A6 — BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2021
SPORTS
BAKER FOOTBALL OPENS SEASON THIS AFTERNOON AT HOME
BAKER SPORTS ROUNDUP
Baker, Cascade to renew rivalry Bulldogs get
 Teams have battled in
road wins
playoffs three times since 2012
Baker City Herald
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Driving most of the way
across Oregon for a high
school football game in Baker
City hardly daunts coach
Brandon Bennett and his
Cascade Cougars.
They had planned to go
much farther — all the way to
Colorado — to open the 2021
season.
Bennett concedes he was
disappointed when COVID-19
concerns canceled the Cou-
gars’ Colorado plans.
They had been slated to
play his own high school
coach’s team.
But the chance to renew
the rivalry with the Baker
Bulldogs is more than a conso-
lation prize, Bennett said.
“Baker’s a great opponent
— they have history,” Bennett
said in a phone interview on
Wednesday, three days before
his Cougars were scheduled to
take on the Bulldogs at Baker
Bulldog Memorial Stadium.
“It’s a great battle between
two country-type schools from
smaller towns.”
Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. this
afternoon, Sept. 4.
Baker and Cascade, being
separated by more than 300
miles and playing in different
leagues, wouldn’t be expected
to have a rivalry.
But the vagaries of playoff
scheduling have pitted the
schools against each other
three times in the past decade.
The fi rst of those games
was the most dramatic.
In November 2012 at
Hillsboro Stadium, Baker
topped Cascade 35-29 in a
triple-overtime thriller capped
by Braden Phillips’ touch-
down run.
The Bulldogs rallied after
Cascade scored two touchdowns
in 25 seconds in the fourth
quarter to forge a tie in the
Class 4A semifi nal game.
Baker went on to beat North
Bend for its second state title in
three years.
A year later Cascade
avenged the loss by beating
Baker 37-14 in a play-in game
at Baker Bulldog Memorial
Stadium.
The Bulldogs then had to
wait six years for their chance
at revenge on the Cougars’
home fi eld near Turner, south-
east of Salem.
In November 2019 Baker
traveled to Cascade and beat
the Cougars 38-21 in a playoff
game.
Almost two years — and a
pandemic — later, Bennett said
the Cougars, many of whom
played in the 2019 loss to Baker,
remember that game.
“We have unfi nished busi-
ness,” Bennett said.
He sees today’s game as
something of a reversal from
the 2019 playoff contest.
Baker relied largely on ju-
niors and seniors in that game,
all of whom have graduated.
Cascade, though, had just
six senior starters on the 2019
squad, and 17 sophomores
played in the loss to Baker, Ben-
nett said.
“That was their fi rst experi-
ence in a varsity playoff game,
and we have not forgotten,” he
said.
Among those players, now
seniors, are quarterback Jacob
Hage, who threw a 76-yard
touchdown pass in the 2019
playoff game, and Blake Lewis,
who had a 33-yard touchdown
run against Baker.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile,
Buell Gonzales Jr./Contributed Photo
Baker’s Alex Hammans, No. 23 at left, carries the ball
against Cascade Saturday, Nov. 9 2019, at Cascade.
Hammans had a touchdown run in Baker’s 38-21
playoff win.
return just a few players from
the 2019 playoff team.
One of those players, though,
has the Cougars’ attention, Ben-
nett said.
Running back Gauge
Bloomer, now a senior, led Baker
with 95 yards on 18 carries as a
sophomore in the 2019 playoff
win at Cascade, including an
8-yard touchdown run late in
the game.
“He was a signifi cant player
from that game,” Bennett said of
Bloomer.
Baker coach Jason Ramos,
who was on the sidelines for the
Bulldogs’ win at Cascade two
years ago, agrees with Bennett’s
assessment of the differences
between the two teams com-
pared with 2019.
“We’re young,” Ramos said.
“We’ve got some pretty athletic
young kids, but it is kind of a
reversal of that game two years
ago. We know that (Cascade)
has upperclassmen this year,
and they’re loaded.”
Ramos said the Bulldogs are
grateful for the chance not only
to play, but to do so in Septem-
ber, the traditional start to the
season.
“We know that they’re going
to be a tough opponent,” he
said of Cascade. “We’re always
excited for the opportunity to
STILL 1
#
More Information
• Cascade Cougars vs.
Baker Bulldogs
• Saturday, Sept. 4,
2 p.m.
• Baker Bulldog Memo-
rial Stadium, Ninth and E
streets
• Fans required to wear
face masks. No limits on
the number of fans.
play westside teams. This will
be a good gauge for where we
are as a team.”
Sophomore Paul Hobson will
start at quarterback for Baker.
“He did play some as a
freshman, and we’re expecting
him to step up and have a good
sophomore season,” Ramos said.
Breaking in a new quarter-
back is less challenging, he said,
when Hobson has a veteran
running back such as Bloomer
to hand the ball to.
“Gauge is a great senior
leader,” Ramos said. “He’s got a
lot of experience. That is going to
be helpful.”
Baker and Cascade both
went 3-3 during the pandemic-
abbreviated season that ran
from early March to early April
this year.
They didn’t have any com-
mon opponents.
Multiple Baker High
School sports teams went
on the road Thursday,
Sept. 2 and all had suc-
cessful trips.
The Bulldog girls
soccer team traveled to
Ontario and beat Four
Rivers 5-1 for its fi rst win
after opening the season
with three losses.
Baker’s volleyball team
rallied in the fi fth and
deciding set to nip Union.
And the Baker girls
and boys cross-country
teams had strong
performances at the big
Caldwell Twilight meet in
Idaho.
Girls soccer
Junior Sydnee Pierce
had a hat trick as Baker
took 36 shots on goal in its
strongest offensive perfor-
mance of the season.
Junior Daphne
Thomas and freshman Jill
Poe each had a goal.
Although Baker’s fi ve
goals was one more than
the Bulldogs scored in
their fi rst three matches,
assistant coach Christine
Teegarden said defense
was the real key in the
win over Four Rivers.
“Our defensive line is
really starting to under-
stand their positioning
and function well as a
defensive unit which in
turn helps the whole team
stay in formation better,”
Teegarden said.
Bobcats rallied to win the
next two, 25-17 and 25-23,
forcing a decisive fi fth set.
Union continued its
momentum in the fi nal
set, racing to an 8-4 lead.
But after Baker
coach Ali Abrego called
a timeout, the Bulldogs
dominated, winning 11
of the fi nal 14 points to
claim the hard-fought
match with a 15-11 win in
the fi nal set.
Abrego said she simply
told her players during
the timeout to “trust each
other.”
“They really banded
together, and it was awe-
some to see,” Abrego said.
“It was a big moment for
us mentally.”
Cross-country
Baker traveled to
Idaho for the Caldwell
Twilight, a major meet
with 33 teams and more
than 275 runners compet-
ing.
The Baker girls, led
by senior Emma Ba-
eth’s 27th-place fi nish
(21:12.41), placed 11th in
the team standings.
Other girls results:
Sydney Lamb, 39th;
Sofi a Kaaen, 68th; Emma
Timm, 85th; Paige Marlia,
87th.
Junior Thaddeus
Pepera was Baker’s top
boys runner, placing 54th
in a time of 17:52.53.
Baker fi nished 17th in the
team standings.
Other Baker boys:
Volleyball
Jordan Mills, 73rd; Daniel
Baker seemed poised
Brown, 90th; Seth Mas-
to get the sweep at Union, trude, 120th; River Clark,
winning the fi rst two sets, 132nd; Payton Waters,
25-21 and 25-18. But the 133rd.
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