A6 — BAKER CITY HERALD
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021
SPORTS
BAKER BOYS SOCCER
Ontario blanks Baker in home fi nale
missing today, we had to shuffl e some
people around and we managed to play
In its fi nal home match, the Baker good,” Benites said.
On the other side of the fi eld,
boys soccer team wasn’t able to fend off
the Ontario Tigers Saturday afternoon, however, the Bulldogs struggled to get
anything going, managing just a few
Oct. 16 at the Sports Complex.
shots on goal in the fi rst half.
The Tigers (5-3-3) won 8-0.
“I think where we are struggling
Baker coach Victor Benites said he
is with midfi elders to forwards, that’s
hoped the Bulldogs would maintain
where our problem is,” Benites said.
the momentum from their 3-3 tie
“We don’t fi nish and we have to step
against La Grande on Oct. 14.
“We just tried to do the same thing up.”
Ontario got goals from senior Jamie
we did against La Grande, I mean we
Gonzalez in the 18th minute and from
were ready for them,” Benites said of
freshman Bryan Alejandro in the 39th
Ontario.
minute to take a 2-0 lead at halftime.
Early in the fi rst half Saturday,
With just a two-goal defi cit, Benites
defense dominated on both sides.
said he remained optimistic as the
Benites said he was proud of his
second half started.
team, which was not at full strength.
“We could start playing our game
“With having a couple of players
By COREY KIRK
ckirk@bakercityherald.com
BAKER FOOTBALL
Baker holds off
Ontario, 27-14
By COREY KIRK
ckirk@bakercityherald.com
Baker scored in a variety
of ways in a 27-14 win over
Ontario Friday, Oct. 15 at On-
tario that boosted the Bulldogs’
record to 3-4.
Baker sophomore Malaki
Myer had two long touchdown
runs in the fi rst half, the fi rst
on a punt return and later on
an interception.
Senior running back Gauge
Bloomer had a pair of touch-
down runs in the second half.
“That helped — early
scores, special team scores,
which was kind of nice to see,”
Baker coach Jason Ramos said.
“We’ve set a goal, we wanted a
defensive score, we always set
a goal to get a special teams
turnover or score so we were
feeling pretty good about
ourselves.”
Baker struggled early with
an interception on the fi rst
offensive series.
But after the Baker de-
fense forced an Ontario punt,
Myer took the kick back 65
yards for a touchdown and a
6-0 Baker lead.
Later in the half, Myer
grabbed a bobbled Ontario
pass and returned it 79 yards
for another score and a 13-0
Baker lead.
It was the fi rst of Myer’s two
interceptions, and the Bulldogs’
total of four, as freshman Jaxon
Logsdon also picked off a pair
of Tiger passes.
Although Baker led 13-0
at halftime, Ramos said he
instilled in the Bulldogs the
importance of having a strong
start offensively in the second
half, since Baker hadn’t scored
an offensive touchdown.
“We felt like we needed
to get some momentum, we
hadn’t really gotten an of-
fensive fl ow going yet,” Ramos
said.
Not fi nding much success in
the air, the Bulldogs relied on
Bloomer, who gained 168 yards
on 25 carries.
Bloomer also accounted for
Baker’s two touchdowns in the
second half, running it in from
29 yards at the end of the third
quarter, and from two yards
out midway through the fourth.
“We had to establish a
ground game, and we did kind
of wear them down a little bit
once we had the ground game
going,” Ramos said. “We run
blocked better, we got Gauge
going, and we were able to
march down the fi eld.”
Ontario scored its two
touchdowns in the fourth quar-
ter, but Baker recovered two
onside kicks, preventing the
Tigers from getting additional
possessions.
“It was two critical special
teams plays out of our guys
to fi eld those onside kicks
properly,” Ramos said. “Special
teams was solid, we covered
(the) punt well, we covered
kickoffs well, they (Ontario)
tried to run a fake punt and
we stopped that, so our special
teams was pretty solid.”
Ramos wasn’t entirely satis-
fi ed with the defensive effort
against the Tigers, who are 1-5
on the season.
“We seemed like we were
a little content to just let On-
tario step back and complete
passes,” Ramos said. “We need
to be a little more aggres-
sive defensively to just not
allow that to happen, credit to
them (Ontario), they played a
good game.”
