WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A11
SPORTS
Hermiston boys suffer
two tough losses in a row
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston senior Beau Blake poses for a photo with his family during a football state
championship ring presentation ceremony on Tuesday in Hermiston.
Bulldogs get their bling
Hermiston receives
state champ rings
By ERIC SINGER
STAFF WRITER
HERMISTON — Joey
Gutierrez could not stop
smiling on Tuesday night.
Exactly 67 days after the
Hermiston Bulldogs’ foot-
ball team captured the Class
5A state championship,
Gutierrez and his teammates
received their shiny state
championship rings during
a presentation at halftime of
Tuesday’s Hermiston-Pend-
leton varsity basketball
game.
“Oh man, it’s such a good
feeling to have it,” Gutierrez
said, smiling. “It’s a mem-
ory we’re always going to
have and it definitely looks
a lot better in person than in
the pictures.
“Not a lot of people can
say they have a state cham-
pionship football ring, so
it gives you an even better
feeling than before.”
The ring displays a rect-
angular face with the words
‘State champions’ embla-
zoned in silver split among
the top and bottom edge,
with shiny stones lining the
left and right edges. In the
middle is the Hermiston
‘H’ logo in purple and gold
with the Bulldog head in the
middle.
Gutierrez, an all-state
defensive back this past
season, said that a group
of seniors had a little bit of
input into the design, though
they soon realized the ring
they envisioned was a bit
too flashy and would be too
expensive. The final design
was scaled back, but still got
the approval of the players.
“(Coach David) Faae-
teete kind of made it look
nicer, I think,” Gutierrez
said.
After receiving the rings
from their families on the
basketball court in front
of a packed crowd at the
Dawg House, wide smiles
instantly lit up each players’
face before heading back up
to their seat in the bleachers
to show it off to their friends
and family.
“It feels so amazing to
have it,” senior and all-state
lineman Beau Blake said.
“All of our hard work paid
off and now we get to look
at this ring and remember all
of the good times from this
year.”
And receiving the cham-
pionship rings in front of
their rival Buckaroo stu-
dents and fans made the
night even that much better.
“Get to rub it in their face
a little bit,” Blake joked.
“Not too much, but just
enough to make them mad.”
WRESTLING
continued from Page A10
and I have a lot to lose
because after this I’m not
doing any spring sports ...
so I had to leave it all on the
mat.”
Butler joins four other
Cougars who will be mak-
ing the trip to Portland on
Feb. 16. Fellow senior Kyle
Ranger, who made it to state
in 2016 but was knocked
out in the second round, will
have one last chance to take
the podium.
Ranger’s fate would
again come down to a bout
against Mohammed, as the
two met again in the third
place match. He improved
after their first showing and
pinned Mohammed in 1:34.
The Cougars had three
wrestlers make it to the
finals, all guaranteed a spot
at the state tournament.
Senior Hayden Hilliard
(132) and junior Mychael
Pointer (145) finished in
second place, and in one of
the final matches of the day,
senior Kenneth Bevan (195)
earned Echo’s only first
place finish.
Riverside Pirates
Andrew Barker, a senior
in front of his home crowd,
defeated Nyssa’s Raul Ruiz
10-7 to earn his first ever
district title.
Five other Riverside
Hermiston lost back-
to-back games for the
first time since early Jan-
uary last week, falling at
home to Pendleton 51-44
on Wednesday and on the
road to the Dalles 91-85 on
Friday.
Against the Bucks,
Hermiston held a 24-18
lead going into halftime.
Junior Ryne Andreason
helped Hermiston extend
its advantage by scoring
11 of his 15 points in the
first half. He finished with
a team-best performance,
and was the only player on
Hermiston’s roster to reach
double digits.
The Bucks’ found a new
focus in the second half
and outscored the Bulldogs
15-4 in the third quarter.
Pendleton
switched
from zone to man defense,
and forced Hermiston into
some uncomfortable shots.
The Bulldogs uncharacter-
istically missed threes and
then struggled to stop the
Bucks in transition, hurting
their chances of handing
Pendleton its first league
loss since 2016.
“It’s all about knowing
who you’re playing against
and what their strengths
are and taking them away,”
Pendleton head coach Kyle
Tedder added.
Hermiston tried and suc-
ceeded in taking its lead
back in the final five min-
utes of play. Sophomore
Andrew Earl came off the
bench a hit all three of his
free throws after senior
Shaw Jerome fouled him
on an attempt behind the
arc. The three-point play
tied the score at 36-36.
A minute later, senior
Andrew James knocked the
team’s first 3-pointer since
the first quarter to put the
Bulldogs up 39-38.
