A12 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015
SPORTS
Hermiston wins
defensive battle
over Liberty
Bulldogs get past play-in
round behind strong defense
By ERIC SINGER
Staff Writer
On a gloomy Saturday afternoon, the
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ly got over their postseason hump, defeating
the Liberty Falcons 3-1 in an OSAA state
play-in game.
In each of the last two years the Bulldogs
lost in the play-in round, getting shut out
both times. But the performance on Satur-
day was a big relief for Bulldogs coach Rich
Harshberger.
“It was good, we needed to get this mon-
key off of our back,” he said after the game.
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past the play-in round especially with last
year. It was a big result for us.”
On paper, the game appeared to be an easy
win for Hermiston (11-2-2) as Liberty came
in with just a 4-9-1 overall record and a No.
23 ranking in the OSAA. But the Falcons
gave the Bulldogs all they could handle in
the game.
“All credit to Liberty, they came out and
pressed us and made it hard for us to play our
game,” Harshberger said. “But we got the
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nitely need to calm it down and impose our-
selves throughout the rest of the playoffs.”
Liberty came out of the gates and imme-
diately put pressure on the Bulldogs, as the
Falcons had the Hermiston defense some-
what scattered. Hermiston goalkeeper Anto-
nio Campos had to make several aggressive
plays and stops to keep the game scoreless.
“With the formation it’s always a bit risky,
but my back four and the goalkeeper are
outstanding. They’ve done a good job,” said
Harshberger. “The results we get and where
we’re at right now is really up to them.”
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offense, and at the 34-minute mark Bernardo
Arujo and Liberty goalkeeper Jacob Thomp-
son collided wide left of the goal, resulting
in a yellow card on Thompson and a penalty
kick for Arujo.
Because of the yellow card, Thompson
was removed from the game for the penalty
kick, replaced by defender Roberto Salinas.
Arujo took advantage of the PK, and drilled
it past Salinas to give the Bulldogs an early
1-0 lead.
The goal swung some momentum in
the Bulldogs’ favor, as just seven minutes
later the Bulldogs struck again on a close-
range goal from Ayden Prewitt to give
Hermiston a 2-0 lead with 27:54 left in
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But just as Hermiston appeared to be gain-
ing momentum, Liberty used a quick transi-
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found Ronaldo Dominguez with a nice cross
pass to the left of the goal as Dominguez then
lofted one over the top of Hermiston’s goal-
keeper for a goal to cut the Bulldog lead to
2-1 with 25:14 left in the half.
The second half played out as a defensive
stalemate, as neither side could get enough
pressure offensively to rack up many scoring
opportunities.
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best chances for the Bulldogs, sending a
20-yard blast off the crossbar, and then later
sending a free kick just left of the goal.
But Hermiston got the clincher with 4:40
left in the game, when Joel Mendez found
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crossover of the Liberty defender and then
rolled one past the Liberty goalkeeper with
his left foot to give the Bulldogs the 3-1 lead.
When the third goal hit the net, Harsh-
berger let his team and the crowd know just
how big that was for his team.
“I don’t know if anyone saw me, I try to
be reserved, but I kind of let it go a little bit,”
said Harshberger on his celebration. “It was
a huge weight off my chest to get that third
goal to seal the deal.”
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY JANSEN EDMISTON
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Bulldogs’ Edmiston inks
with Lewis-Clark State
Hermiston senior
to join Frontier
Conference power
By SAM BARBEE
Staff Writer
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freshman year, one in which she
was thrust into the starting point
guard role after never playing a
minute at the high school level,
Hermiston head coach Steve
Hoffert knew she could be a
good college player.
As she enters her senior sea-
son this winter, Hoffert now
thinks she can be a great college
player, and will have a chance to
do so at Lewis-Clark State Uni-
versity in Lewiston, Idaho after
signing her national letter of in-
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to study either mathematics or
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ther you’re gonna survive it, or
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said of that freshman year. “So
you can do whatever you had to
do to survive.”
She may have seen it as sur-
vival, but it was clear to Hoffert
she had the talent and smarts to
play at the next level.
“The smarts is the big thing.
Basketball IQ is huge,” he said.
“She sees the game like I do at
times. She sees the game the way
you want and recognizes things.
She’s starting to take initiative in
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ance has been the key to her cur-
rent opportunities.
“If I didn’t have Hoffert, I
wouldn’t have been pushed into
varsity freshman year,” she said,
“and that helped me realize, ‘Oh,
you need to start doing more
drills.’ But also he helped my
love for basketball because he
makes practices fun and more
enjoyable.”
Lewis-Clark State, known as
L-C State or simply L-C, com-
petes in the Frontier League of
the National Association of In-
tercollegiate Athletics and is one
of the better NAIA programs.
