EIGHT - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Mustang’s start football season with win
The Heppner Mustang
football team started their
new season off with a win
over the Grant Union Pros-
pectors (GU) in John Day
last Friday. The Mustangs
won the game by the score
of 35-0.
Heppner kicker, Conor
Brosnan, started the sea-
son by kicking off to the
Prospectors. The stingy
Mustang defense forced
a GU punt and gave the
offense the ball at midfield.
I took only four plays for
Heppner to score their first
touchdown of the season.
Running back Blake Wolt-
ers took a handoff from
quarterback Jayden Wilson
and powered his way into
the end zone from five yards
out for the score. The 2-pt.
conversion attempt failed,
and the Mustangs led 6-0
only three minutes into the
game.
The Mustang defense
stopped the Prospectors on
downs and got the ball right
back. A Heppner fumble
gave it back to GU, they
then mounted a drive for
a short distance before the
Mustang defense stopped
the Prospectors on a fourth
and one play. Heppner took
over and after two Wilson
pass completions, one to
Jace Coe and the other to
Jackson Lehman, Wilson
then handed the ball off to
Wolters who scampered 20
yards for another touch-
down. Wilson threw to
Kason Cimmiyotti for the
2-pt. conversion to make
the score 14-0.
Another three-and-out
was forced by the Mustang
defense and the offense
took over at their own 29-
yard line. A 13-play drive,
that included four first
downs and took six min-
utes off of the clock, ended
with another Heppner score
when Wilson ran the ball
in from one yard out. Bros-
nan kicked the extra point
and the Mustangs led 21-0
midway through the second
Conor Brosnan (56) and Mikel Jaca (54) -Photo by Damon Brosnan.
quarter.
Again, the Heppner
defense didn’t allow the
Prospectors to advance and
stopped them on a fourth
down play. The Mustang
offense didn’t waste any
time and only needed two
plays to score again. The
first play was a 22-yard run
by Wolters that set up an 18-
yard touchdown run from
Brock Hisler. Once again
Brosnan made the extra
point kick and the Mustangs
led 28-0 at halftime.
The Prospectors kicked
off to start the second half
and Lehman returned the
ball 73 yards for another
Heppner touchdown. Bros-
nan kicked the extra point to
make the score 35-0.
At this point in the
game, the 35-point rule,
kept the clock running for
the rest of the game. It used
to be a 45-point difference
that would trigger that, but
it was changed this year.
The teams traded pos-
sessions several more times
throughout the second half
until the Heppner coaches
started to substitute freely
in the fourth quarter. The
game ended with the final
score of 35-0.
Heppner scored on five
of their ten possessions.
They had 16 first downs
to only six for GU. The
Mustangs rushed for 192
yards and held GU to 61.
for the total project budget
committed before applying.
Exceptions may apply at the
discretion of the board.
A grant application has
been developed for use
in applying for funding
through this grant. Com-
pleted grant requests will
be accepted starting on
Monday, March 15 through
Monday, April 19. The re-
view and decision of grants
awarded will be decided by
the WCVEDG board and
the winners communicated.
To receive a grant ap-
plication form and an el-
igibility and exclusions
information sheet, contact
Sheryll Bates at 541-676-
5536, or email to hep-
pnerchamber@gmail.com.
Hunter Nichols, a 2019 HHS
graduate is a sophomore at
Eastern Oregon University.
Former Heppner High
graduate, Hunter Nich-
ols, recently competed at
the NAIA Indoor National
Track & Field Champi-
onships at Mount Marty
University in South Dakota.
Nichols, who is a sopho-
more at Eastern Oregon
University finished in the
top five on Saturday, March
6.
Nichols finished with a
time of two minutes, 32.51
seconds in the 1,000 meters
event and earned All-Amer-
ica honors. It was Nichols’
first trip to the nationals.
His top time for the season
was 2:30.53, ranking eighth
in the EOU Mounties re-
cord book.
Nichols will compete in
cross-country next, joining
the Mounties mid-season.
Tacos Hometown
gets new look
Blake Wolters (26), Jayden Wilson (13) and Hayden Hyatt (50)
-Photo by Damon Brosnan.
Heppner had 294 total yards
of offense to just 83 for GU.
Wilson was 8-13 pass-
ing the ball for 94 yards
with one interception.
Landon Mitchell was 2-3
for 14 yards in the game.
Lehman caught four passes
for 62 yards, Wolters and
Coe each caught two for
16 yards. Saul Lopez had
one catch for 10 and Caden
George had a reception for
four yards.
