WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
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PREP FOOTBALL
PREP ROUNDUP
Defense
carries
Riverside
Bulldogs shows
off talent at
home XC meet
HERMISTON HERALD
Echo wins big, Heppner
loses second straight,
Umatilla falls on road
HERMISTON HERALD
After their original sea-
son opener was canceled
last week, the Riverside Pi-
rates hosted the Union Bob-
cats for their season opener
on Friday and came out on
top.
Riverside used a stout
defensive effort and just
enough offense to tally
the victory in their opener,
beating Union 8-6.
It was a much different
game than the 2016 meet-
ing between the two teams,
which ended in a 30-27
shootout, but the Pirates are
still ecstatic with the win.
“It’s a great feeling,”
Riverside assistant coach
Loren Dieter said. “We
have a young team this year
and have Ione kids with us
this year. They’ve blended
in and played pretty well
... our seniors played really
well and a lot of underclass-
men are making progress.”
Riverside (1-0) held
Union (0-2) to just 161 total
yards and one touchdown,
which came on a big play
in the second half. On the
other side of the ball, Riv-
erside’s offense struggled
to move the ball consistent-
ly into scoring range, but
the Pirates did run for 183
yards with senior Aramis
Corpus accumulating 133
of those. Riverside’s only
score came on its opening
possession when senior
quarterback Mason Hegar
connected with senior Fe-
lix Aparicio on a 17-yard
touchdown pass.
Riverside will go for two
straight wins Friday when
it hosts Imbler for a 7 p.m.
kick off.
ECHO 52, PILOT
ROCK 6 — At Echo, the
Cougars overcame a slow
start with a big second half
to knock off the Rockets,
52-6, on Friday night.
Echo (2-0) led just 16-0
at halftime as the offense
had some new players in
new positions, but a solid
defensive effort kept the
Rockets (0-2) at bay. The
Cougars defense overall al-
lowed just 72 total yards for
Pilot Rock.
“The defense was the
game-maker,” Echo coach
Rick Thew said. “They
didn’t allow anything and
allowed our offense to fig-
ure things out and then we
started to click.”
See FOOTBALL, Page A10
STAFF PHOTOS BY KATHY ANEY
Hermiston’s Jonathan Hinkle runs downfield as three Lewiston Bengals give chase during Friday’s non-conference
game at Kennison Field.
DAWGS SHUT OUT BENGALS
Hermiston dominates Lewiston at Kennison Field
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
I
f it was the momentum change in
the last 10 minutes of the Hermis-
ton football team’s season opener
on Sept. 1 that lit a fire under the
team, then Lewiston (ID) had no
chance against the Bulldogs (1-1)
on Friday at Kennison Field.
Hermiston welcomed the Ben-
gals (1-2) for its first home game
of the season and the Bulldogs had
something to prove. After losing
last year on Lewiston’s home field
to cap off an 0-2 start, Hermiston
was going to do everything in its
power to not let that happen again
and a 26-0 win proved that.
Thanks to a 307 total yard perfor-
mance from junior quarterback An-
drew James, two interceptions from
senior Joey Gutierrez and two fum-
ble recoveries in the first 5 minutes
of play, the Bulldogs avenged last
season’s loss with a shutout victory.
“It was good to feel the field
again and we came out with a bang,”
James said before quickly reflecting
on what didn’t go the Bulldogs way.
“It got sloppy quick, a lot of pen-
alties that we need to clean up, me
over throwing balls,” James said.
“We had a great game but there’s a
lot of stuff we need to fix.”
That game was capped off with
an average of 6.7 yards per carry
from the quarterback. James’s ex-
plosiveness out of the pocket was
what kept the offense on the field as
it faced critical third downs. He fin-
Official team scores from the girls
5,000-meter varsity race:
1. Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2. Hermiston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3. Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4. Oregon City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5. La Grande . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6. Chiawana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
7. Southridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
8. Tri-Cities Prep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
9. Heppner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
10. Toppenish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
11. Umatilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Hermiston quarterback Andrew James turns a quarterback keeper into a
touchdown in the early minutes of Friday’s non-conference game against
Lewiston at Kennison Field.
ished with 19 carries for 129 yards.
