A6 — BAKER CITY HERALD
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2021
SPORTS
BAKER FOOTBALL
Vale ends Baker’s win streak
By COREY KIRK
ckirk@bakercityherald.com
On a crisp fall evening
under the lights at Baker
Bulldog Memorial Stadium,
the Vale Vikings ended
Baker’s two-game winning
streak with a 34-23 win on
Friday, Oct. 8.
After Baker stopped Vale
on the Vikings’ initial drive,
the Bulldogs took an early 7-0
lead on senior running back
Gauge Bloomer’s 10-yard
touchdown.
“We came right out the
gate with a stop, got them off
the fi eld and we went down
the fi eld and scored,” Baker
coach Jason Ramos said. “We
executed really well that fi rst
drive with the four or fi ve
plays that we ran, so we felt
good about that.”
But Vale (5-1), behind
the dynamic duo of senior
quarterback Tanner Steele
and wide receiver John Wolfe,
responded.
First, Wolfe, after Bloom-
er’s touchdown, took the
ensuing kickoff 90 yards for a
touchdown.
That switched the momen-
tum, Ramos said.
“Th e Vale takeaway is
we can’t aff ord to make
our own mental or major
errors in the ball game.”
ment of seeing the winning
streak end, Ramos is optimis-
tic that the Bulldogs (2-4) will
continue to improve as they
look to the fi nal three games
on their schedule.
“The Vale takeaway is we
can’t afford to make our own
mental or major errors in
the ball game,” Ramos said.
“Our focus this week will be
cleaning up and executing
our own stuff.”
Baker returns to the
road this Friday, traveling to
Ontario to take on the Tigers
(1-4) for a 6 p.m. PDT kickoff.
— Baker coach Jason Ramos
“Had they not returned
that kickoff immediately
after, things might have been
different, at least in the fi rst
half,” he said.
Vale scored 27 straight
points to lead 27-7.
But before halftime Bak-
er’s sophomore quarterback,
Paul Hobson, found fellow
sophomore receiver Malaki
Myer for a touchdown that
cut the Vikings’ lead to 27-13
at intermission.
Ramos said he told the
Bulldogs at halftime that the
score should have been even
closer.
“Our conversation was we
need to own the defi cit that
we had at halftime because
it was our own doing, that
kickoff shouldn’t have had
happened ... it should have
been 20-13 at halftime or 14-
13 at that point,” Ramos said.
“We just talked about coming
back out, get the ball and
Corey Kirk/Baker City Herald
Prairie City/Burnt River
tops Pine Eagle
The combined team of
we are knocking on the door yards on 14 carries. Fresh-
come back to score and get
Prairie City/Burnt River (4-1)
man Jaxon Logsdon, who had beat Pine Eagle 24-6 on Fri-
and of course we penalized
right back in the game.”
a couple series at quarterback day, Oct. 8 at Prairie City.
Baker had a great chance ourselves and dig ourselves
in the fourth quarter, had 15
back out where we don’t
to do that after Vale was
Pine Eagle fell to 2-4.
exactly convert,” Ramos said. yards on four carries.
penalized for a late hit and
The Panthers will travel
Hobson fi nished 15 of 21
a subsequent unsportsman- “We’ve got to be more oppor-
to Echo for a 7 p.m. kickoff
like conduct, moving the ball tunistic and we have to clean passing for 131 yards and a
on Friday, Oct. 15, while
touchdown. Myer led Baker
up our own mistakes.”
30 yards to just outside the
the Spartans play host to
receivers with nine catches
After a scoreless third
Vale 20.
Dayville-Monument on Fri-
quarter, Vale scored an insur- for 86 yards. Hudson Spike
But the Bulldogs, in part
day at 2 p.m.
ance touchdown in the fourth had fi ve catches for 41 yards,
due to their own penalties,
and Dash Bloomer had a 22-
quarter, with Wolfe getting
couldn’t take advantage.
yard reception.
into the end zone again.
“That put us way down
Despite the disappoint-
Bloomer led Baker with 51
just outside the red zone and
Baker sophomore Hudson Spike, No. 8, tackles Vale’s John Wolfe midway through
the fi rst quarter Friday night, Oct. 8 at Baker Bulldog Memorial Stadium.
Boise State forces 4 turnovers, knocks off No. 10 BYU
By JOHN COON
Associated Press
PROVO, Utah — Hank
Bachmeier threw for 172
yards and Boise State forced
four turnovers in a 26-17 up-
set victory over No. 10 BYU
on Saturday, Oct. 9.
Cyrus Habibi-Likio ran
for a season-high 75 yards
and a touchdown, and
Andrew Van Buren added a
season-high 60 yards and a
touchdown to help the Bron-
cos (3-3) snap a two-game
losing streak in the series.
The Broncos held the
Cougars (5-1) to a single
touchdown over the fi nal
three quarters after blowing
second-half leads in losses to
UCF and Nevada.
“We fi nally fi nished the
second half,” Bachmeier said.
“I think we’ve always been
capable of doing it.”
Jaren Hall threw for a
career-high 302 yards and
a touchdown for BYU, and
Tyler Allgeier ran for 73 yards
and a touchdown. The Cou-
gars outgained Boise State
413-312 in total yards.
“I felt like we moved the
ball pretty well, except for a
couple of drives,” Hall said.
“We just didn’t take care
of the ball and did a lot of
uncharacteristic things ... and
put our defense in a tough
spot several times. That’s
pretty much the story of the
game for us.”
Hall looked sharp dur-
ing the fi rst quarter despite
a two-game absence with a
rib injury. He completed long
passes to open each of BYU’s
fi rst two drives. Hall punctu-
ated the second drive with
a 14-yard strike to Samson
Nacua that made it 10-0.
Boise State rallied to take
a 20-10 halftime, capitalizing
on back-to-back BYU fumbles.
The Broncos became the fi rst
opponent to lead the Cougars
at any point this season.
“Early on there, the fi rst
couple of drives they had
success,” Boise State coach
Andy Avalos said. “It was
about getting settled in and
not getting rattled.”
The Broncos tied it when
Habibi-Likio broke free for an
11-yard sprint. Scott Matlock
recovered a fumble by All-
geier at the BYU 24 to set up
Boise State’s fi rst touchdown.
Boise State went ahead
17-10 on a 1-yard plunge
from Van Buren. The Bron-
cos’ second touchdown came
fi ve plays after Lopini Katoa
fumbled a kickoff return at
the BYU 23.
“Our defense has done a
really good job of getting the
ball back to the offense this
year,” Boise State linebacker
Riley Whimpey said. “A
couple of those turnovers
came at crucial points in the
game and set up our offense
with great fi eld position and
they capitalized.”
The Cougars struggled to
rally after repeatedly failing
to convert in the red zone
in the second half. Katoa’s
second fumble stopped one
drive at the Broncos 13. An
incomplete fourth-down pass
from Hall stopped a second
drive at the Boise State 5.
BYU fi nally cut it to 23-17
midway through the fourth
quarter on a 1-yard plunge
by Allgeier. A 59-yard catch
by Gunner Romney on the
opening play of the drive set
up the score.
Jonah Dalmas hit a 22-
yard fi eld goal with 3:27 left
and Kaonohi Kaniho picked
off a pass from Hall at the
Broncos 11 to seal it.
“I saw a lot of mistakes,”
BYU coach Kalani Sitake
said. “Against a good team
it’s hard to overcome those
mistakes.”
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