Wolters led the team in
rushing with 89 yards on
seven carries and scored
two times. Hisler carried
the ball four times for 58
yards and a touchdown
while Wilson ran the ball
five times for 25 yards and
a score. Lehman had a carry
WCVEDG grant applications
being accepted
Grant funds are avail-
able for Community and
Public Enhancements re-
quests by Willow Creek
Valley Economic Develop-
ment Group. The available
funds are to be used for
community and public en-
hancement for south Mor-
row County communities.
Applicant organizations
must be a local organiza-
tion, club, special district
or a governmental entity
who resides in the south
Morrow County service
area (as defined by the WC-
VEDG service area map).
The requestor must have at
least 50 percent of funding,
which may include in-kind
and cash contributions from
local and regional sources,
Nichols competes at
national event
Forms can also be picked up
at Heppner, Ione and Lex-
ington City Hall offices or
printed from the Economic
Development tab on the
Heppner Chamber website
at www.heppnerchamber.
com.
All completed grant
applications will need to
be forwarded to the cham-
ber office to be eligible for
consideration of funding.
Grants can be emailed,
mailed, hand delivered or
faxed to 541-676-5656,
but must be received in the
Chamber office no later
than Monday, April 19 to
be eligible for consideration
in the grant review and de-
cision process.
for 12 yards, Lopez had one
for seven yards and George
also had one carry for six
yards.
On the defensive side
of the ball, Wolters led the
team with nine tackles.
Lehman was next with eight
tackles and Hisler had sev-
en. Blane Mahoney record-
ed six tackles, Mikel Jaca
had four and Coe was next
with three. Tucker Ashbeck
and Cody Fletcher each had
two tackles for the team and
with one tackle each were
Roy Collins, Hayden Hy-
att, Derrick Smith, Wilson,
Cimmiyotti and Brosnan.
The Mustangs are
scheduled to travel to Stan-
field on Friday night to take
on the Tigers.
The taco truck in Heppner has become the taco trailer, sporting
a bright new color. -Photo by Giselle Moses.
If you have been down-
town Heppner the past cou-
ple weeks, you have prob-
ably noticed something is
different about the Tacos
Hometown food truck. The
local business is sporting a
new look in the form of a
new trailer.
Amado and Elia Juarez
opened Tacos Hometown
in Ione in June of 2013,
later moving the business
to Heppner. The food truck
quickly became a local
favorite as evidenced by
the line that can be seen
forming at their window at
lunch time. The name stems
from the idea that they want
to give everyone the warm
fuzzy feeling you get when
you are in your hometown.
Amado’s father, An-
dres, had a house this col-
or back in his hometown.
Sadly, Andres lost his life
to Covid-19 late last year.
Amado told the Gazette
they chose this color in
honor of his late father. The
new, brightly painted trailer
is parked in its regular lo-
cation next to the Heppner
Post Office. Customers
may check out their weekly
schedule and specials on the
Tacos Hometown Facebook
page and call or text in or-
ders to 541-561-7397.
MCSD to extend length of
school days March 29
The Morrow County
School District is getting
ready to extend the school
day for students to 2:45
p.m. It is an option now
due to a number of factors.
First, with the vast majority
of the students attending
on-site, there has been no
COVID-19 spread at the
schools. All K-6 buildings
have been open every day
without needing to shut
down a school due to ex-
posure to the virus. Second,
they are now allowed to
have 28 family groups of
students on the bus at a
time. This is a significant
increase from the beginning
of the year when only 20
individuals were allowed
on a bus at a time.
The extension of the
school day will require
staff schedules, recess
breaks, cleaning processes
and meal procedures to be
changed to meet the needs
of students all day. Current-
ly, in many cases staff are
waiting to eat lunch until
after the students get on the
bus to go home at 1 p.m.
Scheduling consid-
erations will consist of
maintaining high quality
cleaning and disinfection of
classroom surfaces, main-
taining social distancing
and frequent hand washing
in the classroom, maintain-
ing mask wearing in the
classroom, scheduling one
class in a designated outside
play area at a time, ensuring
students belong to very few
cohort groups to limit expo-
sure and including recess,
PE, and music in the weekly
schedule, when possible.
“We are so grateful to
the communities in Morrow
County for partnering with
school staff in providing
instruction to our students.
We appreciate your help
to assist us in meeting the
requirements of the Oregon
Health Authority so that
students and staff remain
healthy, and our schools can
remain open. We are so ex-
cited to get back to our new
“normal” and have students
at school until 2:45pm each
school day starting March
29, 2021,” stated a school
official.
T he W eather I s C hangIng !
IT’S TIME !!
COME IN TO HEPPNER LES SCHWAB
TO HAVE YOUR STUDDED TIRES REMOVED!
DEADLINE TO REMOVE STUDS IS APRIL 1st!
124 N. MAIN STREET HEPPNER OR 541-676-9481