A10
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2015
HERMISTONHERALD.COM
SPORTS
PREP WRESTLING • PREP BASKETBALL • SCHEDULE
Sloppy fourth quarter almost dooms Bulldogs
Chase Knutz has 15
points in the win
BY SAM BARBEE
HERMISTON HERALD
SAM BARBEE PHOTO
The new gymnasium at Hermiston Christian School cost
about $1 million and took about two years to build. It will
host HCS basketball and volleyball games as well as local
community events, HCS Principal and Athletic Director Rod
Hardin said.
Building a legacy
L
ast week, when
I came into the
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Herald reporter Maegan
Murray told me Hermiston
Christian School was
opening a new gym and
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games was to be played
there that day.
I thought that was a
good story and headed out.
After all, I had just written
a column not too long ago
about the area gyms and
decided it would be a good
thing if I went and checked
it out.
When I walked in, I was
surprised. It wasn’t what I
expected.
It’s a big building, with
high, vaulted ceilings
and, as the famous movie
quote goes, lots of room
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isn’t wood. It’s polished
concrete, and it shone like
the ocean on a brilliant
sunny day.
I was there for a few
minutes when a man
walked up to me. He was
Rob Hardin, the principal
and athletic director of
Hermiston Christian
School. We talked about the
project as the home Eagles
took on Country Christian
from Pasco, Washington,
and I was impressed by the
community effort it took to
build the new facility.
It reminded me of
another facility that was
built recently in Hermiston
to accommodate athletics
and other events: Kennison
Stadium. They aren’t
necessarily eerily similar,
but they share a lot of the
same points regarding
construction; much of
the labor and materials
were donated or sold
at a huge discount, and
local companies took
a community-centric
approach and wanted to
help out.
As I was speaking
with Hardin, an alumnus
named Tyler Dyer, who
graduated in 2012, walked
up and shook Hardin’s
hand. He looked around
the new building like a cat
in a new environment and
said simply, “Man, I wish
we had something like this
when I was here.” That
was the overwhelming
sentiment from many as
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the building.
SAM BARBEE
FROM THE SIDELINES
Sports reporter
Hermiston Christian
School’s athletics,
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the radar around town and
the area. The Eagles aren’t
full members of OSAA;
they’re associate members.
That means if a student
wants to play a sport that
Hermiston Christian School
doesn’t offer, say, football,
then, because the school
is an associate member,
those students can go to
the nearest school and
participate in that sport.
The most obvious example
of this in recent memory
is Carson Morter, who
was a two-way all-state
football athlete for the
state champion Hermiston
Bulldogs while attending
school down the road.
Up until this year, HCS
had to schedule practice
times at area gyms. It was
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homes games is even more
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still to be christened with a
name, provides both a place
to play and practice, as well
as a space to host concerts,
feeds or other gatherings
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space.
When asked about the
process, Hardin just smiled.
He was certainly happy to
be standing under that roof
and not planning on how
the roof would be built.
Flashback to two years
ago when the gym was
just a hope and a plan.
The church had recently
gotten an interim pastor,
Vernon “Cat” Marks, who,
as Hardin put it, got the
process moving. He pushed
the governing body of the
school and church to launch
the project. He was the
catalyst.
But the only project
wasn’t just to build the
gym. The entrance to the
school had to be relocated
to accommodate the
massive building. Land
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soil removed. It was a big
project that kept opening
new doors as others closed.
The steel used to build
the shell of the building
was acquired almost a year
SEE LEGACY/A11
GO SEE IT
Saturday, February 7
Wrestling
Hermiston @ Oregon Episcopal Tournament, 9 a.m.
Boys Basketball
Umatilla @ Nyssa, 5:30 p.m.
Echo @ Powder Valley, 5:30 p.m.
Girls Basketball
Umatilla @ Nyssa, 4 p.m.
Echo @ Powder Valley, 4 p.m.
