Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 25, 2009)
Heppner Gazette- Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 25,2009 - FIVE Mustangs take second place in district tournament By J e n n ife r W ils o n The Heppner Mus tangs got one more chance at the Union Bobcats af ter splitting with them in league. After a close game, the Mustangs captured the 53-47 win to advance to the championship game on Saturday. “We’re one team, we have one goal and if we play together, that goal will be met,” said Cody Orr. The Bobcats were up by seven to zero before the Mustangs came together. Led by the defensive effort o f Chris Lien, the Mustangs rallied around a five second call in their favor and even tually tied up the game 9-9. At the end o f the first quarter the Mustangs trailed by a basket. Brent Eckman start ed the second quarter with a three point bucket to put the Mustangs up by one. With the game tied at 22-22, Cody Orr went to the free throw line and was good for one point and the lead. The next two points for the Mustangs came when Brent Eckman tipped the ball, dove on it to keep it from going out o f bounds, and then kicked it up the court to K yle Fuchs for the lay-in. Bryan Holland checked in for Chris Lien who got into some early foul trouble. The first half ended tied 29-29 and the end o f the third quarter was also tied, 40-40. With one more tie halfway through the fourth quarter, the Mustangs finally Heppner Mustang Chris Lien keeps the action going as he heads for the basket in the district championship game against Pilot Rock. The Mustangs lost to the Rockets 55-51. Photo by Sandy Matthews took control o f the game with a three point bucket from Jared H u d d lesto n . With the time ticking and the Bobcats trailing, their only option was to foul to regain possession o f the ball and stop the clock. How ever, sending Chris Lien to the line five times damaged any hope for the Bobcats as he was 100% from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. “We played 32 min utes o f tough, intense bas ketball. This was a team effort,” said Coach David Norton. In the championship game, the Mustangs were up against long time rivals, the Pilot Rock Rockets. Players and fans from various teams in the league joined the Hep pner cheering section and donned the blue and gold in hopes o f an upset. The Mustangs came w ithin four points, but time ran out in the fourth quar ter and they couldn’t quite overcome the Rockets. The Rockets took the 55-51 win. The Mustangs did, however, secure second place and a state playoff game at home this Friday. Lady Mustangs take third place at district tournament By Jennifer Wilson The Lady Mustangs started out with a great first h alf against the Stanfield Tigers last Friday. The Mus tangs had a com fortable buffer at half time, leading 22-5. However, the Tigers w eren’t going to give up a chance to play for third place on Saturday that eas ily. The Tigers made a fourth quarter surge and closed the gap to just nine points. The M ustangs defensive effort held off the Tigers for the 47-38 win and moved the M ustangs into a face-off for third place against Pilot Rock on Saturday.* On S atu rd ay , the Lady Mustangs started the game out slow and allowed the P ilot R ock R ockets eights points before send ing Erin Price to the line for two free throws. Bryn- na R ust, Erin Price, and Taighler D ougherty were to only Mustangs to score in the second quarter and all three shots were three pointers. By the end o f the third quarter, the Mustangs w ere only dow n by one point. The effort in the final q u a rte r d eterm in ed who continued on. The Mustangs took a three point lead, but Pilot Rock quickly tied the score at 22-22. Pilot Rock pressured the Mustangs to see if they could get their hands on a turnover but the Mustangs stayed strong. With the Mustangs up by two. Pilot Rock scored a three point bucket to put them up by one. One last attempt was put up by the M ustangs and it was no good, but Catherine McEl- ligot was there for the weak side rebound and the put back just seconds before the final buzzer rang. The Mus tangs won the game 27-26 and will advance to a state p layoff game. “ We came Mustang wrestlers bring home two district championships and one runner up he M ustangs com peted in the 10 team district championships last weekend in Halfway. Last year Hep pner finished in eighth place at the tournament. This year the Mus tangs took 16 competitors that included nine fresh man, two sophomores, three ju n io rs and tw o seniors. O f those 16 w restlers, 10 brought home medals and the team finished third, just three points behind second place Joseph. Had Heppner won one m ore m atch or Joseph won one less match along the 149 wrestled bouts o f the tournament, Heppner could have finished in sec ond place. The M ustangs’ to tal o f 10 individual plac ers was the second highest behind district cham pion C ran e’s 14. Seven o f the 10 Mustang district placers are underclassmen. Joseph only had seven placers, but four o f those were district champions, all o f whom are seniors. Three Mustangs ad vanced to the tournament championship finals. Sopho more Jarreid Miller became the first Heppner wrestler ever to become a district finalist when he scored a reversal right at the final w histle o f the sem ifinal match to win 7-6 over the num ber tw o seed at 130 pounds. M iller’s previous match in the quarterfinals was an eq u ally ex citin g 6-4 overtime win. “I like to make my matches exciting and give the crow d their m oney’s w orth,” laughed M iller after he squeaked through the semifinals. He eventually lost in the cham- pionship bout to a senior from Union and finished second. C hance Day, 152 p o unds, was the second Heppner wrestler to qualify for the championship finals, facin g C lan cy W arnock from Joseph. The score was tied at 1-1 with six seconds remaining when Day blasted a double leg shot, lifted Warnock o ff his feet and dropped him to his back for five points. With that Day become the first Mustang to stand on top of the podium at a district tournament and won