What James lacked in the pass-
ing game (12-for-27) he made up
for with his feet, head coach David
Faaeteete said after the game. Pair
that with top-tier offensive perfor-
mances from senior running backs
Jonathan Hinkle and Peter Earl,
and the Bulldogs dominated the
game on the ground.
Hermiston hosts doubleheader, splits games
Boys soccer improves
record; girls fall in
hard-fought battle
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
Saturday was a busy day
in town for high school ath-
letics. From a cross country
meet to two soccer games
and a volleyball match,
Hermiston Bulldog fans
could spend the entire day
cheering on various teams
— two of which played at
Kennison Field on Satur-
day.
The girls and boys soc-
cer teams welcomed Rex
Putnam for games at noon
and 2:15, respectively. Af-
ter 160 minutes of total
play, the Bulldogs finished
the day 1-for-1. The girls
See DAWGS, Page A10
Official team scores from the boys
5,000-meter varsity race:
1. Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2. Southridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3. Hermiston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4. Oregon City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5. Pasco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6. Chiawana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
7. College Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
8. Tri-Cities Prep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
9. Heppner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
10. Stanfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
11. Umatilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
12. Elgin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
See PREPS, Page A10
ATHLETE
OF THE WEEK
lost 1-0 in a hard fought
battle against the Kingmans
in the first game, while the
boys played aggressively to
come away with a 2-1 win
over Putnam.
Nick Bower
Pendleton
Senior Quarterback
Girls soccer
Hermiston maintained
possession early, taking
over five shots on goal in
the first 20 minutes. The
Bulldogs’ (2-2) efforts were
led by senior forward Han-
nah Thompson, who had
yet another solid perfor-
mance as one of the team’s
most versatile players.
“Hannah can play any-
where on the field we
want her to, and so game-
to-game situation we like
to use her in those places
where she will have suc-
cess,” assistant coach Da-
vid Wattenburger said.
With head coach Dan-
The Hermiston cross
country team had its first
real test of the season and
it answered with top perfor-
mance from young faces.
In the Runner’s Soul
XC Fest held Saturday at
Sandstone Middle School,
the Bulldogs put up podi-
um worthy times. The girls
team finished second in the
5,000-meter varsity race
with 65 points — just five
points shy from taking the
No. 1 spot from Union —
and the boys team placed
third overall with 102
points.
“We did good. I was very
pleased with both the boys
and girls performance,”
head coach Troy Blackburn
said. “We had very good
performances from some of
our young runners.”
Those young runners in-
cluded freshman Julianna
Joyce, who finished third
(20:59) behind teammate
Sheila Solorio (20:53.9).
Due to a busy day of high
school athletics, the girls
team was missing its No.
2 runner Amanda Nygard
who was busy playing for
the Hermiston girls soccer
team at the time of the race.
“It’s nice to know we
were just one runner off
from being solid,” Black-
burn added.
The boys team also saw
top finishes from first-time
runners. Isaac Sanchez
placed fourth in 16:28.8,
which was almost a new
personal record in his first
race, as he faced tough com-
petition included the 2016
returning state champion.
“We’re young on the
boys side,” Blackburn said.
“I keep telling them they are
in shape, it’s just a matter of
confidence, and it will take
some more time but they are
a good group of boys — a
lot stronger than last year.”
The cross country season
will continue Sept. 16 with
a meet at Oregon City High
School.
See all official team
scores from the Runner’s
Soul XC Fest below.
STAFF PHOTO BY ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
Senior forward Hannah Thompson (21) moves the ball upfield
along side teammate Amanda Nygard and two players from
the visiting team, Rex Putnam, at Kennison Field on Saturday.
ielle McBride absent due to
illness, Wattenburger was at
the helm for the girls fourth
consecutive home game.
In the familiar scenery,
the Bulldogs have slowly
but surely built on the suc-
cess of their first two wins
despite Saturday’s outcome
against the Kingsman (1-0).
“There were some things
specifically we’ve been
wanting to work on with
connecting our offense and
our defense with some cen-
tral mid play, and I loved
See SOCCER, Page A10
Bower completed
13 of 17 passes for
197 yards and 5
touchdowns to four
different receivers
as Pendleton
defeated Putnam
34-2 on Saturday
to pick up its first
win of the season.
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