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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 2016)
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2016 Herald Sports Follow sports on Twitter @HHeraldSports Rodriguez garners all-state soccer honor Freddy Rodriguez caps prolific prep career with first team honors By ERIC SINGER Hermiston Herald FILE PHOTO Freddy Rodriguez (9), of Hermiston, and Henry Ruiz (14), of Sandy, battle for the ball during a game this fall at Kennison Field. For the past four years, Freddy Rodriguez was an integral part of the Herm- iston boys varsity soccer team. He quickly rose through the ranks from freshman role player to being elected a team captain as a junior, and being an electric offen- sive player every step of the way. As a senior this year, Rodriguez led his Bulldogs to the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs and earned all-league honors for the fourth-straight year. Last week, Rodriguez added one more accolade to his prolific Hermiston ca- reer — all-state player. Rodriguez was selected to the first team all-state roster for Class 5A as vot- ed by the coaches, the lone Hermiston player to be rec- ognized. He scored 24 of the team’s 66 total goals (36 percent) and also led the team with 12 assists as a senior, helping the Bull- dogs to a 12-4-1 overall record. “It’s absolutely de- served,” Hermiston head coach Rich Harshberger said of Rodriguez’s honor. “He was a four-year letter winner, a four-year all-league guy and this is just the cherry on top for his senior year. “He was absolutely an integral part of this team beyond physical skill on the field, but also by being a leader and working hard and leading by example, show- ing the younger guys what it takes to play at this level.” Rodriguez was joined on the all-state team by three players from Co- lumbia River Conference rival Hood River Valley as seniors Jorge Campos and Noe Magana made first team and junior Angel Sonato made second team. State champion Woodburn — who knocked Hermis- ton out of the state tourna- ment with a 2-1 win in the quarterfinals for the second straight year — led the way with five all-state selections as well as Coach of the Year honors for Stan Baker. ———— 5A Boys All-State Soccer First team Jorge Campos, sr., Hood River Valley Andy Ellingson, sr., Woodburn Cade Ficek, jr., Marist Noe Magana, sr., Hood River Valley Raul Ochoa, sr., Springfield Reggie Reyes, sr., Woodburn Freddy Rodriguez, sr., Hermiston Anthony Santillan, sr., Woodburn Bryan Tapia Silva, jr., Hillsboro Mack Van Der Velde, sr., Summit Eddie Cabrera, sr., Woodburn Coach of the Year Stan Baker, Woodburn ———— Contact Eric at (541) 966-0839. Hermiston loses fourth straight Hermiston comes up short against Kamiakin By ERIC SINGER Hermiston Herald The Hermiston Bulldogs girls basketball team was handed its fourth straight loss on Saturday night, as the Ka- miakin (WA) Braves came to The Dawghouse and left town with a 59-40 victory. But even with those cir- cumstances, Bulldogs coach Juan Rodriguez wasn’t all that disappointed. “Actually I’m pretty hap- py with the performance tonight,” he said. “This last week has been kind of rough and it hasn’t been anything basketball-wise, we’ve just been lacking leadership when we get to the tough moments. Yesterday we challenged the girls to come out and be leaders and play and compete hard and I thought they did that very well. “I know the scoreboard doesn’t reflect it and it’s not something fans might see, but they came out and turned the corner psychologically and that’s what’s been affecting us the last few games. Sure there’s lots of basketball mis- takes out there, but our main concern was making sure that psychologically we are ready to play for the rest of the sea- son.” The Bulldogs (2-4) started the game playing well, dis- playing great ball movement on offense and giving great efforts on the defensive end of the floor. Hermiston led for the entire first quarter and held a 9-7 advantage after one full. But that’s when Kami- akin started showing that it was the better team. The Braves (4-0) took the lead at 13-11 with just over six minutes left in the second quarter on a 3-point play by Oumou Toure and then stayed in front for the remainder of the game. Hermiston tallied just seven points in the sec- ond quarter, and also played out a 6-minute drought be- tween made field goals. But