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BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2019 PAC-12 FOOTBALL NFL Freshman QB sets records in leading Trojans to comeback win over Stanford Seahawks rally past Bengals Amon-Ra St. Brown had eight catches for 97 yards and LOS ANGELES — Not two touchdowns, while Tyler many freshmen get to climb Vaughns added another TD the stepladder, hold up the grab in the fourth quarter sword and lead the Southern for USC. Vavae Malepeai California band in a post- rushed for two touchdowns game victory party at the and Stephen Carr added a Coliseum. 25-yard TD run in a 492-yard No Trojans freshman performance by coordinator quarterback has ever had a Graham Harrell’s Air Raid debut start like Kedon Slovis, offense. who turned a tough matchup Slovis, whose high school against Stanford into a position coach was Kurt War- celebration of his burgeoning ner, won his duel with fellow talent. fi rst-time starter Davis Mills, Slovis passed for 377 yards who went 22 of 36 for 237 and three touchdowns in a yards for Stanford. The USC commanding performance, student section chanted Slo- and USC rolled to a 45-20 vic- vis’ name during the victory, tory over the No. 23 Cardinal and his teammates praised it on Saturday night. afterward. Slovis went 28 of 33 and “I’m not surprised at all,” set the school record for yards center Brett Neilon said. “I’ve passing in a freshman’s fi rst watched the kid, and he’s a start as the Trojans (2-0, 1-0 special talent. Everyone in Pac-12) rallied from an early the locker room believed in 14-point defi cit to beat the him. He’s really poised, and Cardinal (1-1, 1-1) for the he rallied us all together.” third time in the California Cameron Scarlett rushed private schools’ last four for 82 yards and a touch- meetings. down, but the Cardinal were “I don’t think it shows outscored 42-3 in the fi nal 43 how good I am,” said Slovis, minutes. the unheralded 18-year-old Despite being forced by recruit from Arizona. “But it injury to switch starting shows how good the team is quarterbacks already, the around me.” Trojans are off to a dynamic By Greg Beacham AP Sports Writer start under embattled coach Clay Helton coming out of the school’s fi rst losing season since 2000. “Give a lot of credit to USC,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “I thought we had them on the ropes in the fi rst half. They showed great resil- ience, came back and made some plays and got back in the game. And I’ll say this: Clay Helton has heard a lot of (stuff) from a lot of people for a lot of things. I think he’s one heck of a football coach. I think he’s got a really good football team. I thought they were extremely prepared.” Both quarterbacks got into the spotlight because of injuries to the schools’ chosen starters last week. USC’s J.T. Daniels is out for the season after injuring his knee while being tackled on a blitz, while Stanford’s K.J. Costello was ruled out for only this week after a head hit. Both passers got off to strong starts at the Coliseum, but only Slovis sustained it. Mills completed his fi rst four passes while the Car- dinal opened with two long touchdown drives, capping the opener with his fi rst career TD pass to Connor Wedington. Stanford jumped to a 17-3 lead with a fi eld goal after USC’s Velus Jones fumbled a kickoff return, but the Trojans soon got rolling. Slovis largely handed off last week after he replaced Daniels, but Harrell said he wouldn’t simplify his game plan with Slovis as his starter. Harrell proved it immediately against Stanford, and Slovis met the challenge. “We understood his talent, and we understood the type of players our quarterbacks are,” Helton said. “I said, ‘Gra- ham, let’s cut it loose, and let’s go have fun. Let’s play fast and play aggressive. Even though he’s young, we named him the No. 2 for a reason.’ That’s not hard for Graham, because he’s always looking to cut it loose.” Slovis got his fi rst TD pass early in the second quarter, hitting St. Brown for a 39- yard score. After Carr made a 25-yard TD run, Slovis capped a quick 70-yard drive with a second TD pass to St. Brown 31 seconds before halftime, putting USC ahead for the fi rst time. “You never, ever want to look back and just realize it was just completely on your Colorado rallies to nip Nebraska, 34-31 Tucker’s fi rst home game and sent fans streaming onto the fi eld in celebration. BOULDER, Colo. — Mel Tucker’s James Stefanou’s 34-yard fi eld goal halftime message was simple: We’ve gave Colorado its fi rst lead in overtime taken their best shot. Now, let’s go give and the Buffaloes beat 25th-ranked Ne- them ours. braska 34-31 on Saturday when punter Colorado hadn’t touched Nebraska Isaac Armstrong’s 49-yard try sailed quarterback Adrian Martinez, whose wide right . jersey was clean and whose passing was The students stormed the fi eld cel- perfect, and the Buffaloes had managed ebrating the