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A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 Herald Sports Buckaroos overpower Bulldogs Hermiston’s slide continues against unbeaten Pendleton STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston’s Ireland McDonough spikes the ball over Pendleton’s Ellen Nirschl in the Bucks’ win against the Bulldogs on Thursday in Pendleton. a few big-time digs and led the team with 10 digs over- all. Meanwhile, sophomore Emma Combes and juniors Scout Reagan and Ireland McDonough flashed some power in their right hitting arms. “A lot of these girls ha- ven’t ever known how to win at a high level, never had to be put in that posi- tion where it’s high stakes and have to fight through the pressure and the stress and to also stay calm, which is difficult,” Herm- iston coach Amy Dyck said of her team. “We’re asking a lot of maturity from some young players and they’re getting there. They’re working really hard and we’re hoping eventually our ability to overcome adversity catches up to our skill level and I think when that happens, we’ll be in pretty good shape.” Hermiston played Pend- leton very tough right out of the gates in the first set, even taking a 6-5 lead at one point after a serving ace by McDonough. But from that point on, Pendle- ton was in control. ———— Contact Eric at sports@ hermistonherald.com or 541-966-0839. Sanchez runs sub-16, Hermiston wins Bulldogs gain big confidence boost after meet at Umatilla By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ STAFF WRITER There was a sea of local high school pop-up tents surrounding the track at Umatilla High School on Friday afternoon. Twelve regional high schools gathered for the Footrace to Valhalla cross country meet, and only one domi- nated. Hermiston has fared well through the start of the season, but proved Friday the Bulldogs are true con- tenders for postseason suc- cess. The long day of races on an unusual course — three loops around a mapped out one-mile radius that started on the track and ended near the 50-yard line of the foot- ball field — started at noon with the field of middle school girls. As the compe- tition continued, the sched- uled times were pushed back nearly 30 minutes to accommodate the final run- ners of each race. The wait for the final high school race was well worth it, as fans, fellow competitors, and even volunteers were cheering on Hermiston’s Isaac San- chez. Sanchez led the field from the beginning, at first with a group of about three other Bulldogs but then as he came around for the second lap and then the fi- Hermiston conquers Summit Bulldogs win on road against tough league opponent HERMISTON HERALD By ERIC SINGER STAFF WRITER A young Hermiston vol- leyball squad ran into their more experienced Pendle- ton rivals on Thursday, and the Buckaroos are showing their early season dom- inance of the Columbia River Conference. Through one round of league play, Pendleton is a perfect 3-0 and has won nine of 10 total sets played, including Thursday night’s dominant 3-0 victory over the Hermiston Bulldogs at Warberg Court. It’s a re- markable turnaround for the same core of Pendleton (7-0, 3-0 CRC) players that began league play 0-4 last year, but the Buckaroos’ are having fun on the court this year and are reaping the benefits. Pendleton’s varsity ex- perience within the 12 players on its roster may be the biggest reason for the turnaround, and it was also a big reason for the commanding victory over the inexperienced Bulldogs (2-8, 0-3) on Thursday. The two experience lev- els showed throughout the match, which Pendleton won 25-12, 25-9, 25-13. Hermiston’s youth and inexperience was obvious at times, with numerous hitting and service errors, inaccurate passes and mis- communication that led to numerous points for the Buckaroos. But in the midst of all that, the Bull- dogs showed their poten- tial as well. Junior Sophia Streeter used her height to take away hitting lanes at the net and led the team with four kills. Sophomore libero Halee Stubbs tallied Follow sports on Twitter @HHeraldSports STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston’s Isaac Sanchez leads the pack during the Footrace to Valhalla cross country meet Friday in Umatilla. nal lap, he was in a race all his own. There was no oth- er runner he had to worry about, it was just him and the clock. Sanchez was seen checking his pace when he would make appearances on the track’s straight away before disappearing into the forest. By the time he made it to the final stretch denoted by chute ropes and pennants, the crowd was simply cheering be- cause he was the leader. It wasn’t until a fellow runner watching from outside of the marked course yelled, “break 16, break 16” that everyone realized they were witnessing the best race Sanchez has ever ran. Unofficially, he clocked 15:52. “I’m overjoyed right now,” he said breathlessly after his race. “I have never even gotten close to break- ing 16 (minutes) before, so this is awesome.” The new personal record came as a shock, because Sanchez wasn’t pushing his pace until after the first mile. “I’m really surprised,” he said. “Because the pace I was running at the begin- ning was just the pace set to help hold some of my other teammates along but I felt good at a mile and my coach told me to go so that’s what I did.” He wasn’t the only Bull- dog to up put a new PRs. “All of the top five (boys) ran PRs and you can’t be upset with that in the least, very good perfor- mance for the boys,” head coach Troy Blackburn said. A key to a successful post season is for the run- ners inside and just out- side of the top five to clock around 17 minutes, Black- burn added. Something the boys team accomplished today. “It’s a big confidence boost,” he said. “For them to go in a smaller meet and push themselves and show they can go and compete with anyone in the state. The times ran today were competitive.” The girls were just as competitive Friday, despite being down a few runners. The team was missing four of their top eight compet- itors, but that didn’t stop them from also clocking top times and new PRs. “I still thought we could take it,” Blackburn said. “We were in the running.” From Hermiston’s No. 1 runner Melany Solorio, who unofficially ran 19:58, all the way to its No. 7 run- ner Faith Bartch, Black- burn