Sunday, February 8
No events scheduled
Monday, February 9
No events scheduled
Tuesday, February 10
Girls Basketball
Hermiston vs. Hood River Valley, 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball
Hermiston @ Hood River Valley, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, February 11
No events scheduled
In its last two league
games, the Hermiston boys
basketball team has had big
leads in the second half and
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its opponents. On Tuesday,
against rival Pendleton,
that resulted in a loss, and
last week against Hood
River the Bulldogs hung
on to win.
Friday, against The
Dalles Riverhawks, the
script was the same: The
Bulldogs had a 20-point
lead in the third quarter,
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ter put the game’s result in
doubt.
Hermiston never led
by fewer than seven in
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on for a 58-49 win in the
Dawghouse. With the win,
Hermiston (6-12, 3-1 CRC)
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Pendleton’s win over Hood
River Valley, while The
Dalles (2-17, 1-3) falls two
games back.
Chase Knutz led the
Bulldogs with 15 points,
and
Keegan
Crafton
wasn’t far behind with 14.
Hermiston jumped out
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behind a strong physical
presence of Crafton down
low. Bulldog head coach
Jake McElligott said he’s
been talking to Crafton
about his “attack angles”
and was happy with the
senior’s aggressive play
early, something that has
to happen against an ag-
gressive, physical defense
like The Dalles employs.
Hermiston was hot
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Hermiston’s Keegan Crafton
(5) rises for a layup over The
Dalles’ Cody Conlee during
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River Conference boys bas-
ketball game Friday night at
the Dawghouse.
SAM BARBEE PHOTOS
Hermiston’s Landon Gammell (23) looks to get a pass through
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the lane during a Columbia River Conference boys basketball
game Friday night at the Dawghouse.
shots en route to a 20-10
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Hermiston extended its
lead in the second quarter
behind more solid shoot-
ing and good ball security.
Hermiston coughed it up
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half, with three coming in
the second period.
After Chance Flores’
3-pointer with 3:39 on the
clock, Hermiston led by
20, its biggest lead of the
game.
The Dalles, though,
kept pressing on and creat-
ed what McElligott called
the ugliest half of basket-
ball he’s seen all year.
The Riverhawks went
on a 16-7 run throughout
the entirety of the third
quarter and cut Hermis-
ton’s lead to single dig-
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Devin Wilson layup bare-
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period. Hermiston then
started turning the ball
over, wasting four critical
fourth-quarter possessions
as The Dalles mounted its
comeback.
The Riverhawks cut the
lead to as few as six points
after Wilson hit a 3 with
1:07 left, but Hermiston
didn’t miss a free throw in
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on to come away with the
win.
Hermiston’s next game
is Tuesday against the
Hood River Valley Eagles.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7
p.m.
Hermiston’s Chance Flores
(1) drives around Gordy Har-
ris of The Dalles towards the
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a Columbia River Conference
boys basketball game Friday
night in the Dawghouse.
Hermiston grapplers defeat Pendleton
Bulldogs unsatisfied
with latest win
BY MATT ENTRUP
EO MEDIA GROUP
Well before the Herm-
iston wrestlers lifted a
triumphant Jesse Rodelo
onto their shoulders, the
scoreboard on The Dawg-
house wall had determined
a lopsided Bulldog win in
the War on 84 Thursday.
Rodelo had just pinned
Pendleton
220-pounder
Jeff Priester in the night’s
last bout, and the Buck-
aroos’ fourth forfeit fol-
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score to 67-12.
But for those watching
closely, Hermiston coach
Shaun Williams said, it
was a much tighter dual
than the scoreboard indi-
cated.
“It’s easy to get carried
away with what’s on the
scoreboard, but you’ve
got to pay attention to
what’s actually going on
on the mat, and so I think
we’ve got some work to
do,” Williams said.
