INSIDE: CLASSIFIEDS, MARKET RECAP & WEATHER
B
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, MARCH 7, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
PREP FOOTBALL
Ridgeview blanks
Putnam 33-0
For the first time since
2015, Ridgeview starts
the season off with a win.
Senior running back
Gannon Jeter rushed for
a 125 yards and found
the end zone twice in
Ridgeview’s 33-0 over
Putnam Saturday after-
noon in Redmond.
According to team ar-
chives, it is the first time
since 2013 — the year
the program claimed the
4A state title — that the
Ravens have shut out an
opponent. Senior Eli Mil-
lington scored on a fum-
ble recovery in the fourth
quarter.
Next up for the Ravens
is a matchup on the road
against Pendleton.
— Bulletin staff report
Panthers thump
rival Lava Bears
It was a dominant per-
formance in all phases
in Redmond’s 35-0 win
over Bend High in the
most recent rendition of
Central Oregon’s oldest
football rivalry Saturday
afternoon.
“We felt like we had a
good plan going into it,
our kids executed it out of
this world,” said Redmond
coach Seth Womack. “I’m
proud of them, they did
everything we asked of
them and then some.”
Although only going
into the half up 13-0,
Womack had a sense his
team’s offense would
break through in the
second half. After all, the
Panthers racked up over
60 offensive plays in the
opening half.
“We wanted to go as
fast as we could, we just
didn’t score,” said the
second-year Redmond
coach. “We did wear them
out a little bit and were
able to move the ball on
them.”
The second half, after
a Lava Bear turnover, the
Panthers pulled away for
good.
There was no stopping
senior Redmond running
back Austin Carter, who
finished with 173 yards
rushing, 38 receiving
yards and three touch-
downs. Senior Kole Davis
and sophomore Dylan
Lee also found the end
zone for the Panthers
“80% of yardage after
contact,” Womack said of
Carter. “He is a different
kind of guy”
Although the offense
scored 35 points, a sim-
ple field goal would have
been enough to beat the
Lava Bears, who were
kept off the scoreboard.
Quarterback Steve Cas-
tillo finished with 89
yards passing while run-
ning back RJ Jones led
the team with 52 yards
rushing.
Without running back
Nate Denney — last sea-
son’s Mountain Valley
Conference Offensive
Player of the Year and
Yale football commit from
a year who transferred
to play his senior sea-
son in Texas — the Lava
Bears struggled to find a
rhythm offensively. Gain-
ing only 157 yards of total
offense.
But Redmond came up
with a solid plan to han-
dle the tricky Lava Bear
offense that is tough to
plan for because of the
use of backfield motion.
“Coach (Gene) Dale
put together a really great
defensive game plan,”
said Womack. “Bend is no
picnic to defend.”
Next week Redmond
is on the road next Friday
to face Hood River Valley,
while Bend plays host to
Summit in its first of two
matchups against the
Storm.
— Bulletin staff report
PREP FOOTBALL
Rust shows in Sisters’ 1st game back
Culver game against
Santiam mysteriously
ends in 3rd quarter
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
The Bulletin
SISTERS —
B
lame the pandemic.
In the first half
alone, Pleasant Hill
and Sisters fumbled the ball a
combined six times.
Needless to say, the year and
a half layoff and a short practice
window formed some rust for
both football teams Friday
Ryan Brennecke/TheBulletin
night.
Sisters’ Hayden Sharp (11) breaks a run down field during the third quarter of Friday night’s game against Pleasant Hill in Sisters.
A few too many mistakes from the
Outlaws and enough explosive plays
in the passing game helped the Billies
cruise to a 20-6 vic-
INSIDE
tory.
“We are a young
• Prep results
team and we are go-
in Score-
board on B2
ing to make mistakes,”
said Sisters coach
Gary Thorson. “It is the same for both
teams. Both teams are going to go
home and watch film and say, ‘Gosh
we missed this, we missed this and we
“We are a young team and we are going to make mistakes. It is the same
for both teams. Both teams are going to go home and watch film and say,
‘Gosh we missed this, we missed this and we missed this.’ ”
— Gary Thorson, Sisters football coach
missed this.’ ”
Neither team could hold onto, or
move the ball without a fumble as
teams traded turnovers. In the first
half, each team forced turnovers in the
red zone.
