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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 2017)
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9 Herald Sports Follow sports on Twitter @HHeraldSports Bulldogs win overtime thriller Rambo scores 21 as Hermiston holds off Dallas By ERIC SINGER Staff Writer Suspense filled the Dawg House Friday night as the Hermiston Bulldogs possessed the ball while staring at a 49-47 deficit with just 12.5 seconds left to play against the Dallas Dragons. As the seconds started to tick off the clock, the ball found its way into the hands of senior guard Xavier Ram- bo — who had been the go- to scorer for Hermiston in the game. As Rambo pos- sessed the ball, he scanned the floor and saw an open- ing in the middle and drove past his defender toward the basket and avoided traffic to lay it in off the glass to tie the game at 49-49 and send it to overtime. Then in the extra peri- od with Hermiston ahead 52-51 with 50 seconds re- maining, Rambo skied to grab a rebound off a missed Dallas 3-pointer and then sped down the court past two Dallas defenders for a wide-open lay-in to help Hermiston clinch a 54-51 non-league victory over the Dragons. Rambo said he knew once he got to half court he was going to make the shot. “When I got to halfcourt, I knew I was gone and I’m not going to pass it since I’m going in and I’m a pret- ty fast guy,” he said with a smile. Hermiston (9-3) coach Casey Arstein admitted that he thought about calling his FILE PHOTO Hermiston’s Dayshawn Neal turns up fields as Pendleton’s Aiden Patterson prepares to make the hit in the Bulldogs’ 13-12 win against the Bucks in Hermiston during the fall of 2016. If Hermiston is moved up to a larger classification, that game could potentially have been the last time Hermiston would host Pendleton in a football game. OSAA may move Hermiston to its highest classification By ERIC SINGER Staff Writer Hermiston School Dis- trict is the second-fastest growing school district in the state, according to a 2016 report by the Oregon Department of Education, ranking 29th overall out of the 212 total districts. Because of that enroll- ment increase, the Herm- iston High School athlet- ics programs will likely be moving to the high- est classification in the OSAA beginning in 2018. The OSAA began its reclassification meetings and evaluations for the 2018-22 classification block in October 2016, and with three meetings adjourned and numer- ous proposals submitted, Hermiston has been slat- ed to move to the highest level each time. Hermiston athletic di- rector Larry Usher said the likely move comes with mixed emotions within the school district. “You take the good with the bad to be honest, while a lot of school districts have declining enrollment, we are increasing enroll- ment.” Usher said. “Our district is healthy and our community is pretty hap- py about it, ” he said. “At the same time the move up will be tough for us with travel and possible missed class time for the student athletes.” In the most recent proposal, Hermiston would join the Mt. Hood Conference along with Portland-area schools including Barlow, Cen- tennial, Central Catholic, Clackamas, David Doug- las, Gresham, Oregon City and Reynolds. The amount of trips to the Portland area that change would necessitate is a concern for Usher. “As it is right now we do a lot of travel to the west side of the state for non-conference games, but we do anticipate a significant increase in our travel expenses,” Usher said. “And because the RPI and Colley Rankings force us to play teams in our state and in our clas- sification, we would still continue to have half of our non-conference games played on the west side of the state. “So for some of our team sports we’d be look- ing at anywhere from 13, 14, or 15 trips to the Port- land area, which is a big concern for us.” Usher says his concerns are shared by several ath- letic directors from Mt. Hood Conference schools he’s been in contact with. “It was the topic of conversation at one of their meetings recently and it’s not a move that they’ll completely op- pose, but it’s not some- thing they’re all in favor of,” Usher said. “When you start looking at tradi- tional Tuesday and Friday schedules for sports like volleyball, basketball, softball, and baseball, are they going to be excited about having to travel out to Hermiston on a Tues- day night? Probably not. “I think that when it comes around, hopeful- ly schools over that way would be open to some creative scheduling ideas to limit the amount of missed class time or else it could be devastating for the student-athletes.” STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston’s Xavier Rambo shoots the ball over Dallas’ Zach Wallace (24) and Jake Collins (00) in the Bulldogs’ 54-51 win over the Dragons on Friday in Hermiston. final timeout after the re- bound to set up a play, but quickly realized that Rambo had the game in his hands. “We had one timeout and looking out there, I was thinking about pulling it out but as he (Rambo) kept going and he kept passing guys ... I knew we’ll take it,” he said. “He does a good job of attacking. Everyone made some interesting shot decisions tonight, including him, but when it counted he did the right thing and that’s go to the rim and I was proud of him.” It was a pretty up-and- down game overall for Hermiston, who played their second game without star senior guard Chance Flores who is out indefi- nitely with a broken right hand. Rambo, who finished with a game-high 21 points, said that the team is still adapting to some new roles without