just as Rodriguez said, STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY Maddy Juul (20), of Hermiston, goes up for a shot under pressure as Kamiakin’s Oumou Toure (24) tries to block during Saturday’s non-conference game in Hermiston. the Bulldogs never hung their heads throughout the rest of the game. The team worked into plenty of good looks at the basket, registering 55 shot attempts but again struggled with the execution as they sank just 16 of those. What pleased Rodriguez was the 17 offensive re- bounds that his team grabbed in the game. “That’s the hustle plays that are hard to teach,” he said. “We’re missing little lay-ins that’ll start going in at some point, but the girls are working towards those offen- sive boards and that’s what I’m happy about. They did a good job of competing and eventually that’ll pay off.” Maddy Juul and Rileigh Andreason each scored nine points to lead Hermiston’s offense, and Jordan Thom- as pitched in eight points for Hermiston. Andreason scored Hermiston’s first 3-pointer with 6:30 left in the game, and the Bulldogs were just 2-14 from there overall. Oumou Toure led Kami- akin with a game-high 23 points and Kylie Larson add- ed 10 for the Braves. Hermiston will travel to Hillsboro for its next game at 5 p.m. Saturday. ————— KHS 7 18 15 19 — 59 HHS 9 7 8 16 — 40 KAMIAKIN — O. Toure 23, K. Larson 11, K Hollie 4, R. Clark 4, C. Williams 4, S. Brown 2. HERMISTON — M. Juul 9, R. Andreason 9, J. Thomas 8, K. Padilla 5, H. Meyers 5, J. Romero 4. 3-pointers — KHS 3, HHS 2. Free throws — KHS 8-10, HHS 6-12. Fouls — KHS 13, HHS 9. ————— Contact Eric Singer at (541) 966-0839. SCOREBOARD Local slate PREP BOYS BASKETBALL Thursday’s Games Umatilla vs. Jordan Valley (at Union Tournament), 3:30 p.m. Friday’s Games Ione vs. Riverside (at Stanfield Tourna- ment) 3:30 p.m. Nyssa at Stanfield (at Stanfield Tourna- ment), 6:30 p.m. Irrigon at Grant Union, 7:30 p.m. Imbler at Heppner, 7:30 p.m. Helix at Echo, 7:30 p.m. Umatilla vs. TBD (at Union Tournament), TBD Saturday’s Games Yakama Tribal (WA) at Irrigon, 1 p.m. Hillsboro at Hermiston, 5 p.m. Heppner at Grant Union, 5:30 p.m. Echo at Pine Eagle, 7:30 p.m. Umatilla vs. TBD (at Union Tournament), TBD Riverside vs. TBD (at Stanfield Tourna- ment), TBD Ione vs. TBD (at Stanfield Tournament), TBD PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL Thursday’s Games Umatilla vs. Jordan Valley (at Union Tournament), 2 p.m. Friday’s Games Ione vs. Riverside (at Stanfield Tourna- ment), 2 p.m. Nyssa at Stanfield, 5 p.m. Irrigon at Grant Union, 6 p.m. Imbler at Heppner, 6 p.m. Helix at Echo, 6 p.m. Umatilla vs. TBD (at Union Tournament), TBD Saturday’s Games Yakama Tribal (WA) at Irrigon, 1 p.m. Weston-McEwen at Imbler, 4 p.m. Heppner at Grant Union, 4 p.m. Echo at Pine Eagle, 4 p.m. Hermiston at Hillsboro, 5 p.m. Umatilla vs. TBD (at Union Tournament), TBD Riverside vs. TBD (at Stanfield Tourna- ment), TBD Stanfield vs. TBD (at Stanfield Tourna- ment), TBD Ione vs. TBD (at Stanfield Tournament), TBD PREP WRESTLING Friday Hermiston at North Idaho College (Tri- State Tournament), TBD Echo at Dobbs (ID) Invitational, 3 p.m. Saturday Hermiston at North Idaho College (Tri- State Tournament), TBD Riverside, Irrigon, Heppner at Mac-Hi Tournament, 10 a.m. Echo at Dobbs (ID) Invitational, 3 p.m. PREP SWIMMING Saturday Hermiston at La Grande, Noon STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY Kamiakin’s Garrett Paxton (11) and Thomas McCullough (32), of Hermiston, fight for a rebound Saturday during a non- conference game at the Dawg House. Bulldogs can’t hold off Braves Hermiston falters late in first loss of season By ERIC SINGER Hermiston Herald For one half on Satur- day night, everything went the Hermiston Bulldogs way. The Bulldogs were driving to the basket with ease and finishing at the rim. They were defensive stalwarts at the other end of the floor, keeping their hands in the passing lanes and forcing turnovers that kept the opposing Kami- akin Braves off the board more often than not. But then in the second half, the two schools effec- tively switched places. It was the Braves that were the ones scoring with ease and playing stout defense while Hermiston struggled to keep its offense trending upwards. In the end, the Bulldogs didn’t have enough in the tank as Kamiakin left town with a 58-51 victory, the first loss for Hermiston this season. “I give it up to