A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2018
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TAKE DOWN
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Hermiston’s Jazlyn Romero (22)
goes up for a shot during Friday’s
game against The Dalles.
Dawgs bounce
back from loss
to Bucks
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
STAFF PHOTOS BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston’s A.J. Tuia attempts to cradle Pendleton’s Blake Davis in the 145-pound match of the Bulldogs’ 42-30 win against the Bucks on
Wednesday in Pendleton.
Buckaroos hang around,
fall short against Bulldogs
By ERIC SINGER
STAFF WRITER
P
ENDLETON — Over the past decade,
Hermiston has fully established itself
as a wrestling powerhouse in the state
of Oregon with 10 team state champi-
onships and numerous individual titles.
However, as roster turnover over the past
few seasons has left holes in the lineup, the
Bulldogs have had to mix and match with
the weight classes and be patient with some
young faces. And with their Class 5A dis-
trict tournament on the horizon next week,
the Bulldogs showed they still have a lot of
work to do following Wednesday night’s
42-30 dual victory over Pendleton at War-
berg Court.
“I think we took these guys a little bit
for granted,” Hermiston’s Zach Kirkpatrick
said afterwards. “I think we need to come
out more focused next time we’re out here
with more intensity throughout the entire
match.”
The Hermiston-Pendleton matchups
have been one-sided for the Bulldogs for
awhile, with Hermiston winning by a com-
bined score of 174-46 in the three previ-
ous years. But the Bulldogs gave away 12
points with two forfeits at 132 and 138, lost
two matches by fall and two by decision.
“Some guys wrestled tough, some guys
I thought could’ve done a little better,”
Hermiston head coach Kyle Larson said.
“I think in a few matches we kind of stood
around and were okay with just a decision.
I think we could’ve pushed the pace a lit-
tle bit more in some matches, maybe we’ll
fix that this week before we go to districts.”
Hermiston’s Joey Gutierrez (195) had
the most impressive win of the night as he
Pendleton’s Chris Chambers puts a cross face on Hermiston’s Gage Shipley in the 126-pound
match of the Bulldogs’ 42-30 win against the Bucks on Wednesday in Pendleton.
pinned Cezar Medina in a quick 26 sec-
onds. Gutierrez attacked quickly after the
whistle, scoring a takedown just five sec-
onds before flipping Medina to his back and
securing the pin.
Gutierrez’s win was one of four pins for
Hermiston on the night. At 145, AJ Tuia
pinned Blake Davis at 3:41, Kirkpatrick
(170) pinned Ian Bannister at 4:26 and Sean
Stewart (220) pinned Aiden Henderson at
3:19.
Kirkpatrick battled with Bannister into
the third round, holding a 3-1 lead, though
the match featured little action as both
wrestlers spent a lot of time dancing around
and trying to find their shot. But as they
started the third round, Bannister chose to
start the crouch on the bottom, and Kirk-
patrick saw an opportunity. As soon as the
starting whistle blew, Kirkpatrick held Ban-
nister, got in position and secured the pin 15
seconds into the period.
“The guy was kind of making me upset,
kept backing out,” Kirkpatrick said of his
match. “So when he chose down, I know
I’m tough on top and thought ‘I’m just
going to pin this kid.’ And you saw, I just
got him over and got him down.
“I was relieved. The team needed it, so it
felt pretty good.”
Stewart’s pin against Pendleton’s Hen-
derson was also impressive. Henderson
controlled the match through the first period
and led 4-1 early in the second period. But
while Henderson had Stewart in a hold,
he hesitated for a moment, which allowed
Stewart to get some leverage and flip Hen-
derson on his back to secure the win.
HERMISTON — After the
Hermiston girls basketball team
dropped its first league game to
Pendleton on Jan. 30, the Bull-
dogs needed to quickly shift
gears and prepare to welcome
another Columbia River Con-
ference opponent Friday.
For the fans that were in the
stands at the Dawg House for
Hermiston’s two home games
last week, their blood pres-
sure likely rose as the visit-
ing schools kept things close
against the Bulldogs.
