SPORTS
SCHEDULE
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Football
WEDNESDAY
September 30, 2015
Friday, Oct. 2
Grant Union vs. Enter-
prise in John Day 7 p.m.
Prairie City/
Burnt River
vs. Crane in
Prairie City,
7 p.m.
Prospectors blast Rockets
Dayville/Monument
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY – The Grant Union Pros-
pectors entered their homecoming football
game against the Pilot Rock/Nixyaawii
Rockets ready to win, their con¿ dence
backed up with hard work.
The success of a 74-22 win was espe-
cially sweet after losing their previous two
games. The team is 2-2 on the season in
nonleague play.
“We worked on execution all week,
working fast, working on tempo,” said
head coach Jason Miller. “The offensive
line played well and the defensive backs –
creating turnovers was huge for us.”
The Prospectors made quick work of
Volleyball
Grant Union
Wednesday,
Sept. 29
Thursday, Oct. 1
Friday, Oct. 2
Prairie City
Day/Mon @ Jordan Valley
in Jordan Valley, 1 p.m.
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
Cross Country
Maya Thomas
Monument
runners put
best foot
forward
Maya Thomas
earns 8th-place
finish in Portland
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
PORTLAND – Monu-
ment’s cross country team
was small among the con-
tingency of runners at last
Saturday’s Nike Portland
XC Meet but had a good
showing.
Maya Thomas and Di-
norha Vidrio Landin ran one
of the junior varsity races
with Maya finishing eighth
out of 17 girls.
Middle school runner
Mark Thomas finished 26th
out of 322 boys.
Head coach Chuck
Thomas said Mark was
close to his goal of finish-
ing 25th.
“They had a good meet,
an they had a lot of fun,” the
coach said.
Grant Union’s team
stayed home for a time trial
on their home course.
“It is a flat, fast course
and should make for good
times at our home meet,”
said Grant Union head
coach Sonna Smith.
Long Creek
Friday, Oct. 2
Monument
@ Oxford
Classic in
Bend, TBA
See GU, Page B2
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Grant Union Prospector Antonio Dancer (55) brings
down Pilot Rock’s Chris Weinke, with Prospector
teammates Clayton Vaughan (52) and Andrew
Copenhaver (61) in the action.
Competitors
increase skills
over season
Prairie City
vs. Crane in Prairie City,
6 p.m.
Grant Union @ Gutbuster
at MacHi,
TBA
getting points on the board in the ¿ rst quar-
ter.
After shutting down Pilot Rocks’ ¿ rst
drive for the goal down, Prospector Garrett
McConnell found a 64-yard path for the
team’s ¿ rst touchdown of the night.
McConnell’s running legs were quick
throughout, with some spectacular catches
from quarterback Wade Reimers, scoring
¿ ve touchdowns in the game.
A Pilot Rock fumble recovered by
Grant Union’s Eli Humbird gave the home
team another opportunity to score with
Hayden Young rushing the 20 yards to the
end zone.
Prospector Roen Langum grabbed
YOUTH RODEO ATHLETES
ROPE IN FUN, AWARDS
Grant Union @ Cove
in Cove, 5 p.m.
Burnt River
vs. Crane in
Prairie City,
4 p.m.
Grant Union’s homecoming game a ‘smashing’ success
By Angel Carpenter
Dayville/Monument @
Jordan Valley in Jordan
Valley, 4 p.m.
Prairie City
vs. Grant
Union JV in
Prairie City,
4:30 p.m.
B1
JOHN DAY – The Cin-
nabar Mountain Playdays
youth rodeo series wrapped
up last weeNend with the ¿ -
nal event held at the Grant
County Fairgrounds.
“The whole thing was
fun,” said 11-year-old Sam
McCracken of John Day.
He and his sister Bailey,
9, have spent time at home
practicing their events for
the Playdays which have
been held once a month
since May, mainly at the
Burton Arena in Mt. Vernon.
Sam competes with his
horse Macy in the rodeo
events and said his horse
likes barrel racing, but dum-
my roping is his personal
favorite.
Bailey said she enjoys
barrel racing with her horse,
Spur.
“Today he was best at the
poles,” she said of her horse.
She, and Spur, earned a
blue ribbon in pole bending
last Saturday.
Denali Twehues of Day-
ville also loves barrel racing.
“I travel up to my grand-
parents’ house to practice
as much as possible,” said
the Monument School
eighth-grader.
She earned several blue
ribbons at the Playdays ro-
deo, riding her horse Lewie.
Twehues said the Play-
days rodeos are a lot of fun.
“It’s a good opportunity
Five-year-old Kara Hansen makes a
perfect shot in the dummy roping event.
