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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2017)
A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017 Herald Sports Follow sports on Twitter @HHeraldSports Frostbite tourney tees off for scholarships Rain, snow, sleet or hail, golfers are invited to tee-off during the Frostbite Golf Tournament. A fundraiser for the Boardman Chamber of Commerce scholarship fund for Riverside High School students, the event is Saturday, April 1. Registration begins at 8:15 a.m. and the shot- gun start is at 9 a.m. at Willow Run Golf Course, 78873 Toms Camp Road, Boardman. The four-per- son scramble format also includes a longest drive, putting challenge and a team spirit award for dressing up and cart dec- orating. The cost is $60 per play- er. The cost includes green fees, lunch and six raffle tickets. In addition, players may purchase mulligans for $5. There is a $8 trail fee for golf carts. People must register by Monday, March 27. For more information or to register, contact the Boardman chamber at 541- 481-3014 or info@board- manchamber.org. Tigers fall short of title Santiam’s late surge too much for Stanfield By ERIC SINGER Staff Writer STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston’s Kynzee Padilla shoots the ball surrounded by Sandy defenders in the Bulldogs’ 53-29 win against the Pioneers on Wednesday in Hermiston. Lava Bears nudge Bulldogs from playoffs EO Media Group The Hermiston girls basketball team battled back from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to tie the score with 1 min- ute, 30 seconds to play in Friday’s Class 5A first- round playoff game at Bend. The hosting Lava Bears ran more than a minute off the clock without tak- ing a shot, and when they scored just one of two at the free throw line with 16 seconds left it gave the Bulldogs the opportunity they were looking for. After a timeout to draw up a play, the Bulldogs got the look they wanted as senior Kynzee Padil- la got behind the defense and took a pass from ju- nior Maddy Juul as she moved toward the hoop. The shot wouldn’t fall, though, and Bend grabbed the rebound to secure a 46-45 win. “It was one of those things where we got a good look, we got one of our best players with a good look at the basket, it just wouldn’t fall,” said Hermiston coach Juan Rodriguez. Rodriguez said it was a tough way to go out, but he couldn’t have been more proud of the way the team fought its way back in the game in the fourth quarter. “The girls finally showed what I knew they had in them in that com- petitive spirit,” he said. “A lot of teams if they’re down 15 in the fourth quarter, that’s it. That shows the character of our senior leaders and they made a great run hitting shots and playing great defense to hold them.” Padilla, who finished with six points and six rebounds, is one of four seniors the Bulldogs (14- 11) will lose to gradu- ation. Forward Hayden Meyers and guard Rileigh Andreason each scored in their final games, but guard Shaelynn Gilbert was unavailable after turning her ankle in the team’s play-in win. “We’ll miss their expe- rience,” Rodriguez said. “Padilla is a four-year starter … but all those girls dedicated the last four years to the program and they’ll be missed. We have some good young players coming up, but it’s hard to replace experience and so that’s what we’ll miss next year.” A sign of what’s to come, it was a freshman that led the scoring for STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston’s Maddy Juul fights for the ball with Sandy’s Makenna Wells in the Bulldogs’ 53-29 win against the Pioneers on Wednesday in Hermiston. the Bulldogs in the fourth quarter as Jazlyn Romero scored eight of her team- high 18 points in the frame. Juul finished with six points and five rebounds for Hermiston. Bend (19-4) was led by Sophia Jackson with 17 points. ——— HHS 14 7 9 15 — 45 BHS 14 12 12 8 — 46 HERMISTON — J. Romero 18, M. Juul 6, K. Padilla 6, J. Thomas 6, R. Andreason 5, H. Meyers 2, H. Thompson 2, S. Stefani, M. Wilson. BEND — S. Jackson 17, K. Roath 9, T. Wheeler 7, K. Rambo 5, C. Scott 4, S. Woodward 4, J. Fettig, T. Hadley, K. Brown. 3-pointers — HHS 5; BHS 2. Free throws — HHS 8-12; BHS 10-18. Fouls — HHS 18; BHS 13. Hermiston routs Sandy to advance to first round The Bulldogs weren’t falling for any of Sandy’s tricks during Wednes- day’s 5A play-in game. If anything, the Pioneers just ended up outsmarting themselves and the Bull- dogs never trailed on their way to a 53-29 rout. Sandy (14-10), the No. 5 team from the North- west Oregon Conference, opened in a zone defense and an offense that put all five players outside the three-point arc. “That’s not something we’ve seen (Sandy) do at all, ever,” said Hermiston coach Juan Rodriguez. “It probably just had some- thing to do with the fact that we’re a more athletic team and they were try- ing to slow the ball down quite a bit and see if they could make it a shorter game. I was worried there for a while, but once we got in a groove and started scoring they had to come out of it, and try to score as well.” It took nearly three See BULLDOGS, A16 All season long, the No. 2 Stanfield boys basketball team was known for its hy- per-speed pace-of-play and an engine that continuously drove the team to victory after victory, all the way to the 2A state championship game. But in Saturday’s cham- pionship game at the Pend- leton Convention Center against the No. 4 Santiam Wolverines, that engine fi- nally ran out of gas. The Wolverines, pow- ered by the sibling duo of Julian and Jonah Downey, outscored Stanfield 20- 10 in the fourth quarter to pull out the 57-54 victory over the Tigers to claim the schools’ first state cham- pionship since 1974. The Downey brothers combined for 54 of Santiam’s (24-4) 57 points on 18-31 shoot- ing (58 percent) to carry the load for Santiam. “Those brothers are awesome players,” Stan- field coach Jason Sperr said afterwards. “Their whole team was solid, but yeah Julian hit some huge shots ... it was a great game and both teams played pretty hard.” The game was close from start to