WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
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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.
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