Last Tuesday, in the final
three minutes of play, the Bull-
dogs (6-12, 2-1) came close to
having the advantage over the
Buckaroos by tying the score
again at 45-45 with 58.7 left.
But the Bucks were able to
make some last second bas-
kets from the charity stripe to
stretch their narrow lead. Pend-
leton defeated Hermiston 49-45
to move the Bulldogs to 3-1 in
league.
On Friday night, however,
Hermiston was able to stop two
of The Dalles’ big runs to hold
on for a 52-46 victory.
Now more than a third of
the way through CRC play, the
Bulldogs (7-12 overall) will
take any win they can get —
even if it’s not the prettiest.
“You could definitely tell
there was a little bit of a hang-
over (from Tuesday),” head
coach Juan Rodriguez said.
“There was a lot of disappoint-
ment where we played a pretty
good game and just didn’t finish
the game off and you could tell
that tonight.
“It’s a little bit of a trap game
when you beat a team by 30
the first time at their place and
you’re coming off a tough loss,
and you end up playing like
that.”
Hermiston entered the third
quarter up 25-16 after a 13-4
run left the Riverhawks (6-12,
0-4) in the dust. But The Dalles
seemed to have left its shoot-
ing woes in the locker room and
came out firing, hitting three
consecutive 3-pointers — all
off the hands of senior Paulina
Finn.
See GIRLS, A11
SCHEDULE
Area schools notch five first place finishers
Irrigon takes seven
wrestlers to state,
Riverside six, Echo five
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN — Echo senior
Logan Butler took the mat at Sat-
urday’s Class 3A Special District 3
tournament with his one and only
trip to the state championship meet
on the line.
Butler, at 182 pounds, was
knocked into the consolation
bracket after getting pinned by a
Nyssa Bulldog in just 33 seconds.
With a bye in the next round, But-
ler had time to recoup and went
on to defeat senior Chris Ramirez
of Nyssa by 7-0 decision. He was
then pitted against Irrigon’s Reece
Sheller, with the winner of the
third place bout advancing to state.
The two scoped each other
out for the first 30 seconds of the
match, and then Butler made his
first move — a lunge at the feet of
Sheller. No points came from those
efforts, but he would later get two
points for a take down and then
build his lead to 4-1 after the first
round.
Through the second, Butler had
a 9-2 advantage and he eventually
ended things in 5:06 for the win
and the third place finish.
“I saw that he was getting tired
and I figured mentally I was ahead
of him and I knew I’d be alright,”
Butler said. “It’s my senior year
See WRESTLING, A11
Local slate
PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
Thursday
Umatilla at Riverside, 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Hermiston at Pendleton, 7 p.m.
Vale at Irrigon, 7:30 p.m.
Stanfield at Weston-McEwen, 7:30 p.m.
Pilot Rock at Heppner, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday
Pilot Rock at Stanfield, 5:30 p.m.
Nyssa at Riverside, 5:30 p.m.
Cove at Echo, 5:30 p.m.
Burns at Umatilla, 6:30 p.m.
PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL
Thursday
Umatilla at Riverside, 6 p.m.
Friday
Echo at Wallowa, 5 p.m.
Hermiston at Pendleton, 5:30 p.m.
Vale at Irrigon, 6 p.m.
Stanfield at Weston-McEwen, 6 p.m.
Pilot Rock at Heppner, 6 p.m.
Saturday
Cove at Echo, 3:30 p.m.
Pilot Rock at Stanfield, 4 p.m.
Nyssa at Riverside, 4 p.m.
Burns at Umatilla, 5 p.m.
PREP SWIMMING
Saturday
Hermiston, Pendleton at District Meet (at Hood
River), 10 a.m.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Riverside’s Andrew Barker attempts to pin Nyssa’s Raul Ruiz in the
120-pound match at the 3A district 3 tournament Saturday in Boardman.
PREP WRESTLING
Friday
Hermiston, Pendleton at Districts (at Red-
mond), 2 p.m.
Saturday
Hermiston, Pendleton at Districts (at Red-
mond), 9 a.m.