WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
Herald Sports
Hermiston’s Tyler
Rohrman and Eli
Nafziger, of South
Albany, battle for the
ball during Friday’s
playoff game at
Kennison Field.
TOUGH TEST
AHEAD IN SEMIS
Bulldogs take on No. 2
Willsonvile in Hillsboro
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
H
ERMISTON — The Hermis-
ton Bulldogs are hoping to pro-
long their goodbye as long as
possible.
The football team extended its
“OSAA Farewell Tour” another
week with a 40-22 win Friday over
South Albany, and will travel Sat-
urday to Hillsboro to take on No. 2
Wilsonville.
The No. 3 Bulldogs enter the semi-
fi nals with a 9-2 record and an eight
game winning streak.
“It feels great but at the same time
we still have to get through what
we’re supposed to do, and make sure
the kids are ready to go Saturday,”
head coach David Faaeteete said.
Hermiston is going up against one
of its toughest opponents to date.
Since their lone league loss on Sept.
15 against No. 1 Mountain View, the
Bulldogs have been on a tear. In all
but two of those wins the Bulldogs
defeated their opponents by 20 or
more points by peaking in the second
quarter and scoring almost half of all
their points in the second half.
“They’ve got an opportunity to
make a dream a reality,” Faaeteete
said. “Everyone in the quarters and
the semis are good football programs
... but our approach doesn’t change.”
Repeating that steady perfor-
mance, however, will be tough against
Wilsonville.
The Wildcats are coming off
31-7 win over Lebanon, the defend-
ing Class 5A champions. The game
was a rematch of last season’s fi nale
when Lebanon defeated Wilsonville
STAFF PHOTOS BY KATHY ANEY
Hermiston’s Dayshawn Neal makes the catch in the endzone as Eli Nafziger, of
South Albany, tries to defend during Friday’s playoff game at Kennison Field.
34-17 for the title. Wilsonville had its
revenge and held the No. 10-seeded
team to only one touchdown.
That’s been a theme for the 10-1
team throughout the year, as they
bounced back from a season-open-
ing loss to South Medford, a Class 6A
team with only one loss on the season.
During that time, Wilsonville has shut
out three opponents — two in back-
to-back weeks — and allowed the
fewest points (132) in the entire 5A
class. The most any team has scored
against the Wildcats is 21, which hap-
pened in Round 1 of the playoffs
during a 41-21 win over Bend.
The defense is led by two upper-
classmen at the line, senior Aiden
Burkhead and junior Caleb Baker.
The duo totals a mass of 475 pounds
and leads the team with 46 and 45
total tackles, respectively. Burkhead
also has a team-high seven sacks.
“I don’t think we’ve seen anything
similar to this football team,” Faae-
teete said. “They’ve got a Divison-1
lineman, and a great quarterback.
They’re defensive front seven is as
good as they come.”
Wilsonville’s success doesn’t just
come from the line. A pair of line-
backers, seniors Manav Raghubansh
and Chance Hansen, sit in the heart of
the defense and are good for 80 com-
bined tackles while the secondary has
also done their job and recorded six of
the team’s 12 interceptions.
“We have to be tenacious, we have
to be physical and keep their offense
off the fi eld as long as possible,”
Faaeteete said.
Last week, Hermiston quarterback
Andrew James’ trust in the process
led to one of his best games as of late.
Even though he wasn’t the most accu-
rate — completing 14-of-22 passes —
he threw for over 200 yards and four
touchdowns.
It was Hermiston’s fourth consec-
utive game scoring 40 or more points,
and its sixth of the season. The high
scoring affair was thanks to big plays
on all three sides of the ball.
Senior Dayshawn Neal that set up
Hermiston’s fi rst scoring drive with
60-plus-yard kickoff return. Fellow
seniors Jonathan Hinkle and Joey
Gutierrez each had 80-plus-yard runs
to the house, and the defense won the
turnover game recovering four fum-
bles and nabbing two interceptions.
Faaeteete is hoping for a repeat of
that performance when Wilsonville’s
junior quarterback Nathan Overholt
and his offense is on the fi eld.
“(We have to) win the turnover
takeaway battle,” he said. “Win fi rst
downs and make second downs more
manageable. At the end of the day the
game of football comes down to hit-
ting and tackling. We have to be ready
to go.”
The semifi nal contest will be held
at a neutral site, Hillsboro Stadium,
and kickoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
Riverside brings state title back to Boardman
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
HILLSBORO — It was the
rematch for the ages. The No. 1
Riverside Pirates pitted against the
No. 2 Catlin Gabel Eagles, both
teams undefeated with a tie on the
books from earlier this month.
On Saturday, the two schools
met at Liberty High School in Hill-
sboro for the Class 3A/2A/1A title,
and the Pirates sunk the defending
champion Eagles 4-1.
“I’m shocked, about the score
— that’s the only thing I’m
shocked about is the score,” assis-
tant coach Jose Duenas said. “We
knew we had a really good team —
we had the right pieces for the right
team and everything worked out.”
The victory didn’t come with-
out some heart-stopping moments.
To start, the Eagles (12-1-5) and
Pirates (17-0-1) were trading
attacks which put both goalies to
work. Riverside’s freshman keeper
Gerardo Lopez made two key back-
to-back stops that easily could have
given Catlin Gabel the lead.
A shot
from Armando
Ramirez-Cardenas in the 17th min-
utes found the net to give Riverside
a 1-0 lead, with senior Kevin Mad-
rigal on the assist.
“We needed that (goal),” senior
Jose Peralta said. “They were
attacking well, but our goal set
them back. ... We were expecting
them to come in hard, and knew
they wanted to defend their title.”
Riverside opened the second
half with goals on back-to-back
possessions to push its lead to 3-0.
The fi rst came off the foot of
sophomore Ulyces Lopez after he
beat three Catlin Gabel defenders.
Lopez ended up a few feet away
from the goal line before he turned
and fi red to the inside post.
“The keep was expecting it to
go far post,” Lopez said, “and I
trusted my gut and went near post,
and it went in.”
Peralta would send another one
in on the ensuing attack after he
beat the keeper and was charging
toward an open goal, and senior
Misael Madrigal scored on a pen-
alty kick shortly afterward.
Riverside brings its second
title back to Boardman, and the
fi rst under head coach Francisco
Velazquez.
“It’s my dream,” he said. “I had
the state championship when I was
the assistant coach and now I have
my state championship as the head
coach.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF TODD VEENHUIS/THE OREGONIAN
Riverside Pirate players celebrate with the 3A/2A/1A state championship
trophy after defeating Catlin Gabel 4-1 on Saturday at Liberty High School
in Hillsboro.
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