last season. They’re defi nitely on their way to do that.” Winter is coming. Be sure to visit us before we go into hibernation! Just 46 days left in the 2019 Season! Little Bear Drive In 541-886-3161 Hwy 82 • Wallowa, OR Serving you since 1974