Buffaloes’ second straight just 84 yards of offense and none on the win over their old Big 12 rival. Colorado ground. rallied to win in the closing minutes last “When we went out into the tunnel year in Lincoln. coming out for the second half, those “This is one of the hardest losses I’ve guys were energized and ready to play ever been a part of,” said Nebraska’s ball,” Tucker said. second-year coach Scott Frost, who fell In a scintillating comeback, the Buffa- to 0-6 on the road. loes overcame a 17-0 halftime defi cit in Before Saturday, unranked Buffaloes By Arnie Stapleton AP Sports Writer WALMART Continued from Page 2A “These incidents are concerning and we would like to avoid them,” McMillon wrote. “So we are respectfully requesting that customers no longer openly carry fi rearms into our stores or Sam’s Clubs in states where ‘open carry’ is permitted.” While the policy doesn’t amount to an explicit ban, Garcia said in cases where deescalation and respectful conversations aren’t success- ful, local authorities may be called. “It’s a judgement call,” she said on Thursday. “If somebody is creating concern for our customers and it’s perceived as a threat, the store may have to go ahead and contact police.” To prepare its employees for these situations, Gar- cia said the corporation is conducting training with all associates and discussing the importance of respect and how to assess these scenarios. Garcia added that Walmart is in the process of creating signage that will in- form customers of this policy clearly, but that they aren’t likely to be ready to go for a teams were 1-22 all-time against ranked Nebraska teams with their only win coming in 1986 when the Cornhuskers were ranked third. Rank this one right up there with that one. It included the longest touchdown in Colorado’s history, a 96-yard fl ea-fl icker from Steven Montez to K.D. Nixon in a frenetic fourth quarter that featured 38 points and began with Nebraska (1-1) up 17-7. Pressed into kicking duties because the starter, Barret Pickering, was out with an undisclosed injury, Armstrong was perfect on four extra points and nailed a 26-yard fi eld goal during regu- lation. couple weeks as they work through compliance with various states and jurisdic- tions. Regardless of the past in- cidents, Beers doesn’t believe people should be scared of others openly carrying to begin with, noting that it removes the possibility of people like her being able to defend others in a shooting situation. She also said she’s happy to have a respectful conversation with somebody about why she feels that way. “I don’t mind if someone’s uncomfortable,” she said. “I just don’t want to be regu- lated from my right.” Sen. Bill Hansell, R- Athena, said he didn’t have a comment on the gun control debate at large or the discus- sion around open carry. But he did say he sees Walmart’s new policy as well within their rights as a business. “They’re a private busi- ness, and as a private busi- ness they will make decisions they feel is best for them and their customers,” he said. According to the memo, Walmart will not change its policy on allowing concealed carry of fi rearms within its stores. Mark Petersen, chair of the Umatilla County ■ Seattle overcomes a sluggish offense and Andy Dalton’s passing By Tim Booth AP Sports Writer SEATTLE — In a way only Pete Carroll could enjoy, the Seattle Seahawks coach was perfectly fi ne seeing his team trailing going into the fourth quarter against the Bengals. Maybe it was because he knew what was being dialed up to start the fi nal 15 minutes. “We played from behind the whole day and those guys never stopped. They never stopped thinking we were going to win the football game and that’s so valuable to us,” Carroll said. Seattle never trailed again after Russell Wilson hit Tyler Lockett for a 44-yard touchdown on the fi rst play of the fourth quarter, and the Seahawks with- stood a career day from Andy Dalton to beat Cincin- nati 21-20 on Sunday. It was not supposed to be this tough for one of the favorites in the NFC. Seattle had DK Metcalf, Jadav- eon Clowney and several other new options to deploy against a revamped Bengals team under fi rst-year coach Zac Taylor. It nearly became one of the big upsets of the opening week. Wilson and the Seahawks struggled offensively for most of the game, but got the big plays they needed on a day Dalton looked great running Taylor’s system. Wilson was 14 of 20 for 196 yards and two scores, including a 10-yard TD pass in the fi rst half to Chris Carson, who broke three tackles on his way to the end zone. Carson also had a 1-yard TD run. “We started off kind of rusty. It was something we had to get the hang of, but we have to start off faster than that,” Carson said. Wilson’s numbers were pedestrian compared to Dalton’s. The veteran threw for a career-high 418 yards and two fi rst-half touchdowns to John Ross as the Bengals used some trickery, luck and a smart