WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2016
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
HeraldSports
Special Olympians
TIGERS ADVANCE TO TITLE GAME
strike it rich with
Follow sports on Twitter
@HHeraldSports
bowling fundraiser
HERMISTON HERALD
More than 70 athletes
participated in the annual
bowlathon to raise money
for Hermiston/Pendleton
Special Olympics Local
Program No. 510.
The top fundraiser was
Shona Bergo, followed
by Jillian Smalley, David
Andrews, Rushelle My-
ers and Mary Ann Wright.
The combined efforts of
the athletes earned just
more than $6,600.
Money will go toward
supporting training and
competition in a variety
of sports designed for in-
dividuals with intellectu-
al developmental disabil-
ities. There is no charge
for athletes to participate.
Head bowling coach
Doris Boatright was kept
busy handing out more
than 150 quarters to ath-
letes who earned either
spares or strikes during
the event.
The athletes are finish-
ing up the fall sports sea-
son. The winter season,
which include basketball
and snow sports, will be-
gin in January. There is
no charge for athletes to
participate.
For more informa-
tion about participating
or volunteering, call Stu
Bance, local program
coordinator, at 541-376-
8132.
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY KRISTI SMALLEY
Top fundraisers for the annual bowlathon for Hermiston/
Pendleton Special Olympics Local Program No. 510 were
Rushelle Myers, Jillian Smalley, Mary Ann Wright, David
Andrews and Shona Bergo. The Oct. 29 event, which raised
more than $6,600, was held at Desert Lanes in Hermiston.
By ERIC SINGER
Staff Writer
For the first time since
1957, the Stanfield Tigers will
play for a football state cham-
pionship.
The No. 2 Tigers beat
the No. 3 Kennedy Trojans,
32-13, in the 2A semifinals
on Saturday night at Liberty
High School in Hillsboro, ex-
acting the revenge they were
determined to get following
last year’s loss to the Trojans
also in the semifinals.
“The town of Stanfield has
been waiting a long time to
get to a state championship
and man it feels good to do
it,” Stanfield coach Davie
Salas said with a wide grin.
“This is part of the process
we’ve been talking about all
season, the kids kept believ-
ing and now we held a pretty
explosive Kennedy team to
just 13 points.”
It was clear from the start
that Stanfield was the better
team on Saturday, as the Ti-
gers defense won the battles
in the trenches and the offense
was able to move the ball ef-
fectively. Stanfield’s defense,
which had been gashed for
more than 400 yards by the
Trojans last season, held the
Trojans to just 236 total yards
— 143 rushing and 93 pass-
ing — and contained Kenne-
dy’s all-conference running
back Bishop Mitchell effec-
tively.
“Defense won the game,”
Salas said. “I mean 13 points
to an explosive team that was
dominating everybody put-
ting teams down. I knew we
had our work cut out for us
but I knew that if we followed
our game plan we’d be fine
and it went our way.”
Mitchell tallied a total of
113 yards on 20 carries and
two touchdowns — though
88 of those yards came on
one touchdown run in the
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Stanfield’s Brody Woods catches the ball for a touchdown
in front of Kennedy’s Emorej Lynk in the Tigers’ 32-13 win
against the Trojans on Saturday in Hillsboro.
third quarter. Aside from that,
Mitchell gained just 25 yards
on 19 carries.
“We played a near per-
fect game,” Salas said.
“With Mitchell we had Thy-
ler Monkus spying him the
whole time and everybody
came together as a unit and
the kids executed our game
plan.”
Along with his defensive
excellence, Monkus was a
difference maker on offense
as he led the team with 138
rushing yards and two touch-
downs on 17 carries and
also caught seven passes for
46 yards. Monkus’ perfor-
mance earned him Player of
the Game recognition by the
OSAA.
“Thyler’s our guy,” Salas
said. “He works hard and al-
ways wants the ball and even
when he’s banged up he still
wants the ball and makes
plays for us. We’ll ride the
back of that 150-pound kid
every day and that’s what we
did tonight, when ever we
needed a big play or a first
down we gave the ball to
Thyler.”
Monkus scored the game’s
first touchdown late in the
first quarter, taking an end-
around handoff on 4th-and-3
at the Kennedy 12 and sped
through the Trojan defense
for a touchdown and a 7-0
Stanfield lead. Stanfield then
scored again late with just 10
seconds left in the half when
quarterback Dylan Grogan hit
Brody Woods on a 12-yard
slant pattern in the end zone
to give the Tigers the 14-7
lead going into the half.
In the third quarter, the
Trojans got right back in the
game on Mitchell’s 88-yard
score and forced a Stanfield
punt on the Tigers ensuing
drive to get the ball back
looking to take the lead. But
on a 3rd-and-10 pass, Kenne-
dy quarterback Brett Traeger
floated a pass too much and
Stanfield cornerback Justin
Keeney read the route per-
fectly picked off the pass at
the Kennedy 40 to flip mo-
mentum back in the Tigers’
favor.