an automatic birth to the OSAA championships at Memorial Coliseum. The very next match on the cham pionship mat was Heppner’s Wacy Coil versus Daniel Lode from Adrian, ranked third in Or egon at 160 pounds and the district’s number one seed. Coil had lost twice during the season to Lode, both by fall, including the champi onship match at the Bank of Eastern Oregon Invitational in Heppner. This time Lode was no match for Coil. Coil dominated him for five and a half minutes and was ahead by 13 points before pin ning him with 28 seconds remaining in the bout. Coil becam e the second ever district champion and state qualifier from Heppner. H e p p n e r ’s n e x t highest placer was Tyler Robinson who finished third and champion o f the con solation bracket with a 3-1 record for the weekend. The consolation championship bout at 145 pounds featured two M ustangs, Robinson and Garrett Gibbs. Gibbs, a freshman, became the un- J t t J -> i I j '. i I V . J 4 t J V i V . predicted placer for Heppner by winning the consolation semifinals in a come from behind pin with just 39 sec onds left in the bout. H e p p n e r ’s o th e r medal winners were Cody Nelson, 4th at 112 pounds, G rant Sm ith, 5th at 119 pounds, John Nelson, 5th at 125 pounds, Conner Pappas, 6th at 140 pounds and Drew Brannon, 5th at 160 pounds. Other Mustang competitors were Zach Yocom, Curtis Martin, Andrew Bara, Dil lon Lutcher, Alex Fuentes and Zach Hintz. C oach Troy M or gan was pleased with his Mustangs’ district show ing. “We set four team goals at the beginning o f the year— win a dual, finish in the top four at districts, have eight d istrict placers and send wrestlers to state. Since we accomplished all four goals, next year we are going to have to set new ones. O f our 10 district placers, nine will be returning next year, including all three finalists. The fact that we can have freshman step into varsity roles and be com petitive shows the value o f our ju nior high and Colt wrestling programs. We are going to be a force to be reckoned with in our district for years to come.” The state champion ships for 2A I 1A through 6A will be held in Memorial Coliseum in Portland on February 26-28. The 2A / 1A w restlin g begins Friday morning. Fans can see the brackets online now and can follow the tournament’s progress during the competi tion at www.osaa.org. I ) \ l t t I t J / \ j u ^ . »I*J KJjL / Cardinals finish season with 12-4 league record The lone Cardinals bowed out o f post-season play with two losses at the Big Sky D istrict Tourna ment last weekend, losing to Dufur on Friday afternoon and South Wasco on Satur day. The Cards ended the 2008 campaign with a 12-4 league record and a 14-12 mark overall. Dufur came out siz zling in the Friday, February 20 match-up. With barely one minute gone, the Rang ers swished the first o f nine three-pointers as the Car dinals struggled from the field. The Cardinals trailed by nine after one and by 16 at the half 41-25. Any hopes o f a sec ond half rally were squelched early on as Dufur opened the third quarter with an 11-2 run. RJ Ramos provided a spark for the Cards late in the third to cut the Ranger Erin Price goes for a lay-in during the district tournament in Pendleton this past weekend. -Photo hy Autumn Morgan lead back to 15 but Dufur erased all doubt in the fourth to the district tournam ent collaborative team quote quarter, out-scoring lone 31 - with nothing to lose and summed up the weekend for 13 to take the 89-54 win. everything to gain," and that the Lady Mustangs. Matt Hams led the Cardinals in scoring with 19. RJ Ramos and Zac Orem each added seven and Clay Morter had six. The Cards had a cold night from the field, shooting 29% while the Rangers shot 43%, both from inside and outside the three point line. “We didn’t show up ready to play,” said Coach Dennis Stefani. I was mostly disappointed with our de fensive effort. We never did get our movement or ball rotation going.” The Friday loss set up a do-or-die game against South Wasco on Saturday. Matt Hams, a senior at lone, made first team for the Big Sky The w inner advanced to C onference All Star Team this weekend during the haskethall sub-state playoffs and the district tournament this past weekend. Zac Orem, a junior loser got an early start for at lone, received an honorable mention. Photo hy Theresa spring sports. Crawford M att H am s m ade Ham s nam ed first team for Big Sky C onference RJ Ramos gets a shot ofT during district tournament action this past weekend. -Photo by Theresa Crawford eight of the Cardinals first quarter points and the Cards led 10-8 after one. The Car dinals stuttered in the sec ond, scoring just five points and the Redsides led at the half, 25-15. The C ard s m ade som e moves in the third quarter, pulling to w ith in eight points tw ice but were not able to close the gap. South Wasco built the lead to 18 in the fourth and went into their trademark slowdown game. The Cards chipped away at the lead but ran out of time as the Red- sides took the win, 57-47. “I felt we played bet ter than Friday night,” said Coach Stefani. “However, we still did not have the intensity we had during the season.” Matt Hams led the team in scoring w ith 18 points. Tanner Rietmann added 10. The C ardinals shot 37% from the floor and had the same number of field goals as the Redsides. South Wasco had one more three pointer than lone but the Redsides went to the free throw line 23 times, making 11 while lone made just tw o o f eight. Clay Morter led the Cardinals in rebounds with 12, tallying rebound num ber 300 for the season. Zac Orem had five assists and Cory Peterson added five w hile M att Hams led in steals with three. Mustang Varsity Baseball Schedule F o llo w in g is the Heppner High School var sity baseball schedule for the 2009 season: -March 17: Pendle ton JV, 2 p.m. -M arch 21 : at La Grande, 12 p.m. -March 24: Mac Hi/ Salem -March 27-28: Col fax Tourney. -Apr. 4: B urns, 1 p.m. -Apr. 7: at Baker, 2 p.m. -Apr. 11: at Irrigon, 11 a.m. -Apr. 14: Pilot Rock, 4:30 p.m. -A pr. 18: W eston McEwen, 11 a.m. -Apr. 21 : at Stan field, 11 a.m.
