Wednesday, October 27, 2021
A9
SPORTS
Eagles lock up district volleyball title
Chieftain staﬀ
Joseph’s winning streak contin-
ues into the state playoﬀ s.
The Eagles won the Old Ore-
gon League District Tournament
Saturday, Oct. 23, in Baker City,
sweeping Imbler in the semiﬁ -
nals, 25-8, 25-17, 25-19, and get-
ting past Powder Valley in ﬁ ve sets
in the championship match, 26-24,
25-14, 20-25, 20-25, 15-13.
In the title match, Cooper Nave
tallied 19 kills to power the oﬀ ense
and 40 digs to lead the defense.
Aimee Meyers had 30 digs and
was the team leader in assists and
aces.
Molly Curry added 14 kills,
Maggie Miller had 20 digs and
McKenzie Keﬀ er tallied 19 digs.
“Very proud of the girls for their
performance,” head coach Jill Hite
said. “They fought hard.”
In the earlier match against the
Panthers, Nave had a team-lead-
ing 13 kills. Curry had nine kills,
and Meyers had 22 digs and seven
aces.
Earlier in the week, on Oct.
20, the Eagles sunk Weston-McE-
wen in straight sets, 25-20, 25-20,
25-17
The victories extend the Joseph
winning streak to 19 matches in a
row.
Joseph heads into the state play-
oﬀ s with a record of 23-3 overall,
and will play a second-round home
game Saturday, Oct. 30, though the
time and opponent are yet to be
determined.
Cougars, Outlaws
see season end
Both the Wallowa and Enter-
prise volleyball teams saw their
seasons end last week.
The Cougars won their ﬁ rst dis-
trict playoﬀ game Tuesday, Oct.
19, taking down Elgin in four sets,
25-11, 25-23, 19-25, 25-23, before
losing to Imbler Thursday, Oct.
21, in straight sets, 25-17, 25-17,
25-18.
Enterprise saw its season end
Tuesday with a home loss to
Weston-McEwen in four sets,
25-13, 25-18, 19-25, 25-13. Enter-
prise fell short of qualifying for the
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Abby Orr, left, and McKenzie Keﬀ er dive for the ball during a match against North Powder at the Old Oregon
League District Tournament held in Baker City on Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021.
district tournament.
Maddie Wigen had seven kills
in the match for the Outlaws, Maci
Marr had 10 digs and Rilyn Kirk-
land had three aces.
“While we could play most
teams in our league closely for
a set or two, we couldn’t convert
that into wins, and at the end of the
season, it comes down to wins,”
head coach Lisa Farwell said.
“I’m proud of the work ethic and
Outlaws
win in a
rout, wait
for playoﬀ
berth
Outlaws
run
strong at
John Day
District cross-
country meet is
Friday, Oct. 29
Chieftain staﬀ
Chieftain staﬀ
JOHN DAY — Zac
Knapp will go into the dis-
trict cross-country meet hav-
ing won each race he has
been in.
The Wallowa Valley
senior won the Gold Rush
Run in John Day on Thurs-
day, Oct. 21, with a top time
of 15:34.2, besting the ﬁ eld
by more than 35 seconds.
Pine Eagle’s Caleb Brown
was second in 16:09.7.
The Outlaws won the
meet with a total of 36
points. Union/Cove was
second with 52. Burns (61)
placed third, and Heppner
(91) was fourth.
Knapp’s
teammate,
Bayden Menton, was the
second runner across the
line for Wallowa Valley, tak-
ing sixth overall in 16:29.1.
Ian Goodrich broke into the
top 10 in 10th with a time of
17:28.9. Rounding out Wal-
lowa Valley’s top ﬁ ve — all
of whom were in the top 20
— were Levi Ortswan in
14th (17:49.9) and Weston
Wolfe in 20th (18:09.5).
The Wallowa Valley girls
took third overall with 78
points, behind Union/Cove
(43) and Burns (69).
Maddie Nordtvedt paced
the Outlaws in 11th in
22:45.0. As they have sev-
eral times this year, the
rest of the team arrived in
bunches. Nevaeh James and
Iona McDonald placed 18th
and 19th, ﬁ nishing nearly
neck-and-neck with times of
23:12.5 and 23:12.9, respec-
tively. In 22nd and 23rd
were Lannie Stonebrink and
Michaila Caine in respec-
tive times of 23:17.0 and
23:24.4.
Up next for Wallowa Val-
ley is the 3A/2A/1A Special
District 3 Championships
back in John Day Friday,
Oct. 29.
good attitude my gals have demon-
strated all season.”
