A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2022
SPORTS
BAKER FOOTBALL
BAKER CROSS-COUNTRY OPENS SEASON
Bulldogs take on Ontario,
La Grande in jamboree
Baker boys 1st,
girls 3rd at Vale
BY IAN CRAWFORD
icrawford@bakercityherald.com
The results don’t count officially, but
Baker football coach Jason Ramos was
happy to have the Bulldogs take the field
against La Grande and Ontario during
a jamboree on Friday, Aug. 26 at La
Grande.
“We needed reps against someone
other than ourselves,” Ramos said. “We
had a lot of good outcomes, but realize
we still have more work to do.”
Baker will play both Ontario and La
Grande in regular four-quarter games
later this season. The Sept. 23 game at
Ontario is a nonleague contest, as the Ti-
gers have dropped out of the Greater Or-
egon League for football.
But the rivalry game against La
Grande, on Sept. 30, will be the Bulldogs’
first league game.
“Against Ontario we executed really
well on offense, we matched really well,”
Ramos said of Friday’s jamboree, which
was limited to 15 minutes or 18 plays
against each opponent. “Defensively,
these guys are flying around and playing
fast.”
La Grande posed a greater challenge.
“La Grande is obviously a good team,
good matchup, pretty even,” Ramos said.
The Tigers stopped Baker at the 1-foot
line, and La Grande scored a couple
times when they had the ball.
“Disappointed we couldn’t punch it
into the end zone,” Ramos said.
“Our first group is pretty solid, they’re
going to be a handful going forward,” he
said. “The JV team competed really well,
almost all freshman, some sophomores,
for the most part we got a really good
larger freshman class.”
One of those newcomers, Rasean
Jones, will be a starting receiver on the
varsity squad, Ramos said.
“We’ve got a good plan moving for-
ward with what we want to do, we’ll
make our usual week to week adjust-
ments, though,” he said.
“We don’t have the numbers other
teams have, so we’re going to have to rely
on our upperclassmen playing both sides
of the football.”
Baker opens its regular season sched-
ule Saturday, Sept. 3, traveling across
the state to Turner, near Salem, for a re-
match against Cascade, which beat the
Bulldogs 35-0 in the 2021 season opener.
Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.
Baker’s first home game is set for Fri-
day, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. against Homedale,
Idaho, at Baker Bulldog Memorial Sta-
dium.
VOLLEYBALL
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS
Baker wins
Hanna
Cashell
tournament
Will the Ducks make it?
BY IAN CRAWFORD
icrawford@bakercityherald.com
Baker’s volleyball team re-
mained unbeaten by win-
ning the championship at
the Hanna Cashell Memorial
Tournament in La Grande on
Saturday, Aug. 26.
The Bulldogs swept mul-
tiple opponents in pool play
then beat La Grande and Im-
bler in bracket play, winning
both matches 2 sets to 0, to
claim the title.
“We played well overall
yesterday,” Baker coach Ali
Abrego said on Sunday, Aug.
27.
Baker opened the season by
beating Nyssa 3-0 on Thurs-
day, Aug. 25 in the Baker gym.
Abrego said she was espe-
cially pleased with the Bull-
dogs’ performance on Sat-
urday against La Grande, a
Greater Oregon League op-
ponent.
“La Grande made a good
effort,” she said. “We typically
have a mental block when we
play La Grande, and I was glad
to see us rise above that to be-
come victorious.”
“We had some great hustle
plays, overall,” Abrego said.
“Everyone worked until the
very end of the day which can
be hard when you’re working
hard, and are tired.”
Although Baker’s wins
in pool play don’t count to-
ward rankings by the Oregon
School Activities Association,
the Bulldogs’ wins over La
Grande and Imbler do count,
Abrego said.
Baker returns to its home
court Tuesday, Aug. 30 with
nonleague matches against
Fruitland, Idaho, and Vale.
The Baker JV team also
won the championship at
the Hanna Cashell Memorial
Tournament on Saturday.
Baker went 7-1 in pool
play, its only loss against La
Grande. Baker beat Imbler,
Union, Nyssa, Mac-Hi, On-
tario and the Baker and La
Grande JV2 teams.
The Bulldogs avenged the
loss to La Grande by win-
ning two straight sets over the
Tigers in the championship
match.
BY IAN CRAWFORD
icrawford@bakercityherald.com
Baker High School’s
cross-country teams are off to a
strong start as the boys finished
first and the girls third at the
Vale Splash and Dash, the year’s
first invitational, on Thursday,
Aug. 25.
“This meet is always a great
way to start the season,” Baker
coach Suzy Cole said. “It is a
2-mile time trial type of meet,
and then we swim afterwards,
which was really nice given that
it was 96 degrees.”
In the boys meet, Baker’s
Thaddeus Pepera finished sec-
ond in 10:54.91 and teammate
Daniel Brown was third at
11:10.72 to lead the Bulldogs to
the team title.
On the girls side, Sofie Kaaen
clocked a 14:04.08 to place third
in the individual results. The
Baker girls finished behind
Burns and Nampa Christian in
the team standings.
“Thaddeus ran a personal
best from last year, as did Dan-
iel on the boys side and Sofia
looked strong on the girls side,”
Cole said.
A large freshman class has
bolstered Baker’s ranks, Cole
said.
“We also have a lot of new
runners to our program,” she
said. “That was really excit-
ing to see where they are. Tyler
Gressley ran great as did Hunter
Bingham and Angel De Arcos.”
