A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017
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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