Flores on the court. “It’s a different game without Chance,” he said. “He’s a big help defen- sively and offensively but we’re all hard workers so we get it done. “And I’m the leader now. (Chance) is usually the leader but now I’m the leader and we have to go do big things.” The game featured 14 ties and 14 lead changes as neither team could sus- tain a lead. Hermiston took the early momentum and turned it into a 15-9 lead af- ter one quarter and pushed the lead up to 19-9 early in the second quarter. But that’s when Dal- las (5-5) made its first real push, going on a 14-0 run to take a 23-19 lead with three minutes left in the half. Hermiston snapped the scoreless drought with a floater by Andrew James at the 2:31 mark, but still trailed 25-24 at halftime. The second half played out very back-and-forth, with neither team holding a lead larger than three points the entire way. “It was an interesting night,” Arstein said of the game. “Dallas is bet- ter than their record and it was a good battle and I just thought we played sloppy, but we’ll take the win at home and in overtime.” Along with Rambo’s 21 points, Andrew James pitched in 10 points, while Kody Moss and Jordan Ramirez each had six. Moss also had a big game inside, extending numerous Bulldog possessions with offensive rebounds and controlling the glass defen- sively as well. “Kody did all the lit- tle things well, the things we’ve been struggling with,” Arstein said. See THRILLER, A14 Heppner’s Flynn wins Jo-Hi title Antonucci second for Mustangs Hermiston Herald Despite road closures around the region, the Hep- pner/Ione and Echo/Stan- field wrestling teams were able to make their way across the mountain for the two-day Jo-Hi Tournament, which began on Friday. Heppner’s Cord Fly- nn pinned his way to the 195-pound championship for his third tournament win in a row and Mustangs 113-pounder Trevor Anto- nucci placed second to lead Heppner to an 11th place finish out of 17 teams. See BULLDOGS, A14 Echo also had two plac- ers as Kyle Ranger took fourth at 120 and Mason Smith was sixth at 170. Flynn’s title bout came against a familiar oppo- nent as he would meet Cul- ver’s Jaiden Jones, who had pinned him to win the 2015-16 OSAA state cham- pionship match. Jones won that one with a pin, and the Ione senior returned the favor on Satur- day using a head-and-arm hold to stick Jones on the mat at the 3:15 mark. After initially falling behind 6-1, Flynn ended a spirited first round with a 7-6 lead. Heppner coach Mark Lemmon said Flynn was able to roll Jones into a cradle from the top starting position in Round 2, and then spent the next minute working for the pin without giving up any points. Flynn won his first two matches by pin (1:06) over Enterprise’s Drew Widen- er and a 19-3 technical fall over Culver’s Cylus Hoke. Trevor Antonucci wres- tled his way into the final round with an injury default in the quarterfinals, then a pin (3:36) of Culver’s Jo- han Jaimes in the semis. He ran up against de- fending district champion Shane Lund in the cham- pionship where he fell 5-0. The first round ended with a scoreless tie as the wres- tlers fended off each others’ shots. A takedown gave Lund the lead in the second round, and a reversal and penalty point on Antonucci in the third gave the match its final score. Ranger went 4-2 with every match decided by pin. He made it to the third- place match with a pin (1:30) over Imbler’s Seany Willis, but lasted just 51 seconds against Adrian’s Marcus Furtado. Smith’s placing came despite an 0-3 record. Heppner will join sev- eral other local teams at the Oregon Classic on Fri- day-Saturday at Deschutes County Fairgrounds. Echo will wrestle at the Bonanza Tournament on Saturday. EAST'40OREGON marketplace Place classified ads online at www.eastoregonmarketplace.com Special Notices 10 ALL ABOARD - - Last chance to join the April escorted tour to Australia. Relax and enjoy Reef to Outback as you are guided throughout the 15 days... All you need is your passport. Call Kerry 541-378-6855 TURN HERE REALTY & TRAVEL (541) 377-6855 CLASSIFIED LINE AD DEADLINES East Oregonian 3pm the day prior to publication Hermiston Herald 10am Tuesday 1-800-962-2819 classifieds@ eastoregonian.com CONCERNS OF violations of 1st amendment rights (separation of church and state) in Morrow County School District? Together we can be stronger, more powerful, using one unified voice. fairnessinmyschool@gmail.com Special Notices 10 Homes for Sale 100 PLEASE CHECK YOUR AD ON THE FIRST DAY OF PUBLICATION. While we are happy to make any necessary correction, we cannot be responsible for errors appearing for multiple days. Thank you! 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Familial status includes children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women, and people securing custody of children under 18. This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. Our readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. To complain of discrimination, call HUD toll-free at 1-800-669- 9777. The toll-free telephone number for the hearing impaired is 1-800-927-9275. CLASSIFIEDS ARE the place to sell or find just about anything! 1-800-962-2819 Homes for Sale 100 CALL THE “Weekend & After Hours Realtor” to view homes at a convenient time for you. Available on Short Notice, Special Financing Program Information! Call Matt Vogler, 541.377.9470 John J. Howard & Assoc. (541) 377-9470 ATHENA - $126,000 Athena home! 1440 sf(m/l), 1 level home with 3bedrooms, 2 baths. User friendly kitchen. F/A heating and cooling. 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