“They were in spread
and we were locked up at
the time so I had to stay on
my guy,” Keeney said of
the play, “and then when he
turned back I saw the ball go
up and just made the play. I
wanted to make sure I didn’t
drop it and then just wanted
to start running but then I got
tackled.”
“Justin Keeney is a spe-
cial kid,” Salas added. “He’s
one of the most polite kids
you’ll ever meet but he is one
heck of a football player. He
just comes through with big
plays. Last year he had some
miscues as a sophomore but
he learned from that, he’s
growing and this year he’s
come out and had one heck
of a game.”
Stanfield cashed in on the
field position when Grogan
barreled his way for a 2-yard
touchdown to put the Tigers
up 20-13 with just over four
minutes left in the third quar-
ter. From that point on it was
all Stanfield, as the offense
scored on each of its final
three possessions and the de-
fense kept the Trojans at bay.
The win sets up a cham-
pionship with the Tigers and
the No. 1 seed Regis Rams
on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Ken-
nison Field in Hermiston. It
will be a rematch from Week
2 of the regular season when
the Tigers beat the Rams, 20-
14, in Stanfield.
“No disrespect to any-
body else, but I felt the whole
season once we played Regis
that we were the two best
teams in the state and we’re
ready to go at it again,” Salas
said.
———
KHS
0 7
6
0 — 13
SHS
7 7
6 12 — 32
Statistics
PASSING — KHS (7-20-1, 93 yds) B. Traeger
7-20-1, 93 yds. B. Mitchell 0-1. SHS: D. Grogan
11-17, 119 yds, TD.
RUSHING — KHS (29-143, 2 TD) B. Mitchell
20-113, 2 TD; B. Traeger 6-19; E. Lynk 2-6;
J. Suing 1-5. SHS (45-254, 4TD) T. Monkus
17-138, 2 TD; D. Grogan 14-65, TD; A. Renner
6-22; J. Keeney 3-14, TD; M. Blankenship 4-13;
B. Woods 1-2.
RECEIVING — KHS: S. Bizon 3-58; B. Mitch-
ell 2-29; D. Moreno 1-6, J. Suing 1-0. SHS: T.
Monkus 7-46; B. Woods 2-24, TD; A. Renner
1-27; J. Shelby 1-22.
FIRST DOWNS — KHS 11, SHS 20.
TIME OF POSSESSION — KHS 18:58,
SHS 29:02.
———
Contact Eric at (541) 966-
0839.
Heppner comes up short in semifinal showdown
Mustangs fall to
the Regis Rams
By ERIC SINGER
Staff Writer
In 27 years as a head
coach, Heppner’s Greg
Grant has never had a team
give up two kickoff return
touchdowns in a game —
until Saturday afternoon.
The Regis Rams used two
kickoff return touchdowns
to swing momentum in their
favor before pulling away for
a 27-6 victory over Heppner
in the 2A state semifinals
on Saturday at Liberty High
School. It was also revenge
for the Rams, who fell 26-3
to Heppner in the 2015 semi-
finals.
The loss ended Heppner’s
bid to attempt to repeat as
state champions.
“Every time you kick off
you have the momentum, it’s
either the start of the game,
start of the half, or you just
scored,” Grant said after the
game, “and to give up two
big plays I mean, man. I’m
going to lose a lot of sleep
over that because that’s
something we’ve never ever
done, and I just detest. But I
can’t blame my kids so much
as they had just had too many
athletes in space.”
The first return came in
the second quarter right af-
ter Heppner scored its only
touchdown of the game,
a 6-yard pass from Kevin
Smith to Beau Wolters. On
the kickoff, Logan Grieb
squibbed it to the near side-
line where Regis’ Brandon
Piete corralled the bouncing
kick at his own 20, made a
few moves and outran a pair
of Heppner defenders down
the sideline for the touch-
down.
The sequence was frus-
trating for Grant because it
was the Rams that went to
halftime with the lead 10-6,
despite having just 61 yards
of offense on 19 plays as
well as one turnover in the
half because of a tremendous
effort by the Mustangs de-
fense.
“It kind of makes me sick
that we played that good of
defense and we played that
hard to just have a couple
letdowns on special teams,”
Grant said.
The second return came
on the opening kickoff of the
second half, as Grieb kicked
it deep down the middle of
the field. Regis’ Brendon
Woodcock picked up the
rolling kick at his own 14
and stayed patient behind
his blockers before finding
a gap and again outrunning
Heppner defenders down the
near sideline to put Regis up
17-6 in the third quarter.
