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.”
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