Wallowa ﬁ nishes with a record
of 6-15 overall.
Enterprise wraps up the season
at 10-11.
Wallowa County Chieftain, File
Enterprise’s Bud Magera runs during the 1984 state championship game, won by Enterprise, 17-14, over Yoncalla.
Looking back
Assessing the best decade of each Wallowa County football team
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE
—
When it comes to high
school football, suc-
cess has been had at all
three schools in Wallowa
County.
Wallowa, with four
state
championships,
arguably has the best all-
time local resume. Enter-
prise, one could argue,
had the most consis-
tent stretch. Joseph has
reemerged at the six-man
level.
With the state play-
oﬀ s just around the cor-
ner, what better time to
ask the question of what
has been the best decade
for each team throughout
its history?
That is what will be
looked at here.
Full disclosure: OSAA
didn’t start recognizing
state championships until
1940, and inconsistently
until 1943, so this exam
of the decades will begin
with the 1950s.
Wallowa Cougars
Two decades clearly
stand out when looking at
the Cougars’ history: The
1950s and the 1990s.
An argument could be
made for both, as well.
The early 1950s were a
time of dominance by
Wallowa, which won its
ﬁ rst two state champion-
ships back to back in 1951
and 1952 — going unde-
feated in the process both
seasons. The 1951 squad
registered two shutouts
in the playoﬀ s, includ-
ing a 34-0 blanking of
Gervais to claim the pro-
gram’s ﬁ rst state title. A
year later, another 12-0
season followed, and
while Wallowa was tested
a bit more in the postsea-
son, there still was little
issue in the championship
game, a 27-12 win over
Drain. That, though, was
the team’s last playoﬀ vic-
tory for 14 years.
The 1990s were high-
lighted by the 1993 team’s
undefeated season and
a 48-18 thumping of St.
Paul to cap a 13-0 cam-
paign. It was also a decade
of “what ifs” for the Cou-
gars. Five years in a row
Wallowa reached the state
semiﬁ nals, and only once
did they win it all, despite
being a team that, in that
ﬁ ve-year stretch, went
49-6. Four years in a row
the Cougars played Dufur
in the state semiﬁ nals, and
fell three of the four, the
exception being a 20-14
win in 1993 en route to the
state title. The most pain-
ful of those losses was a
30-26 setback to Dufur
in 1994, not only due to
the tight score, but due to
the Rangers running away
with a state title over
Eddyville the following
week, 50-14. In fact, the
three teams to defeat Wal-
lowa in the semis in 94-96
(Dufur twice, and Powers)
all won state crowns.
Wallowa went 6-2
in the postseason in the
1950s, and 7-4 in the
1990s. The 1992 semiﬁ nal
trip also ended a 25-year
playoﬀ drought that had
gone since 1967, the
team’s other state champi-
onship campaign.
It’s close, but we’re
calling the 1950s as the
best decade in Cougar
history. While the overall
See Back, Page A10
ENTERPRISE — It
was a win that would have
locked up a playoﬀ berth.
Instead, the Enterprise
football team will have to
wait.
The Outlaws secured
their fourth win in a row
when they thumped Lyle/
Wishram/Klickitat on the
road Friday, Oct. 22, 50-14.
It was a win that earned
Enterprise the No. 2 seed
from
Special
District
2-West and should have
given the Outlaws a playoﬀ
berth, which would have
been the ﬁ rst since 2017.
Instead, Enterprise will
be forfeiting its district
playoﬀ game this week —
and the automatic play-
oﬀ berth it had earned —
with the vast majority of its
players taking part in the
national FFA convention,
head coach Rusty Eschler
said. Enterprise will take
a loss for the forfeit, and
will instead have to hope
its OSAA ranking — which
is currently ninth — stays
high enough to earn one
of four at-large bids to the
state playoﬀ s.
Stats were not available
for the win against Lyle,
but it gave Enterprise its
most wins (ﬁ ve) since the
team went 6-4 in 2012. It
also was the third straight
time on the ﬁ eld that the
Outlaws scored at least 50
points in a game.
Enterprise, which will
have a 5-4 overall record
after the forfeit, will wait
to see if, indeed, it earns
that playoﬀ bid. The ﬁ nal
OSAA rankings will be set
Oct. 30.
Joseph toppled
by Panthers
The Joseph football team
enters the postseason on a
sour note after suﬀ ering its
worst loss in four years of
See Football, Page A10
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