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
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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.