Dayville/Monument football falls to Huntington

The Dayville/Monument Tiger football team fell 42-25 to the Huntington Locomotives Friday in Dayville.

The Tigers, led by quarterback JT Hand, came out strong with a 25-14 lead going into halftime.

Dayville/Monument head coach Kyle Hand said freshman Tell Cox and sophomore Mark Thomas mostly ran the ball, and his team was solid defensively in the first half.

Hand said, while Huntington had a couple big plays in the second half, his team came up flat and couldn’t find their rhythm due to injuries.

Tiger senior Cade Milton was fighting a sprained ankle in the second half and was out by the fourth quarter. Quarterback JT Hand was also injured.

Coach Hand decided to cancel Friday’s game against Mitchell/Spray/Wheeler, which would have been the Tigers’ final game.

“Overall for the season, we learned a lot,” said coach Hand, who was in his first year as head coach. “Their football IQ is a lot better, they’re more aggressive and their tackling has improved.”

He said his assistant coaches, Heather Bowlus and Rocky Perkins, brought a lot to the table.

They were “phenomenal and a great help,” Hand said, adding Skip Inscore and John Clark also assisted on a volunteer basis.

Two seniors will graduate, but Hand said he expects everyone else will return next season, along with two freshmen.

“All the kids worked hard and stuck with it,” Hand said. “We’ll miss Cade Milton — he brings good leadership, mentality of football and is a force to reckon with — and Gabe Walker-Hopkins was tough as nails.”

Grant Union cross country teams race in Pendleton

The Kyle Burnside Wildhorse Invite Thursday in Pendleton gave Grant Union’s boys and girls runners a chance to see most of the league competition.

“We had some outstanding improvements at the meet,” said Grant Union head coach Sonna Smith.

On the girls side, Erika Dickens and Makenna Culley shaved over a minute off their time, and Samantha Buckhaults also set a personal record.

For the boys, Jacob Smith, Tanner Elliott and Braden Spencer set season records.

Coach Smith said they’ll have enough runners to compete as a team for both boys and girls for Saturday’s 3A/2A/1A Special District 3 meet. The boys will race at 3 p.m., girls at 3:30 p.m. at Pendleton Community Park.

The Grant Union boys middle school team finished third at the Eastern Oregon Junior High Cross Country Championships last Friday in Pendleton. Two Grant Union middle school girls also raced.

Grant Hall placed 10th, setting a personal record with a time of 11:39.9, and of the seventh-grade boys, he finished first.

“In the boys division every one of our runners except one set their season’s best at districts,” coach Smith said. “Their ability to run tight together gave them their best finish of the season.”