was impressed with each performance. “If we continue to make progress and improve, it’s good for our team and it helps us to continue to build that confidence that we can go compete at state and bring back the trophy,” Blackburn said, “which is the goal we have on both the girls and boys side.” —— Contact Alexis at sports@hermistonherald. com or 541-564-4542. Follow her on Twitter @ almansanarez —— Official team scores Girls 5,000-meter varsity 1. Hermiston 47 2. Redmond 53 3. Pendleton 56 4. Griswold 71 5. Stanfield 107 Boys 5,000-meter varsity 1. Hermiston 22 2. Redmond 58 3. Pendleton 80 4. Heppner 88 5. Griswold 148 6. Grant Union 165 7. McLoughlin 199 8. Riverside-Irrigon 213 On Friday, Hermiston had to travel back down to Bend where a week ago it suffered a 21-point loss. But there was something different in the air Friday night, as the Bulldogs upset the favored Summit Storm. The 34-14 win put an end to the Storm’s (2-2, 1-1 Special District 1) 15-game league winning streak that started back in 2014, and gave the Bull- dogs (2-2, 1-1 SD1) some- thing to howl about. Things came together for Hermiston on Friday, especially for junior quar- terback Andrew James. He had struggled previously in the pocket and started to rely heavily on his ground game, which had been an essential part of the Bull- dogs’ performances. There was no doubting James’ arm Friday night, as he completed 17-of-20 pass- es for 256 yards and three touchdowns. He looked to his favorite target, senior Dayshawn Neal, who end- ed the game with 14 recep- tions for 206 yards and two scores. Hermiston took the ear- ly lead near the end of the first quarter when James found Neal for nine yards. A successful extra point attempt gave the Bulldogs the 7-0 advantage. Summit quickly re- sponded, and added a touchdown of its own to the board when junior quarterback Henry Bled- soe found Konrad Collins for 21-yards. The score stayed knotted at seven points apiece until the Bulldogs took back the lead two minutes before half time. Twenty-four minutes and three touchdowns lat- er, Hermiston claimed its well-deserved upset victo- ry. The defense held Bled- soe to only 131 passing yards, and a 60-percent completion rate. All the while, the Bull- dogs’ offense racked up 530 total yards. Up next, the Bulldogs will host Hood River Valley at 7 p.m. Friday. HEPPNER 48, TOLE- DO 6 — At Heppner, the Mustangs finally got into the win column in 2017 as they defeated a banged-up Toledo team, 48-6, on Fri- day night. Heppner (1-3) finally got its ground game work- ing as it rushed for 204 yards on 35 carries as a team. Coby Dougherty was the team’s leader with 128 yards on 15 attempts with two touchdowns. Quarter- back Jayden Wilson also threw for a touchdown to Logan Burright. “Our offensive line did a nice job getting things going,” Heppner coach Greg Grant said. “We’re improving, we had a good week of practice and I’m happy for the kids and for their effort.” Heppner’s defense stepped up as well, allow- ing just 123 total yards to the Boomers (0-4). Tyler led the team with seven tackles and two sacks, while Derek Howard had four tackles, three sacks. Heppner will open up league play this week at Weston-McEwen. IRRIGON 32, LAKEVIEW 21 — Irri- gon ground out a victory on homecoming night, even though the Knights weren’t playing at their best. The win over Lakev- iew pushes Irrigon’s re- cord to 2-1 as it gets ready for league play next week. “We had a helluva night,” head coach Steve Sheller said. “We really did not play our best. We played just good enough to win.” En route to it’s 32-21 victory, quarterback Zach Hendrix threw 5-of-10 for 115 yards and three touch- downs. Josue Aguilera ran for 188 yards and a touch- down on 32 carries. How- ever, it didn’t come easy. “I’m proud they fought,” Sheller said. Because without that fight, it would not have been a homecoming to re- member. Sheller went on to say there were a lot of self-inflicted wounds, and even said one of the play- ers admitted he didn’t want to watch the film from Fri- day night. “The boys knew they didn’t play well,” he said, “I don’t anticipate it will continue.” Irrigon will travel just down the road this week for it’s next match up against Riverside. UMATILLA 52, PORTLAND CHRIS- TIAN 26 — Umatilla sophomore Pedro Alva- rez had another standout performance this week when the Vikings traveled to Portland. The running back ran 313 yards on just 16 carries and was respon- sible for three touchdowns as Umatilla took the 52-26 victory. “He kind of woke up tonight,” head coach Dan Durfey said. “It was his night.” The Vikings (3-1) were finally able to keep focus throughout the entirety of the game, something they had previously strug- gled with especially in the second half. On Friday, against the Royals (0-4), that wasn’t the case. Al- though, Umatilla did have a hiccup in the second half, Durfey said they were able to pick things up and finish the game strong. The effort was a true team performance, even though Alvarez did steal the show. “For someone to get that many yards the rest of the team has to be working and blocking,” Durfey said. “It was a team effort to get Pe- dro that many yards.” Quarterback Kaden Webb added 75 yards to Umatilla’s total and three rushing touchdowns. He finished 8-for 14 from the pocket with 114 yards and one touchdown. Alvarez also notched a special teams touchdown after running back an 80- yard kick return. “Our defense played really well,” Durfey said. “They played a tough run- ning game and got punched in the mouth a couple of times. Both sides of the ball tonight did well.” Umatilla will begin league play this week at Burns. Kickoff is sched- uled for 7 p.m. MCLOUGHLIN 35, RIVERSIDE 6 — The Riverside Pirates could no longer keep up their win- ning streak, dropping their road match up against Mc- Loughlin on Friday night. Despite the 35-6 loss, the Pirates (2-1) did show head coach Boor David some positives. “The good thing that we can take away is that they played tough,” he said, “they never stopped. One of the things we’re going to have to work on is tack- ling. Offensively, the quar- terback needs to have time to get the ball in the air so our receivers have time to do their jobs.” This marked the end of non-league play for both teams. Riverside returns home this week to face Ir- rigon.
