THE DALLES — The Dalles High Riverhawks played their fifth consecutive OSAA Class 4A football road game Oct. 16 versus the No. 9-ranked La Grande High Tigers and the host team won at Eastern Oregon University, 54-6.
The Riverhawks (0-2 Special District 5, 3-4 overall), guided by third-year Coach Nate Timmons, had hopes of getting a second straight win after recording a 20-0 nonleague victory Oct. 8 over the Class 3A Umatilla High Vikings (1-5). But the Tigers (3-0 SD5, 5-3 overall) were a much stronger opponent.
“La Grande has a pretty good team and it’s nice that now we’ve already played our toughest opponents,” said Timmons. “I still feel really optimistic about the rest of the season. Even though we lost our first two league games, I feel like those games have helped to make us a better team. We have a relatively young team, and we learned a lot from both games. It always hurts to lose, but the experiences we gained have really helped make our team better in the long run. The kids are responding well and they’re learning a lot about varsity high school football.”
A highlight for the Riverhawks was a touchdown pass thrown by sophomore quarterback Ben Graham to junior receiver Lucky Enesi, capping a scoring drive that helped the Riverhawks avoid a shutout.
Timmons said: “I like our chances to get a win in our next game on Friday. If we win our last two games, we’ll have a chance to hopefully
qualify for the state playoffs.”
The top two SD5 teams qualify for the 16-team state playoffs beginning Nov. 6. The third-place team can reach the postseason with an at-large berth, which is determined by the OSAA Colley computer rankings.
The Riverhawks will try to regain their momentum when they face the Ontario High Tigers (0-2 SD5, 2-5 overall) in a 7 p.m. homecoming event Oct. 23 on Sid White Field at Wahtonka.
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