With Pendleton spotting
the Bulldogs 32 points via
four forfeits, a Hermiston
win was the expected out-
come. But Williams said
an injury-riddled Bucks
roster gave his team more
trouble than he’d antici-
pated, even without three-
time state champion Sam
Colbray (illness) in the
lineup.
“It’s similar to the
lineup that we had at the
Oregon Classic, and I
thought that lineup was
good enough to actually
win the Classic,” Wil-
liams said. “We’ve got a
EO MEDIA GROUP PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston’s C.J. Hendon trips up Pendleton’s Brendon Bedol-
la in the Bulldogs’ 67-12 win against the Bucks on Thursday in
Hermiston.
lot of illness going around
… but you’ve always got
to put your best lineup on
the mat no matter what,
and that’s what we did to-
night.”
Several bouts could
have gone either way,
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the night at 126 pounds.
Hermiston junior Andy
Wagner took a 3-2 lead
into the third period and
made it hold up to beat
Pendleton senior Tristan
Holcomb. Holcomb scored
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a close, but Wagner tied
it up at 2-2 with a rever-
sal just before the buzzer.
Wagner elected to start
in the bottom position in
Round 2 and after 39 sec-
onds of maneuvering was
able to escape for the last
points of the bout.
“Last year, we met at
the Reser’s Tournament
,and it was a real close
match, too,” Wagner said.
“It was like 7-8 or 6-8.
We’re always pretty close.
I just stayed in good po-
sition and kept him under
control and got the es-
capes and reversals when
I needed them.”
“Andy is actually sick,
but there’s a couple of
times we should have
scored that we didn’t
score — it doesn’t matter
if you’re sick or not,” Wil-
liams said. “It’s encour-
aging to see him winning
matches like that because
if you can win matches
when you feel like that,
now we’re on the right
track. But at the same
time, for us to win a state
title as a team, we need
those bonus points.”
While Wagner and Hol-
comb could be destined
for different weight class-
es at districts, another of
the night’s closest matches
is likely to play out again
at the Special District 4
tournament in Hood River
next weekend.
Hermiston’s Bob Cole-
man seemed to put his
football skills to good use
in a 7-5 overtime win over
the Bucks’ Terrell Platt in
the 170-pound bout.
With 21 seconds left in
the sudden-death period,
both wrestlers crouched
and lunged forward in
aggressive shots. Their
shoulders met like a pair
of linebackers in a hitting
drill, and Coleman was
able to knock Platt off
balance before scrambling
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down.
“I’ve wrestled him be-
fore, so we both know
what we’re going to do,”
said Coleman, who, like
Platt, was an all-league
linebacker in football.
“Whichever one would
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meet again.”
Coleman spent nearly
all of the second period
trying to escape Platt’s
control, and neither wres-
tler seemed to have much
energy left when their last-
ditch shots in the third pe-
riod were easily rebuffed.
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in that match, but I hav-
en’t lost a home dual yet
in my career, and I don’t
want to start now,” Cole-
man said. “So there was
motivation to keep wres-
tling tired when it went to
overtime.”
Also going to points
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lumbia River Conference
dual of the season were
Mitchell Lincoln’s 11-3
win over Sam Bliss at 182
pounds and John-Henry
Line’s 8-5 win over Mar-
cus Taylor at 195 — both
matches Hermiston led
from the early stages.
Pendleton’s wins were
back-to-back pins at the
145 and 152 weights.
At 145, Morgan Hol-
comb ended the shutout
with a second-round pin
of Robert Crane. Holcomb
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SEE WRESTLING/A11
SPORTS IN BRIEF
Hermiston Booster Club
Steak Feed coming up
The Hermiston Booster Club’s
36th annual steak feed is sched-
uled for 5:30 p.m. March 7 at the
Hermiston Conference Center.
Tickets cost $40, and the pro-
ceeds benefit Hermiston athletic
programs. On average, the steak
feeds generate about $80,000
dollars per night and $100,000
in a year. Call Joe Thompson at
541-571-4478 for more informa-
tion.