Pendleton lives up to No. 8 ranking, tops TD 49-12

“The kids are continuing to fight, and we had some adjustments in our lineup, and we found ways to focus and play together well in the first half,” said Schilling. “We had a total of 10 turnovers in the last two games, which makes things really tough and one of goals was to eliminate those and we only had one. We had goals that we met in the first half, and we just try to play strong and compete all the way through the first half and then reassess at halftime and go from there.

“Even though we lost 49-12, lots of good things happened for us. It’s tough looking at the scoreboard, but we made a lot of progress, and we’ll continue to improve.”

Pendleton took a 21-0 lead before The Dalles scored just before halftime. With 3.7 seconds remaining in the second quarter, the Riverhawks capped a 12-play, 57-yard scoring drive, with a five-yard touchdown run by junior running back Andre Niko.

“I honestly couldn’t do anything without my teammates and our coach,” said Niko. “Without Emerson and his passing ability, we wouldn’t have put many points up on the board. This year has been frustrating for us and it’s not the type of season that we expected to have. We’ve shown that we have the ability to have a good team and we’ve had lots of good moments.

“There’s still a lot of things that we need to continue working on in order to improve. I feel like we’ll continue to get better as time goes by and I think we have a chance to win some games. We just have to have a high expectation for success and that’s what we did in the first half, but we just couldn’t keep it up in the second half.

Pendleton capitalized on a Riverhawk turnover and scored a touchdown to take a 28-6 lead with 5:01 left in the third quarter.

“We look at every game with hopes of winning, because every team has good nights and bad nights,” said Niko. “Hopefully we can pull off a good night next Friday. I’m tired of being part of The Dalles curse. Literally in football, all we’re known for is losing and I’m just tired of it. We’ve had lots of bad moments with turnovers that just kill us, and we’ve had some games with five turnovers.”

On the Riverhawks’ ensuing possession, sophomore quarterback Emerson Traub (4-for-10 passing, 85 yards) replaced senior starting quarterback Joshua Taylor (4-for-9 passing, 42 yards). Traub threw an 83-yard touchdown pass to Niko and the Riverhawks trimmed the margin to 28-12 with 3:45 left in the third quarter.

“I felt good, and I went in there to just do my thing and Andre deserves credit for helping make that big play along with our offensive line (Evan Baldy, Lizandro Garcia Rocha, Alexis Valadez, Connor Frakes) for blocking so well,” said Traub. “We’re a really good first quarter team and we don’t usually give up many points in the first half, but then it just seems like we get tired in the second half. We just have to stop making little mistakes and then we’ll start doing better. Hopefully, this week during practice, we can fix all those things.”

Pendleton quickly answered, scoring twice in the next two minutes to take a commanding lead.

“I think it was a good change of pace with Emerson coming into the game,” said Schilling. “Josh gives us the ability to run the ball a little bit more than we would with Emerson. However, Emerson gives us a little bit more of a deep ball passing threat and he’s a little taller and he can stand in there a little better. So, we’ll see how things shake out going into next week.”

The Dalles played without starting senior running back/linebacker Manatu Crichton-Tunai, who was unable to play because of an injury.

“I think we absolutely have a good chance to win Friday at Madras,” said Schilling. “We have to approach every week with that type of attitude. Madras is a team that’s similar to us. It will depend on how healthy they are versus how healthy we are and where everybody stands on Friday night. It would help if we have all of our guys back, particularly Manatu, who is a big guy who does a lot for us offensively and defensively.”

Sophomore running back Julian Morehouse led the Riverhawks’ ground game with 10 carries for 25 yards rushing. Junior defensive back Anthony Jara led the Riverhawks defensively, as he had a first quarter interception in the end zone to help stop a potential Pendleton scoring drive.