Tate Powell had two car-
ries for 23 yards, and Dylon
Freeman added 11 yards on
two carries.
Myer caught two of Paul
Hobson’s passes for nine yards,
and Hudson Spike had one
reception for seven yards.
“We were happy with the
win,” Ramos said, “but we
weren’t satisfi ed with the per-
formance, we know that every
step we take moving forward is
to fi nish strong.”
Baker returns to the road
this Friday, Oct. 22, traveling to
Burns to take on the Hilanders
at 7 p.m.
The Bulldogs will return
home on Oct. 29 for the
Homecoming game against La
Grande, also at 7 p.m.
and we could get some goals,” he said.
But Baker’s offensive struggles
continued during the second half.
“I don’t know what happened,”
Benites said. “I think we had about two
or three chances and that was about it.”
The Tigers, meanwhile, scored six
more goals in the fi rst 25 minutes, and
the match ended early due to the 8-0
lead.
With six days to prepare for the
fi nal match, Oct. 25 at 5 p.m. at Mac-Hi
(8-2), Benites said the Bulldogs will
seek to end the season with a better
performance.
“We are just going to practice the
same stuff that we do and hopefully we
Corey Kirk/Baker City Herald
will just be communicating better and
Baker junior Diego Quintela is surrounded by Ontario
better passes so we can come up with
defenders early in the fi rst half Saturday, Oct. 16 at the
something,” Benites said.
Baker Sports Complex.
Watt forces fumble
in overtime, Steelers
edge Seahawks, 23-20
By WILL GRAVES
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — Pitts-
burgh Steelers coach Mike
Tomlin insists there is
nothing “mystical” to the
way outside linebacker
T.J. Watt goes about his
business.
The perennial All-Pro is
talented. He’s focused. He’s
relentless. And as of last
month, he’s also one of the
highest-paid defenders in
the NFL.
And he’s playing like
he’s worth every penny.
Watt strip-sacked
Seattle quarterback Geno
Smith in the waning
minutes of overtime on
Sunday night, Oct. 17.
Teammate Devin Bush
pounced on the loose
ball to set up Chris
Boswell’s game-winning
36-yard fi eld goal as the
Steelers escaped with a
23-20 victory.
“I don’t think anyone
is surprised about his
ability to deliver in
those moments,” Tomlin
said of Watt.
Maybe, but Watt’s
second sack of the night,
the one that helped
the Steelers (3-3) win
their second straight to
reach .500 heading into
their bye week, began
innocently. Watt wasn’t
sure he had a path to
Smith only to somehow
thread his way to the
former starter turned
longtime backup. One
mighty chop at Smith’s
right arm and the ball
was on the ground.
“I don’t think I had a
good rush or anything,”
Watt said.
In the end, it didn’t
matter. Watt fi nished
a remarkable game in
which he knocked down
three passes and recorded
three tackles for loss by
making the play that al-
lowed Pittsburgh to avoid a
defl ating setback.
The Steelers have won
two straight following a
1-3 start and will have two
weeks to get ready for a
visit to Cleveland on Hal-
loween.
“It’s kind of crazy, don’t
know if it’s really sunk in
yet,” quarterback Ben Ro-
ethlisberger said. “We got
to our goal, which was to
get to .500 before the bye,
get healthy and get pre-
pared for a long stretch.”
Roethlisberger threw
for 229 yards and a touch-
place of injured Russell
down and rookie running
Wilson, completed 23 of 32
back Najee Harris added
passes for 209 yards and a
83 yards rushing and
caught his second scoring
touchdown in his fi rst start
toss of the season. Eric
in nearly four years. Alex
Ebron scored the third
Collins ran for 101 yards
rushing touchdown of
while fi lling in for injured
his career as the Steelers
starter Chris Carson, the
found creative ways to
fi rst 100-yard rushing
move the ball with star
game by a Seahawk since
wide receiver JuJu Smith- Dec. 15, 2018.
Schuster lost for the season
Smith’s late miscue,
with a shoulder injury.
however, dropped Seattle
“We’ve got a lot of play-
to 2-4.
ers that can make plays,”
OREGON CAPITAL
said Pittsburgh wide
receiver Diontae Johnson,
who caught nine passes
Get the inside
for 71 yards. “They showed scoop
on state
government
that.”
and politics!
Smith, starting in
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