With 2:22 left in the
continued from Page A10
Then with three minutes
left in the third, fellow senior
Jodi Thomasian did a spin
move around her Bulldog
defender for a lay-in that put
the Riverhawks within two
possessions of their first lead
of the night.
The Dalles wouldn’t
get that close to Hermis-
ton again until two min-
utes into the fourth quar-
ter. Another three, this time
by junior Molly Taylor, put
visitors within one point of
Hermiston.
The narrow 37-36 lead
was extended when the
Bulldogs outscored the Riv-
erhawks 7-2 over the next
three minutes. But The
Dalles weren’t done yet.
quarters, The Dalles put on
an offensive show in the
second half to defeat Herm-
iston 91-85.
The Riverhawks were
led by Dakota Murr, who
scored a game-best 28
points. Jacob Hernandez
chipped in 18 and Josh Nis-
bet scored 17 of his own.
For the Bulldogs (7-11,
2-2), Cesar Ortiz had a
team-high 27 points —
knocking down half of the
team’s total 3-pointers (10)
— and received help from
Ryne Andreason (18 points)
and Andrew James (13).
Hermiston hosted Hood
River Valley on Tuesday.
Results were unavailable at
press time.
game, senior Cesar Ortiz
— who is normally knock-
ing down multiple threes a
night — hit his lone bucket
to again put Hermiston up
by one, 42-41.
After Ortiz’s three,
Hermiston’s next shot
would come too late. The
Bulldogs were down by
seven points when junior
Jordan
Ramirez
split
defenders for a lay-in in
the last four seconds of the
game.
Hermiston hit the road
just days later to face The
Dalles, where again the
Bulldogs held a halftime
lead they would give up.
After the Riverhawks
trailed for the first two
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STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Echo’s Kenneth Bevan puts Irrigon’s Brady Harrington into a
cradle in the 195-pound match at the 3A district tournament.
wrestlers will join Barker
at state, starting with soph-
omore Fernando Ortega,
who won the 106-pound dis-
trict title by fall in 3:04 over
Nyssa freshman Efrain Cal-
dera. Joining them will be
Abraham Silva (2nd place,
113), Christian Reyes (3rd,
132), Ethan Snyder (3rd,
138) and Ivan Salgado (2nd,
182).
“At the beginning of the
year, I didn’t know if we
could get more than five
(wrestlers to state), so get-
ting six we overachieved,”
head coach Richard Rock-
well said.
Irrigon Knights
Irrigon brought 12 wres-
tlers to the district tourna-
ment, and all 12 placed in
the top six of their respec-
tive weight class.
Seven Knights are going
to state, including Alex
Miranda-Walls. Juniors Sil-
vestre Vasquez and Kyler
Shelton were guaranteed the
trip when they both made it
into the 126-pound finals.
Vasquez would go on to
defeat his fellow Knight,
and win the district title by
an 11-2 major decision.
Shelton, along with Har-
rington — the Irrigon junior
that was defeated by Bevan
— and junior Kaleb Kend-
rick (285) each finished in
second place.
Nyssa, the reigning dis-
trict champions for the past
three years, continued its
reign by handily taking
home the team district title
with 270 points.
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With 2:14 left in the
game, The Dalles would
once again come close to
finally topping Hermiston.
Sophomore
Jazlyn
Romero made a falling
lay-in to put the Bulldogs
up 46-41, but Thomasian
answered with a layup of her
own as she waited inside for
a between-the-legs pass that
put the Riverhawks back
within one possession.
A solid defensive perfor-
mance and four made free
throws from Romero sealed
the deal for Hermiston, but
the win wasn’t an easy one
to come by.
Friday, the winter flu bug
caught up with some play-
ers and regular starter, junior
Maddi Wilson had to sit out.
“Defensively, we had
to change stuff up because
Maddi Wilson wasn’t play-
ing,”
Rodriguez
said.
“Maddy Juul had to play
a lot more minutes than I
wanted her to and she can’t
guard on the perimeter as
well as Maddi Wilson can
and we had to play a lit-
tle bit of a zone for most of
the game, which gave them
open shots.”
The Riverhawks ended
with eight three’s and were
led by Thomasian, who had
14 points on the night. Finn
was the only other player
to score in double digits for
The Dalles, cashing in four
three’s for 12 points.
Romero led the Bulldogs’
efforts with a game-high
of 19 points. Junior Jordan
Thomas chipped in 15.
Hermiston started its
three-game away trip on
Tuesday with a stop in Hood
River. Results of the game
were not available by press
time.
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