Ashley Vela and her Baker teammates remained undefeated Saturday with a 7-1 victory at Umatilla. (Baker City Herald/Kathy Orr)

One Baker win, or one Ontario loss, will secure Baker’s second straight Special District 7 girls soccer championship.

And, coincidentally, Baker could accomplish that goal Thursday at the Baker Sports Complex when the Bulldogs host Ontario at 2 p.m.

Baker improved its league record to 7-0 and is 10-0-1 overall after stopping Umatilla 7-1 Saturday at Umatilla. That win clinched a state playoff berth for the Bulldogs with three league matches remaining.

Saturday’s match was not as easy as it might have been against the last-place Vikings.

“We came out not real driven,” said Baker coach DeeDee Clarke.

In fact the match was scoreless for the first 20 minutes. Then Dallas Defrees scored the first of her four goals on the afternoon. On the play Defrees dribbled the ball toward the keeper. The keeper came out of the net to attempt to cut Defrees off, and Defrees tapped the ball by her.

Senior Dallas Defrees scores four goals as Baker beats Mac-Hi and keeps its unbeaten record intact

The wind wreaked havoc on Baker’s girls soccer match Thursday, but the real force of nature was Dallas Defrees.

The Baker senior scored four goals, all in the first half, as the Bulldogs beat Mac-Hi 5-1 on the gust-swept pitch at the Sports Complex.

Baker improved its record to 9-0-1.

“Dallas just did a fabulous job,” Baker Coach DeeDee Clarke said.

The Bulldogs prefer on blustery days to have the wind at their back in the second half rather than the first, Clarke said.

But Mac-Hi won the pregame coin toss Thursday, and the Pioneers chose to play with the wind in the first half.

And that’s no minor matter at the Sports Complex. The field is oriented north-south, and there are no buildings, trees or other impediments to blunt the force of the north wind that gusted in the 20- mph to 30-mph range Thursday.

Baker turned back Greater Oregon League rival La Grande in four games Thursday in the BHS gym.

The Bulldogs’ 25-20, 21-25, 25-20, 25-19 win also avenged their only league loss.

La Grande also beat Baker in the finals of the La Grande tournament in late September.

Baker improved to 4-1 in the GOL.

“It was a very good game tonight,” Baker Coach Marcy Hayes said. “The girls worked really hard and they played like a team tonight.”

Tara Talbott led Baker with 31-of-38 hitting and 22 digs.

Andrea Wilson was 17-for-17 serving.

Bulldogs play host to rival La Grande Thursday in a key league match

Baker High School’s volleyball team is hitting its midseason stride during the heart of its Greater Oregon League schedule.

The Bulldogs shook off a slow start on the road to defeat Ontario Tuesday, 22-25, 25-15, 25-16, 25-13. Baker is now 3-1 in the GOL going into a home match Thursday against La Grande.

Last weekend the Bulldogs turned back Mac-Hi in three straight games, 25-13, 25-15, 25-22.

Baker took its time to get things going against Ontario, coach Marcy Hayes said.

“I think it took us a while to get off the bus and play,” she said. “The whole first game we were down and had to come from behind.”

The Bulldogs tied the score at 22-22 only to have the Tigers close out the first game with three straight points.

After that, “we finally woke up and started playing our game,” Hayes said. “I was very proud of the girls tonight because they never gave up. No matter what the score was they played through all the tough situations.”

It took Baker a half to get its soccer legs Friday against Riverside, but in the end the Bulldogs remained undefeated after posting a 3-0 win in the Special District 7 girls match.

The match was originally scheduled Saturday, but because many of the Bulldogs (8-0-1 overall) were scheduled to take their SATs that day the match was moved to Friday. Coupled with an emotional win at Ontario on Thursday and the Bulldogs started flat at Boardman.

“It was a little rainy, but was pretty good weather for a soccer match,” said Baker coach DeeDee Clarke. “But the girls came out real flat.

Baker’s Dekker Smith, left, and Walker Kaseberg, No. 15, brought down a Fruitland runner during action at Bulldog Memorial Stadium Friday. Fruitland defeated the Bulldogs 50-30. (Baker City Herald/Kathy Orr)

The undefeated Grizzlies had allowed opponents just nine total points in their first four games.

And Fruitland, as always, fields a never-ending stable of running backs.

Baker coach Dave Johnson and his Bulldogs knew all of the above before Friday’s game. The Bulldogs then got to see this year’s version of the Grizzlies up close in a 50-30 loss.

“They’re a good football team,” Johnson said. “But we responded most of the time to what they were doing.”

In fact, Baker scored first on the vaunted Grizzlies, and managed to pull even at 15-15 early in the second quarter before Fruitland pulled away.

“We were hanging right with them,” Johnson said. “Then we let our intensity slide a little bit.

“Although we don’t like the final results, what we got from this game with a lot of guys playing a lot are some good results we can build on.”

Baker girls take first among GOL teams at Ontario meet

Bulldog boys finished second among league rivals

The Baker girls finished second and the boys third Thursday at the Glen Crosby Invitational cross country meet in Ontario.

Among the Greater Oregon League teams competing in the race, Baker’s girls were first and the boys second.

Times were fairly slow atop the rolling, soft, long grass, said Suzy Cole, cross country coach at Baker High School.

Trevor Freese was the first Baker boy across the finish line. His 18:04 time was good enough for third place.

Melissa Clarke of Baker placed fourth in the girls race. Her time was 23:03.

The Baker girls’ score of 34 was 9 points better than GOL rival Ontario and 18 points better than La Grande. All five of  Baker’s scoring runners placed in the top 10.

There’s now only one undefeated girls soccer team in the Special District 7, and it’s near and dear to the hearts of Baker sports fans.

Baker ran its record to 7-0-1 Thursday with a convincing 3-1 victory over host Ontario, which was previously undefeated.

Freshman Maggie Harlow continued her recent goal-scoring prowess with a pair of first-half goals. After Ontario closed the deficit to to 2-1 early in the second half, freshman Shasta Overton answered with the game’s final goal to give her team a little breathing room.

Later in the second half, Overton took the ball on a turnover, got around a defender, then “unfortunately shot the ball right into the goalie’s hands,” Baker coach DeeDee Clarke said. “It was one of those things, but I liked how she was attacking the goal.”

Baker’s frosh/soph volleyball team swept matches from Fruitland and Ontario this past week.

Baker defeated Fruitland 25-17, 25-9, and Ontario 25-11, 25-11.

Combined statistics for the two matches include Britni Bobo 5-of-6 digging, Alyssa Ward 4-of-6 attacks with two kills, Stacy Duman 19-of-21 attacks with six kills and 26-of-27 serving, Kathryn Daugherty 17-of-18 setting and 17-of-19 attacks with three kills, Jessica McKim 9-of-10 attacks with four kills, Ashley Trees 12-of-13 digging and 10-of-11 attacks with five kills, Kaycie Kitzmiller 10-of-11 digging and 16-of-18 setting, Emily Smith 34-of-34 setting and 10-of-11 serving.

Baker High School’s volleyball team had a quality showing at the La Grande volleyball tournament Saturday, winning seven of eight games in pool play and advancing to the championship game before losing to the host team.

In pool play, Baker topped Ontario, 25-9, Elgin, 25-18, Weston-McEwen, 25-16, Vale 23-21, Weiser 25-7, Columbia, 24-16 and Union, 25-21. The Bulldogs’ only loss during the preliminary round was to La Grande, 17-25.

Games were designed to be played to 25 points, but the teams were on a 20-minute time limit, Baker Coach Marcy Hayes said.