Grizzlies maul La Grande

Sunday, September 9, 2007 4:18 AM PDT

Fruitland wide receiver Nate Bake (3) prepares to pull in a touchdown pass early in the first quarter of Friday night’s nonleague football game against La Grande. Fruitland avenged its only loss last season with a 56-0 thumping of the Tigers on Fruitland’s turf.

Argus Observer Sports Staff

Fruitland - Everything just seems to be clicking for the Fruitland football team.

Even the air attack.

Nate Bake caught touchdown passes of 15, 40 and 29 yards to lead the Grizzlies to the 56-0 drubbing of La Grande in nonleague football action in Fruitland.

Kaleo Nawahine went 4-of-6 for 119 yards and Bake had three catches for 84 yards to lead Fruitland.

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In the first quarter, Zack Fabricius kicked things off with a 12-yard scamper and Nawahine tossed his first touchdown of the game to Bake to make the score 14-0.

Nawahine threw two more touchdowns in the second quarter and Aaron Smith added a 5-yard run to make the score 37-0 at the break.

The Grizzlies added three touchdown runs in the third quarter capped by a Joey Ramirez 61-yard touchdown run.

The Grizzlies racked up 484 total yards, with 365 coming on the ground.

Ramirez led the rushing game with three carries for 78 yards, Olinger totaled 73 and Crim checked in with five carries for 68 yards.

“We were able to get after them early and often,” Fruitland head coach Bruce Schlaich said. “We are seeing improvement especially on the o-line. They are getting better each week. We continue to see improvement. Down the road, we’re going to have to get a whole lot better if were going to be where we think we should be.”

Fruitland (2-0 overall) next hosts Wood River Friday. There will be doubleheader action with the junior varsity game taking place beforehand.

Homedale

The Homedale Trojans broke open a 7-6 lead with 34 unanswered points to defeat New Plymouth 41-6 in nonleague football action in Homedale.

Michael Wilhelm rushed for 108 yards and a touchdown and teammate Rodrigo Villareal added 98 yards and two scores to lead the Trojans, who rushed 50 times for 318 yards.

Just like in the first game, New Plymouth jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, using a 12-play 78-yard drive capped by a 18-yard touchdown pass from Easton Foust to Wes Hooten.

That was the last time the Pilgrims would hit paydirt.

Foust went 8-of-19 for 121 yards and two interceptions and his favorite target was Hooten, who had five catches for 95 yards.

New Plymouth couldn’t get the ground game going finishing with 72 yards on 29 carries.

Casey Pfeifer led the way 11 carries for 56 yards and Foust rushed 11 times for 15 yards.

“One of things is we showed improvement from the week before,” New Plymouth head coach Josh White said. “We actually scored on our first drive. We marched the ball down the field and some kids made some nice catches.”

White said he is optimistic his team will band together in time for league play.

“I love this crew,” he said. “They need to look around at their buddies and keep them going. They have to understand that they are going to grow as young men, win, lose or draw, play with heart and keep playing hard. That’s all I can ask for.”

New Plymouth (0-2) hosts Payette Friday.

Parma

Mark Finley had a 3-yard touchdown run and Rance Portenier threw for one more to lead Parma to the 14-0 win over Nyssa Friday in Parma.

While the Parma offense put up 225 total yards the real story was the job of the defense.

The Panthers allowed only two second half first downs, 69 yards through the air and held the Bulldogs to a mind-boggling negative 30 yards rushing on 21 attempts.

“It’s a little bit scheme and a little bit talent,” Parma head coach Greg Asbury said of the defensive effort. “We’re big, strong and fast. We had to deal with the speed factor. Nyssa has a ton of speed and we were able to match up with it.”

In the second quarter, Portenier connected on a 35-yard touchdown strike to Dalton Koplin to give Parma the 14-0 lead and the defense took care of the rest.

Portenier finished 7-of-14 for 82 yards and Finley rushed 17 times for a team-leading 45 yards to lead Parma which enjoys its first 2-0 start in four years.

Nyssa was led by Seth Glenn who went 13-of-31 for 69 yards and his favorite target was Roger Garza who had eight catches for 45 yards. Kyle School led the Bulldog ground game rushing five times for six yards.

Harper

The Harper Hornets ran into a buzzsaw in their home opener against Imbler.

Bryan Mills rushed for 108 yard and two touchdowns and teammate Nick Thompson went 15-of-20 for 306 yards and three touchdowns to lead Imbler to the 62-16 win over Harper Friday in Harper.