Kami- akin,” Hermiston coach Casey Arstein said after the game. “They’ve got athletes, they’re smart, they’re well-coached and it was a good game to have for our preseason for sure. It was kind of a playoff atmosphere with a good crowd, we just have to be able to execute in the half court and get stops, which are things to build on now.” Hermiston (5-1) was boosted by a especial- ly strong first quarter on Saturday, as the defense forced seven Brave turn- overs and Hermiston shot 6-10 from the floor to take a 20-10 lead on Ka- miakin. But over the next two quarters, Hermiston’s offense went cold and the Braves began to figure out the defense as Kamiakin outscored Hermiston 24- 19 over the next two quar- ters. “The kids played hard the whole game, but I think we got a little sluggish in our motion offense and not picking our spots,” Ar- stein said. “We got a little impatient, playing not to lose instead of continuing to play to win. The little mistakes add up to bigger mistakes, and now we just have to fix those.” The Bulldogs defense also got a bit too aggres- sive in the second half committing 16 team fouls, turnaround as it hosts Ir- rigon tonight at 7:30 p.m. and Condon/Wheeler plays Enterprise on Friday at the Pilot Rock tournament at 3 p.m. 11 points off the bench. Coach Jeremy Maddern said that the balance came from an increased focus in ball movement. “We’ve talked about sharing the ball more and trying for more assists,” he said. “It was a priority tonight and we were able to do it well. We also were able to rotate deep into the bench and my younger girls played really well.” Kendra Hart had nine points to lead Stanfield (0-6). Next up for Nixyaawii is a road game on Friday in Wallowa to start Old Oregon League play at 6 p.m. and for Stanfield, the Tigers will host Nyssa at 5 p.m. for the start of the Stanfield Tournament. FROM SATURDAY See BULLDOGS, A9 PREP ROUNDUP Hermiston Herald HEPPNER — The Heppner Mustangs and Condon/Wheeler Knights finally squared off on the basketball court Monday night after last week’s snow storm canceled the previously scheduled Thursday night contest. And the Mustangs were ready for it, using strong defense to get a good jump on the Knights early to cruise to the victory 70-33. “We were really active defensively,” Heppner coach Jeremy Rosenbalm said. “We worked on that in practice and the intensi- ty was there all game and the defensive effort led to a lot of steals and easy shots in our favor.” Logan Grieb led Hep- pner (2-1) with 19 points while Nikalos Dias Mar- tins had 13 and Jake Lind- say had 12. For Condon/ Wheeler (4-1), Bryce Har- rison led with 12 points. Heppner has a quick ———— C/W 6 10 7 10 — 33 HHS 21 10 22 17 — 70 CONDON/WHEELER — B. Harrison 12, H. Winslow 8, C. Johnson 6, J. Bold 2, J. Jaeger 2, C. Homer 2, J. Hoover 1. HEPPNER — L. Grieb 19, N. Dias Mar- tins 13, J. Lindsay 12, C. Hedman 8, K. Smith 7, H. Nichols 3, C. Dougherty 3, K. Murray 2, B. Wolters 2, A. Lindsay 1. 3-pointers — C/W 3, HHS 9. Free throws — C/W 5-14, HHS 7-18. Fouls - C/W 18, HHS 11. GIRLS BASKETBALL NIXYAAWII 51, STANFIELD 26 — At Mission, the Nixyaawii Golden Eagles used a bal- anced scoring effort to put away the Stanfield Tigers in a non-league game on Monday night by a score of 51-26. Nixyaawii (3-0) had five scorers with at least eight points in the game, and freshman Tristalynn Melton led all scorers with ———— SHS 5 2 3 16 — 26 NCS 16 9 15 11 — 51 STANFIELD — K. Hart 9, B. Braithwaite 6, M. Esquivel 6, S. Sharp 2, J. Martinez 2, K. Soto 1. NIXYAAWII — T. Melton 11, K. Melton 10, M. Stewart 9, S. Fuentes 8, T. Broncheau 8, S. Fitzpatrick 5. 3-pointers — SHS 1, NCS 2. Free throws — SHS 7-14, NCS 3-8. Fouls — SHS 11, NCS 16. STANFIELD 70, UMA- TILLA 59 — At Umatilla, the Stanfield Tigers over- came a slow first quarter and a valiant effort by the Umatilla Vikings to win the Columbia River Clash boys tournament champi- onship, 70-59, on Saturday night. “It was a total team ef- fort,” Stanfield coach Ja- son Sperr said. “We played 10 guys and each and every one of them played well.” Ryan Bailey led Stan- field (3-1) with 21 points and Jose Garcia added 11 points. Grogan scored 13 points for Stanfield, all of which came in the second half. For Umatilla (3-2), Sebastian Garcia and Seth Cranston both scored 12 points each to lead the team, while Tyrone Mor- ris scored nine and Kaden Webb had seven. See ROUNDUP, A9