BY RALPH D. RUSSO
AP College Football Writer
Sometimes a prediction
can feel right even though
it ends up wrong. And vice
versa.
Last season, this column
projected both Ohio State
and Alabama to miss the
College Football Playoff.
Bold? Dumb? The line is
fine.
One out of two isn’t bad,
but in some ways the one
that ended up being wrong
felt more right.
While the Buckeyes did
turn out to be vulnerable,
the pick here to win the Big
Ten and reach the playoff
for the first time was ... Wis-
consin. The Badgers went
9-4 last season and didn’t
even win their division. The
Buckeyes lost to Oregon
early and Michigan late.
As for Alabama, the the-
ory behind the Crimson
Tide missing the CFP was
that it would lose a regu-
lar-season game — most
likely at Texas A&M — and
then Georgia would elim-
inate Nick Saban’s team
by winning the SEC title
game.
That looked like a good
call when the unbeaten and
favored Bulldogs went up
10-0 in the second quar-
ter in Atlanta. Then Bryce
Young carved up Georgia’s
vaunted defense and it be-
came yet another exam-
ple of the perils of picking
against ‘Bama.
Some redemption came
in the CFP title game, when
Georgia — as predicted
here in the preseason —
won the national title.
While it’s cool to be
right, predictions are
mostly made for fun.
Straight chalk is boring, but
last season’s volatility that
included Ohio State, Clem-
son and Oklahoma having
long conference champion-
ship streaks snapped might
be tough to repeat. With all
that in mind:
UNDERACHIEVERS/
OVERACHIEVERS
Three teams that will
start the season ranked in
the AP Top 25 but finish
unranked:
• No. 12 Oklahoma
State. The super seniors
and coordinator that pow-
Sean Meagher/The Oregonian, File
Vale Splash and Dash
Oregon running back Byron Cardwell breaks off a long run
against Colorado on Oct. 30, 2021.
ered one of the best defenses
in the country are gone and
the Big 12 is always unpredict-
able.
• No. 16 Miami. Hurricanes
haters get one more year of
mocking how the U. is Back!
Might want to get it out of
your system, though, because
Miami under Mario Cristobal
is not likely to be mediocre for
much longer.
• No. 19 Arkansas. The SEC
West is a gauntlet and some-
body is going to be disap-
pointed. You’re it, Razorbacks.
Three teams that will start
the season unranked but fin-
ish ranked:
• Penn State. On the way to
building toward something
big in 2023, James Franklin
and the Nittany Lions bounce
back from two lackluster sea-
sons.
• Kansas State. The Adrian
Martinez redemption tour.
• UCF. The Knights have
been usurped by Cincin-
nati as kings of the AAC and
Houston is the buzzy G5 team
heading into this season. But
UCF looks loaded in Year 2
under Gus Malzahn.
COACHING CAROUSEL
Nebraska gets off to an en-
couraging start in coach Scott
Frost’s make-or-break sea-
son, but stumbles down the
stretch against a difficult clos-
ing schedule (Minnesota, at
Michigan, Wisconsin and at
Iowa). The school parts ways
with the hometown hero. Next
up for the Cornhuskers? How
about Matt Campbell from
Iowa State?
NEW YEAR’S SIX BOWLS
Rose Bowl — Michigan vs.
USC.
Sugar Bowl — Georgia vs.
Kansas State.
Cotton Bowl — Houston vs.
Oklahoma.
Orange Bowl — North Car-
olina State vs. Texas A&M.
PLAYOFF
Fiesta Bowl (semifinals)
— No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 3
Clemson.
Peach Bowl (semifinals) —
No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4
Oregon.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Ohio State over Alabama.
The Buckeyes win a rematch
of the 2020 CFP champion-
ship game, with C.J. Stroud
outdueling Bryce Young.
Baker boys individual results
2. Thaddeus Pepera,
10:54.91
3. Daniel Brown, 11:10.72
6. Angel De Arcos, 11:29.08
8. Hunter Bingham,
11:54.92
11. Jordan Mills, 12:07.28
13. Karsten Cikanek,
12:11.61
15. Seth Mastrude, 12:27.58
16. Nathaniel Jensen,
12:30.09
21. Cade Hearne, 13:10.41
24. William Spriet, 13:18.17
27. David Farber, 13:24.67
29. Jack Joseph, 13:32.05
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald, File
Baker’s Thaddeus Pepera com-
petes at the Baker Invitational
on Oct. 1, 2021. Pepera, a senior,
placed 2nd in the season-open-
ing Vale Splash and Dash meet
on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022.
35. Richard Engstrom,
14:04.73
41. Tanner Lucas, 14:21.27
43. Sam Nelson, 14:26.59
46. Kegan Bott, 14:52.20
52. Gideon Farber, 15:23.51
57. Tristan Mulkey, 17:23.41
Boys team results
1. Baker, 30; 2. Burns, 51; 3.
Nampa Christian, 71; 4. Vale,
102; 5. Nyssa, 110
Baker girls individual results
3. Sofia Kaaen, 14:04.08
6. Emma Timm , 14:15.91
13. Tyler Gressley, 15:37.83
16. Paige Marlia, 16:15.07
25. Gwen Rasmussen,
17:38.00
28. Sage Cuzick , 17:55.39
30. Riley Hurliman,
18:17.50
34. Avery Collier, 18:46.92
38. Lilly Collins, 20:43.55
Girls team results
1. Burns, 41; 2. Nampa
Christian, 51; 3. Baker, 53; 4.
Vale, 75
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