Imbler scored the first 56 points of the game until Harper’s Steven Casiano scored on a 57-yard run to put the Hornets on the board.

Casiano also added a 40-yard scamper in the fourth quarter as he finished with a team-leading 146 yards rushing on nine attempts.

Harper quarterback Jared DeNoma went 3-of-9 for 31 yards and added two conversion passes to Kody DeNoma.

Harper’s defense allowed 556 yards rushing, with 409 coming through the air, with Imbler’s Nick West leading the way with 108 yards receiving.

Harper (0-1 overall) next hosts Monument-Dayville Friday.

Rimrock

Keith Heil completed 20-of-30 passes for 293 yards and three touchdowns to lead Council to the 43-8 win over Rimrock Friday in Rimrock.

The Lumberjacks scored games first 36 points and put up a 24 spot in the opening stanza.

“Offensively we started the game with good execution,” Council head coach Dan Shumway said. “We wanted to get out on top early. We caught a couple of deep balls early and surprised them. Heil had a good day passing.”

Heil started the scoring with a 63-yard touchdown pass to Curt Clagg and followed that up with a 10-yard pass to Jesse Green to give Council the 16-0 lead.

Bubba Zielinski then scored on runs of one and five to give the Lumberjacks a 30-0 halftime lead.

Council racked up 447 yards of offense and were led through the air by Clagg, who had eight catches for 177 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Tyler Farrar led the Lumberjack ground attack going for 103 yards on 19 carries and added a 2-yard touchdown run. Zielinski had an all-around game with 53 yards rushing and receiving for Council (3-0 overall, 1-0 league), which next travels to take on Tri-Valley.

Payette

The Payette football team committed nine turnovers and were outscored 14-0 in the second half in their 26-12 loss to Marsing in nonleague football action Friday at Harmon Killebrew Field in Payette.

Marsing jumped out to a 6-0 first quarter lead and Payette’s Nick Weeks evened the score at 6 with a 3-yard touchdown run. Marsing came right back and regained the lead at 12-6 and Deveon Reynolds scored on a 6-yarder to tie score at 12 heading into the break.

The Pirates could only muster 149 yards of total offense and had only nine first downs.

Philip Kowalski and Kacee Hirchert each had 20-yards rushing, while quarterback Travis Blackwell went 4-for-19 for 40 yards and five picks. On the receiving end, Damian Reynolds led the way with two catches for 28 yards and teammates Mat Egbert and Weeks each had a catch for six yards.

Marsing committed three turnovers of their own but was able to control the clock with 51 carries for 186 yards.

Greenleaf

Brandon Fry rushed 18 times for 244 yards and four touchdowns and the Tri-Valley Titans defeated Greenleaf 62-28 in 8-man football action Friday in Greenleaf.

Fry had scores of 40, 8, 48 and 2 and receiver Ross Branch added another three scores to lead the offensive charge.

“He made several running touchdowns and he did a great job finding the light and heading to the goal line,” Tri-Valley head coach Mark Loveland said.

Titan quarterback Jake Doggett was 5-of-12 for 21 yards and two touchdowns as he led the Titans to 415 yards of offense and 48 points in the first half, finishing the game 529 total yards.

Doggett added a 50-yard punt return and senior running back Ben Neckels added 85 yards rushing.

The Defense held the Grizzlies to 173 total yards and sophomore Tony Elkington led the way with 12 tackles, a fumble recovery and an onside kick recovery, while Neckels chipped in nine tackles.

The Titans (2-0 overall) next host rival Council Friday.

Adrian

The Adrian Antelopes fell behind early and were never able to recover, losing 62-36 to Powder Valley Friday in 1A High Desert League football action in Adrian.

The Badgers jumped out early with a pair of scores before Antelope running back Kyle Rogers put his team on the board with a 46-yard touchdown run.

Rogers then started the second quarter with a 73-yard scamper that brought the Antelopes to within 18-14.

Then the roof caved in.

The Badgers scored 28 unanswered points and held a commanding 46-14 halftime lead.

“We were disappointed in our first half performance,” Adrian head coach Paul Shenk said.

Down 54-14, the Antelopes scored 22 straight points on a 22-yard run by Kyle Osborn, a 5-yarder by Blake Ishida and a 35-yard fumble return by George Ellsworth to cut the deficit to 54-36, but it wasn’t enough.

Adrian rushed 50 times for 323 yards but committed five turnovers and Ishida went 1-of-4 for 11 yards and threw three picks.

Adrian (0-1 overall) next hosts Spray/Mitchell Friday.