game plan to surprise the Seahawks. But after leading 17-14 at halftime, the Bengals failed to score on three possessions inside Seattle’s 36-yard line in the third quarter, and that became the difference. “One of those drives probably would have won it for us,” Taylor said. Ross, who played collegiately across town at Washington and had 210 yards receiving all of last season, fi nished with seven catches for 158 yards. He caught a 33-yard touchdown on a fl ea-fl icker midway through the second quarter and hauled in a 55-yard TD pass with 7 seconds left in the fi rst half after Seattle safety Tedric Thompson misjudged Dalton’s pass. Thompson’s whiff at picking off Dalton was one of several mistakes by Seattle that allowed the Bengals to hang around. Wilson was sacked four times. Democratic Party, declined to comment on the policy. A potential winner from the decision are gun shops in Pendleton and Hermiston, which are expecting an in- crease in customers moving forward. “As with any business, every person that competes takes some slice of the pie,” said Rick Hadden of Pend- leton’s Garner’s Sporting Goods. “So I’d expect some more but to what degree I couldn’t say.” After removing the short- barrel ammunition from its stores, McMillon wrote in the memo that the retailer expects its share of the am- munition market to drop from 20% to between 6% to 9%. Randy Smith, who is the owner of Hermiston’s Smitty’s Ace Outpost, said he’s already seen an uptick in buyers of his ammunition after Walmart and other chain retailers opted to raise the age requirement from 18 to 21 last year. Smith said his store won’t change its policies and will continue to follow federal law while “not shying away” from selling to anybody eligible under those regulations. OFFICIALS FEAR THE OCEAN HEAT WAVE OFF THE WEST COAST COULD HARM SALMON AND WHALES Scientists monitoring unusually warm ocean waters ■ Experts say the expanse of warm water from Alaska to California so far is similar to an event that spanned 2014 and 2015 hunted closer to shore, and an algae bloom that shut down crabbing and SEATTLE — Federal scientists clamming. said Thursday they are monitoring “Given the magnitude of what we a new ocean heat wave off the U.S. saw last time, we want to know if West Coast, a development that this evolves on a similar path,” said could badly disrupt marine life in- Chris Harvey, a research scientist cluding salmon, whales and sea lions. at the Northwest Fisheries Science The expanse of unusually warm Center. water stretches from Alaska to Cali- NOAA Fisheries said the water fornia, researchers with the National has reached temperatures more Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- than 5 degrees Fahrenheit above tration said Thursday. It resembles average. It remains to be seen a similar heat wave about fi ve years whether this heat wave dissipates ago that was blamed for poorer more quickly than the last one, the survival rates for young salmon, agency said. more humpback whales becoming If it lingers, it could be disastrous entangled in fi shing gear as they for the Pacifi c Northwest’s endan- By Gene Johnson Associated Press gered orcas, which largely depend on chinook salmon. The warmer waters can weaken the food web that sus- tain the salmon and bring predators of young salmon, including seabirds, closer to shore, further reducing their abundance. Chinook returns have been extremely low in recent years following the last heat wave, which scientists dubbed “the blob.” The new heat wave has emerged over the last few months, grow- ing in a similar pattern in the same area. After “the blob,” it’s the second-most widespread heat wave in the northern Pacifi c Ocean in the last 40 years — as far back as the relevant data goes. “It’s on a trajectory to be as strong as the prior event,” said An- drew Leising, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fish- eries Science Center in La Jolla, California, who developed a way to use satellite data to track marine heat waves in the Pacifi c. Among the causes is a persis- tent low-pressure weather pattern between Hawaii and Alaska that has weakened winds that otherwise might mix and cool surface waters across much of the North Pacifi c, said Nathan Mantua, a NOAA research scientist. What’s causing that, he said, is unclear: It might simply refl ect the normal chaotic motion of the atmosphere, or it might be related to the warming of the oceans and other effects of human-made climate change. The agency said it will provide fi sheries managers with informa- tion on how the unusually warm conditions could affect the marine ecosystem and fi sh stocks. The last heat wave spanned 2014 and 2015 and resulted in several declared fi sheries disasters. Among the other effects, thousands of young sea lions were stranded on beaches after their mothers were forced to forage further from their rookeries in the Channel Islands off Southern California.