The Warriors will start this sea-
son ranked 19th in the preseason
coaches’ poll. Last season, L-C
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League Tournament to No. 23
Great Falls, then played eventual
national champ Oklahoma City
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Division I National Champion-
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Under the direction of 15-
year veteran Brian Orr, the War-
riors have dominated the Fron-
tier League. Orr has an overall
record of 343-119 (.742) and a
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the Warriors to six straight na-
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and is the all-time winningest
coach in L-C women’s basket-
ball history.
“They make it to the national
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ton said. “I didn’t want to go
somewhere (with little success)
because I don’t like losing.”
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in Northwest Christian Univer-
sity where Hoffert’s daughter
attends, but L-C and the sur-
rounding town won out after a
recruiting trip at the beginning
of fall.
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enced her decision. She said she
didn’t want to go from a program
with a lot of local support and
success to a program without
FILE PHOTO
Hermiston’s Jansen Edmiston looks to create space for a shot
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last season.
those things. L-C provides both.
The town of Lewiston, with a
population of about 32,000, was
reminiscent of Hermiston with
two rivers and a similar climate.
She practiced with the Warriors
while on her trip and thought that
was the best choice for her.
“They’re really supported,
like our girls basketball is sup-
ported (L-C’s) is really support-
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just reminded me of home, and
the girls are super nice and the
coach is super nice.”
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scholarship following her cam-
pus visit. Hoffert said he and
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before she eventually took the
offer.
She didn’t commit right away,
and she wasn’t asked for a com-
mitment right away. Orr gave her
two weeks to decide, though she
didn’t take all the time.
“I said, ‘You know what?
Here’s the deal: We can tell this
guy (Orr) we can wait, but what
are we waiting for? If you like
the place, if you like the girls,
you like the team, you like the
(coach), what are you waiting
for? Because he’s offered you
everything,” he said. “‘Think
about saying no and waiting for
the next (offer). How stressful
would that be?’ I was happy she
took it.”
So, at the beginning of the
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her decision.
“I kind of just want to say
thank you to everyone who
supported me on my way since
third grade, all my coaches, my
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you to everyone who supported
me.”
Hermiston silenced by Putnam in play-in round
Bulldogs unable to
score in rematch
with Putnam
tle more intensity than we
did,” said a somber Turn-
er. “We’ve kind of been on
a high the last two games.
Came out and shut out
Hood River, put Pendleton
away, etc. I don’t know
what it was, just not our day
By ERIC SINGER
Staff Writer
I guess.”
On paper, Hermiston (4-
It just wasn’t Hermis-
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ton’s day.
That’s what Bulldogs’ to have the advantage in the
coach Danielle Turner game as Putnam held a 2-7-
reiterated several times, 5 overall record coming
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following the Hermiston of those ties coming to the
Bulldogs’ 1-0 loss to the same Hermiston team back
Putnam Kingsmen on a on Sept. 19.
Turner doesn’t believe
soggy Saturday afternoon
for an OSAA state play-in that familiarity for either
team played a real factor in
game.
“I honestly thought we the game.
“There was a couple
would come out with a lit-
players we knew that were
pretty good for them, but
each team is different every
day regardless how many
times you play them,” she
said. “I told the girls that
yeah we understand their
strengths and weaknesses,
but if we play our game,
we’re tough. Unfortunate-
ly I don’t think we were on
our best game today.”
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the Bulldogs were held in
check for the majority of
the game by the stingy Put-
nam defense, as Hermiston
was limited to very few le-
gitimate scoring opportuni-
ties.
Perhaps
Hermiston’s
best scoring chance came
with 15 minutes left in the
game when Lesley Risue-
no drilled a free kick from
about 30 yards out toward
the net, but it sailed just
high of the goal.
“We just weren’t on of-
fensively,” Turner said.
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combinations. When Han-
nah (Thompson) and our
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gether and (Hannah’s) on,
it’s pretty hard to stop. But
like I said it was just an off
day and unfortunately it
came at the wrong time.”
The two teams played
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at a stalemate, as rain fell
intermittently throughout
the half.
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the 0-0 deadlock less than
9 minutes into the second
half, when Maleah Maier
camped in front of the net
and buried a header over
top of Hermiston goalkeep-
er Kilie Harrison off of a
perfect pass from the right
corner for the 1-0 lead.
As much trouble as
Hermiston had getting the
offense going, its defense
played a solid game — save
for the only goal against.
Goalkeeper Kilie Harrison
made some key stops and
the rest of Hermiston’s back
line were positioned well
enough to keep the game
close for all 80 minutes.
That unit’s performance
was the one positive that
Turner and the Bulldog
coaches took away from
the game.
“Once again our de-
fense stepped up for us, and
they have all season,” said
Turner. “We have that core
group all coming back next
season so that’ll be good
for us.”
The loss ends the sea-
son for the Bulldogs with
a second-straight early exit
in the postseason, and will
give Turner plenty of time
to regroup and think about
where her team needs to go
for next season.
“Put in some work in the
offseason and I think we’ll
be alright,” she said. “It’s
just frustrating kind of tak-
ing a step back after what
we’ve done for the past
couple weeks.”