But from that point on in
the second half it was all Re-
gis. The Rams found success
in the passing game on of-
fense completing 8-12 pass-
es for 143 yards, as well as
using a stout defensive front
to hold Heppner to just 90
total yards in the half on 30
plays — an average of just
three yards per play.
For most of the game
Heppner’s offense couldn’t
quite get going. The Mus-
tangs were gifted great field
position early in the first
quarter, when Regis fum-
bled the ball and Heppner
recovered at the Rams’ 26.
It was a an opportunity for
the Mustangs to take control
of the game right away and
set the tone, but instead Hep-
pner could only muster three
yards on the possession and
turned it over on downs.
“That would have been
nice if we cashed in on that,”
Grant said. “It would have
got us going, but we just mis-
fired early.”
The Mustangs were also
affected when senior running
back and defensive back Lo-
gan Grieb went down with a
“I don’t think they (Re-
gis) outplayed us by any
stretch of the imagination,
but they just had more ath-
letes and were able to make
a few more plays,” Grant
said. “And if Logan doesn’t
get hurt, if they don’t return
that first kickoff, maybe it’s
different, but guess what? Oh
well. On this day that’s what
happened, they had enough
athletes and we couldn’t
quite do it.”
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Heppner’s Coby Dougherty is wrapped up by a host of Regis defenders in the Mustangs’ 27-6
loss to the Rams on Saturday in Hillsboro.
team with 7.5 tackles, and
senior Tim Jaca picked up a
big quarterback sack, but it
was senior lineman Trevin
Horne that stood out, racking
up 4.5 tackles for loss, one
sack, one forced fumble and
four quarterback pressures in
the game.
“I was just really aggres-
sive and just went for it on
every play,” Horne said,
“and it just worked out for
me I guess.”
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Murray said he was
happy to see Horne, who
Heppner’s Logan Grieb breaks through the Regis line with a
block from Trevin Home on Brandon Piete (11) in the Mustangs’ transferred to Heppner from
Pendleton for his senior sea-
27-6 loss to the Rams on Saturday in Hillsboro.
son, cap off his season with
his best game of the year.
knee injury early in the third game.
“We were coaching him
quarter. Grieb gained four
“It’s just too bad,” Grieb
yards on his only carry in the said of the injury. “It was re- along all year and he really
half, but took a helmet from ally tough not to be out there stepped up today,” Murray
a Regis defender to his left with them but it’s just some- said. “It’s like a whole new
knee and stayed down for thing you can’t do anything player from his first game
and it was awesome to see.”
several minutes in obvious about.”
But even in the loss, none
pain. Grieb iced the knee for
One area where Hep-
the rest of the quarter and pner dominated in the game of the Mustangs hung their
then came back in the game though was with its defen- heads after the game and
in the fourth but re-injured it sive front seven, holding Re- Grant emphasized in the
two series later trying to de- gis to just 37 rushing yards postgame huddle how proud
flect a pass on defense, caus- on 26 attempts. Senior line- he was of the team and the
ing him to miss the rest of the backer Kevin Murray led the effort put forth.
SENIOR SEND OFF
It also marked the final
game for seniors Grieb, Mur-
ray, Jaca, Horne, Jake Lind-
sey, and Kolby Currin, who
depart the program with a
44-5 career record.
“It’s really special to be
part of this group,” Grieb
said. “The seniors are really
close and it’ll be really tough
not playing football with
those guys but what we’ve
accomplished it’s really in-
credible.”
Grant said it’s always
hard to compare senior class-
es, but he knows that the cur-
rent group was solid all the
way around.
“Look they’ve been a part
of eight home playoff victo-
ries, 44-5 over four years, four
semifinals, two finals trips,”
Grant said, “but the character
of them and the type of kids
they were they really great.
They’ll be missed, but they ...
did a great job of showing ev-
erybody what it’s like to be a
Mustang and to do things the
right way.”
———
HHS
0 6
0
0 — 6
RHS
0 10 14
3 — 27
Stats
PASSING — HHS (4-24, 82 yds, TD) K.
Smith 7-16, 91 yds, TD; L. Grieb 0-2. RHS Bry.
Piete 13-19, 183 yds.
RUSHING — HHS (34-96 yds) L. Grieb
14-57; C. Dougherty 8-28; B. Wolters 4-17;
G. Hanna-Robinson 7-0; K. Smith 1-(-6). RHS
(26-37, 1 TD). Bra. Piete 16-37, TD; A. Pelayo
3-13; E. Gustin 4-13; Bry. Piete 3-(-26).
RECEIVING — HHS B. Wolters 4-43, TD; J.
Lindsey 3-33; C. Dougherty 2-11. RHS A. Wilt-
sey 4-36; C. Gescher 3-70; E. Gustin 3-55; B.
Woodcock 1-12; Bra. Piete 2-10.
———
Contact Eric Singer at
(541) 966-0839.