Eagle photos/Angel Carpenter
Denali Twehues of Dayville competes at last weekend’s
Cinnabar Mountain Playdays rodeo, moving through the
pole bending course.
to get experience and there’s
a lot of competition,” she
said. “My dream is to go to
the NFR. I’d like to get an-
other horse and move up and
progress to my big dream.”
Didgette
McCracken,
who serves on the Cinna-
bar Playdays committee,
said she was glad they
were able to reschedule the
event.
The ¿ nal rodeo was orig-
inally scheduled for Aug.
Aaliyah Marciel of Canyon City get
the job done in the goat tying event at
last Saturday’s round of the Cinnabar
Mountain Playdays rodeo held at the
Grant County Fairgrounds in John Day.
22-23, but due to the recent
¿ res was postponed.
“I think we were fortu-
nate to be able to reschedule
it,” she said.
She expressed apprecia-
tion for the many volunteers
who help run the youth ro-
deos.
“If it wasn’t for them, we
wouldn’t be able to do this
for the kids,” she said.
See ROPE, Page B2
Panther/Bulls rumble in Dayville
Prairie City/Burnt
River take first
win of season
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
DAYVILLE – Dayville/Monu-
ment and Prairie City/Burnt River
had a rough and tumble game last
Friday to start league play on Day-
ville’s Tiger turf.
The Panther/Bulls rolled out their
¿ rst win of the season, 4-24.
The three-hour game was marked
with penalties and a few injuries as
the two teams battled it out in the af-
ternoon sun.
“We did good, but could’ve done
better early on,” said Panther/Bull
head coach Darrel McKrola.
He said the Tigers are more com-
parable in size than other teams
they’ve faced this year, which also
had bigger lines.
Tiger head coach Nathaniel Ash-
ley said his team has some younger
players with less experience who are
learning as the season progresses
alongside their more seasoned team-
mates.
Friday’s game was the league
opener for both teams.
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Dayville/Monument’s Gabe
Walker (10) gains yards for
the Tigers with a handoff in
Friday’s game.
Prairie City/Burnt River quarter-
back Wyatt Williams was the ¿ rst to
get on the scoreboard for the Pan-
ther/Bulls, rushing in a touchdown,
and Matt Siddoway followed up
with the two-point conversion.
The Tigers didn’t score in the
¿ rst quarter, but prevented the Pan-
ther/Bulls from scoring again in the
quarter.
Williams again had a quarter-
back keeper in the second quarter
and Dayville/Monument’s Dakota
Emerson ¿ red back to score on the
Tigers’ next possession with Gar-
rett Warner breaking a tackle for the
conversion points.
Panther/Bull Ethan Camare-
na had the ball in the red zone, but
on the fourth down, Williams went
down with an injury and was carried
off the ¿ eld. He was later transport-
ed to Blue Mountain Hospital in a
personal vehicle.
The Tigers took over on downs,
but were stopped within 30 yards of
goal.
Dayville/Monument recovered a
Prairie City fumble, and Prairie City
also recovered a fumble.
With Panther/Bull Tyler Belveal
in as quarterback, the team scored
with conversion points taking their
lead to 20-.
Camarena scored for Prairie City
with 6 minutes left in the third.
Dayville/Monument’s
Tanner
Walcyzk was sidelined with an inju-
ry, but later in the drive Tiger quar-
terback Hayden Schafer connected
with Warner for a touchdown and
the two-point conversion was good.
Prairie City/Burnt River still held
the lead 26-16.
Warner joined Walczyk, side-
lined with an injury.
Camarena intercepted to put the
ball back in the Panthers’ hands and
Belveal scored with Siddoway get-
ting the two-point conversion, bring-
ing Prairie City/Burnt River’s lead
to 34-16 to end the quarter.
Prairie City’s Belveal picked off
Schafer’s pass early in the fourth
and on the next play connected with
Camarena who ran it 65 yards to
score. Johnathon Lawrence brought
in the two-point conversion.
Siddoway added another touch-
down on the Panther/Bulls’ next
possession.
Dayville/Monument’s
Gabe
Walker made some good catches and
pushed forward breaking up tackles.
Emerson caught a long pass to
score the ¿ nal touchdown of the
game, Schafer brought in two more
points with a quarterback keeper.
McKrola said it was frustrating to
see players getting injured.
“We had boys injured on both
sides,” he said. “I don’t like to see
the kids get hurt – doesn’t matter
what side.”
He said they’ve switched up their
offense a little bit which helped win
the game.
“We’ll keep working with that,”
he said. “We had younger boys in to-
day – we’ll keep working at it.”