finish with a total of 15 lead changes and five ties. Santiam scored the first points of the game on a fastbreak lay-in by Jonah Downey, and then Stanfield (22-2) took its first lead at 9-8 with 4:33 left in the first and would eventually hold a 17-14 lead after one. After a back-and-forth second quarter, the Tigers began to gain momentum in the third quarter. Santiam had tied the game up at 37- 37, but then Stanfield went on a 7-0 run over the final 3:30 of the third to hold its largest lead of the game at 44-37 heading to the fourth quarter. At that point, excitement began to build amongst the Stanfield crowd as just eight minutes stood between the Tigers and their first state championship. However, that’s when Julian Downey took over. Downey hit a 3-pointer just 10 seconds in to cut the deficit to four, and then with four minutes left he nailed another 3-pointer to put his Wolverines on top 47-46. Stanfield then re-took the lead at 48-47 and 50-49 on back-to-back makes by Dylan Grogan, and then Downey hit anoth- er 3-pointer and was fouled by Thyler Monkus for a 4-point play to put Santiam on top 53-50 with 2:21 left and keep them on top for good. Downey finished with 15 of his game-high 33 points in the fourth quarter on 4-6 shooting and 4-5 at the free throw line. For Stanfield, the Tigers offense simply fell flat in the fourth. The team made just 4 of 13 shots in the quarter and couldn’t get any bounces to fall their way. “I think we were a lit- tle stagnant,” Sperr said of his team. “We just didn’t quite get ball movement and movement in general STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Stanfield’s Ryan Bailey is consoled by head coach Jason Sperr after the Tigers’ 57-54 loss to Santiam in the class 2A basketball state championship game Saturday in Pendleton. STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Stanfield’s Dylan Grogan shoots the ball in the Tigers’ 57-54 loss to Santiam in the class 2A basketball state championship game Saturday in Pendleton. like we typically do. I don’t know exactly, we probably should have had them more prepared.” Stanfield had a chance to tie at the game at the end, however Ryan Bai- ley’s off-balance 3-pointer clanked off the rim as the buzzer sounded, sending the Wolverines and their fans into pandemonium. Grogan was Stanfield’s leading scorer with 16 points to go with eight re- bounds, but the rims were not being kind to the 6-4 senior as he made just 4 of 17 shot attempts, many of which bounced in and out. Behind Grogan, Monkus had 10 points and a pair of banked-in 3-pointers, which helped earn him one of the two Player of the Game honors. While Sperr admitted af- terwards that it may take a while for the team to accept being runner-up, he knows the season that the Tigers put together and finishing second out of 42 schools in Class 2A is a tremendous accomplishment. “It was an incredible sea- son and these guys worked their tail ends off to get here,” Sperr said. “They de- served the opportunity and then took it and gave it all they had and just came up a tiny bit short. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of guys and they’ll go a long ways in life and I’m excited to watch that.” ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM First Team Simeon Hess, Western Mennonite; Jonah Downey, Santiam; Julian Downey, Santiam; Zeke Quinlan, Life Christian (unanimous); Dylan Grogan, Stanfield (unanimous). Second Team Joel Snyder, Oakridge; Ryan Bailey, Stanfield; Clay Sullivan, Vernonia; Brett Elliott, Vernonia; L. Dalzell, Columbia Chris- tian. ———— SANT 14 12 11 20 — 57 STAN 17 13 14 10 — 54 SANTIAM — Ju. Downey 33, Jo. Downey 21, A. Fawcett 2, N. Butler 1, J. Fawcett, R. Nicot. STANFIELD — D. Grogan 16, T. Monkus 10, J. Garcia 9, B. Woods 6, T. Flores 6, R. Bailey 4, E. Angel 3, J. Galarza. 3-pointers — SANT 5, STAN 4. Free throws — SANT 14-19, STAN 12-16. Fouls — SANT 16, STAN 20. Fouled out — T. Monkus (STAN). ———— Semifinals The Stanfield Tigers continued to thrive under pressure and came out of Friday’s 2A state semifinals with another gem to knock off the Life Christian Lions 56-41 at Pendleton Con- vention Center. No. 2 Stanfield started the fourth quarter 6-for-8 from the field and sealed the win during a 39-second stretch in the final minutes that started when senior Jose Garcia held his ground to draw charge on Life Christian’s Zeke Quinlan with 2:18 left and Stanfield up 47-39. The Tigers (22-1) were only able to get two points out their next possession, but they made it last until the 1:39 mark by grabbing three offensive rebounds. No. 6 Life Christian (23- 7) scored its final points on a pair of free throws by Bo Quinlan with 1:30 left to play, and shot 3-for- 10 in the fourth quarter as Stanfield earned its first championship berth in pro- gram history. It is the third straight sport the Tigers have reached the cham- pionship in after winning the 2016 baseball title and finishing second in football this past fall. “Before the game we just calmed ourselves down. I don’t think any of us were nervous,” said senior Dylan Grogan. “We’ve been deep in the playoffs so we know how to take it. Some people break down and try to take it individually, we took it as a team and stepped up.” Grogan scored 10 of his team-high 20 points during the fourth quarter and played the final 4:44 with four fouls. “When I was younger I used to get into foul trou- ble a lot, so I kind of knew how to play off, how to use it,” he said. “It’s tough, you have to play off, but it worked.” Grogan drained three straight shots during an 11-2 run that put the Ti- gers up for good, and his three-pointer with 4:13 left made it 43-37 to match their largest lead from the first half. The game was tied six times and had 13 lead changes, but Stanfield made more hustle plays to give it the edge after the game was tied at 30-30 after three quarters. The Tigers finished with 14 offensive rebounds that led to 12 second-chance points, scored 14 points off turnovers, and came up with key defensive stops to frustrate the Lions. “All season we’ve been one hand-length away and See TIGERS, A16