It was a couple of big passing plays
from Pleasant Hill that was the differ-
ence in the game. Billies’ quarterback
Max Smith connected with Mason
Hylemon and Hunter Etchison in the
final seconds of the first half and gave
Pleasant Hill a comfortable lead. A
Smith rushing touchdown in the third
quarter gave the Billies a 20-0 lead
midway through the third quarter.
Sisters finally got on the board
when sophomore Adam Madox-Cas-
tle broke off a touchdown run late in
the fourth quarter, but it was too late
to mount a comeback.
It was a tough first outing for the
Outlaws in their first Class 3A game
of the year.
See Sisters / B2
MLB
Mariners hope to have unearthed
a pitching gem in Chris Flexen
INSIDE
BY TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
Ross D. Franklin/AP
Seattle Mariners pitcher Chris Flexen throws against the Chicago White
Sox during a spring training game on Friday in Phoenix.
This past offseason was not
going to be the time the Seattle
Mariners made a bevy of high-
priced moves in free agency.
Not with the team focused
on getting its young pros-
pects closer to the majors and
money tight after a season with
no fans in stadiums.
The Mariners had to be
clever to bolster some of their
needs.
Enter Chris Flexen.
Seattle needed at least one
MOTOR SPORTS | NASCAR CUP SERIES
• Mariners prospect Jarred Kelenic
sidelined with knee strain, B3
more arm for its pitching rota-
tion and it unearthed Flexen,
who after spending the 2020
season pitching in South Ko-
rea, was ready for a return to
the majors and the chance to
restart a career that didn’t be-
gin well during his time with
the New York Mets.
Flexen signed a $4.75 mil-
lion, two-year contract with a
club option for 2023.
“One thing to keep in mind
I think, everybody says, ‘ah, he
spent some time in Korea.’ He
is still only 26 years old,” Seattle
manager Scott Servais said. “I
look at it, he fits right into our
group. He had success over in
Korea. He’s looking to get that
to translate over here.”
Barring a setback during
spring training, Flexen is al-
ready written into Seattle’s
six-man pitching rotation that
is heavy on left-handers and
needs his right-handed arm.
See MLB / B3
SLED DOG RACING | IDITAROD
Larson settling in at Hendrick Motorsports
BY JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
LAS VEGAS — Kyle Lar-
son was out of NASCAR long
enough to wonder if he’d still
feel comfortable in a Cup car.
He raced in
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nearly 100
events last
• Lineup for
year, just not in
Sunday’s
Cup Se-
3,400-pound
ries race in
stock cars.
Las Vegas.
Would it feel
Scoreboard,
the same as he
B2
remembered?
Had his famil-
iarity with the interior faded?
His instincts slipped?
Larson, who won 42 of 83
open-wheel races during his
NASCAR suspension for us-
ing a racial slur, has fallen right
back into the old routine.
“I thought there would be
cobwebs and rust. But maybe
because I raced so much last
year in sprint cars and open
wheel cars … I felt as fresh as
Michael Dinneen/AP file
Musher Aliy Zirkle runs her team during the ceremonial start of the Idi-
tarod Trail Sled Dog Race in March 2018 in Anchorage, Alaska.
John Raoux/AP file
Kyle Larson in his garage during a Daytona 500 practice session
at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 10 in Daytona Beach,
Florida.
ever,” Larson said. “When I got
in the car and put my head-
and-neck restraint on and
buckled up, everything just felt
normal. It didn’t feel like I had
been out of the car a long time.
“Even shifting gears and
coming down pit road and
stopping on my pit sign and
stuff like that, like it’s all come
natural so far.”
See Motor sports / B3
Pandemic forces route change,
other precautions for Iditarod
BY MARK THIESSEN
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
— Traveling across the rug-
ged, unforgiving and roadless
Alaska terrain is already hard
enough, but whatever comforts
mushers previously had in the
world’s most famous sled dog
race will be cast aside this year
due to the pandemic.
See Iditarod / B3