10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2016
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
ghenley@dailyastorian.com
Astoria: Last play comes up short in playoffs
Continued from Page 1A
helmet coming off — you should be
able to get another down,” said Asto-
ria coach Howard Rub. “I’ve never
seen that. That was just a crazy way
to end it.”
Final play aside, “what a tremen-
dous season,” Rub said. “These kids
are great, and gave great effort, not
only in season, but in the off-sea-
son preparing for it. To have a Cow-
apa League championship and win
that game at Scappoose like we did is
something these guys will remember
forever. The seniors especially.”
Cottage Grove coach Gary Rob-
erts was not used to seeing his team
trail in the fourth quarter — or trail
at all.
The Lions came in 9-0, winning
all nine games by an average of 34
points.
“We haven’t been behind in a ball-
game … I can’t remember the last
time we were behind in a game,” he
said. “We were tied at the end of last
week’s game, but I don’t think we’ve
been down in a game this season.”
The win “ranks right up there with
some of the special games we’ve
played. Astoria has a ton of athletes
and a great coach, and we knew
coming in that it was going to be a
dogfight.”
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Astoria’s Samboy Tuimato down the field Friday. After an eight-game win steak, Astoria’s season ends.
Low-scoring first half
Meanwhile, the Lions looked
impressive on their first drive of the
game, which ended with a missed
field goal and set the tone for the first
three quarters.
The Fishermen grabbed a 7-0
lead midway through the first half,
as Fremstad threw a 25-yard strike to
Ryan Palek, then hit Olaf Englund on
a slant route in the end zone from 13
yards out.
Cottage Grove’s Erick Giffen
kicked a 33-yard field goal in the sec-
ond quarter, but every other drive
came up empty for both teams,
including Astoria’s 81-yard march
to end the half, which ended with a
missed field goal.
The Fishermen grabbed the
momentum to start the third quar-
ter, as Fremstad keyed a 78-yard
drive with an 18-yard pass to Palek, a
17-yard toss to Englund, an 8-yarder
to Jacob Olson, and finally a 13-yard
TD pass to Palek for a 14-3 lead.
On Cottage Grove’s next offen-
sive play, Astoria junior Zac Patter-
son intercepted a deep pass down the
middle (he later knocked down a pass
in the end zone), and the Fishermen
were in a position to put the game on
ice.
SPORTS
IN BRIEF
Lillard scores 32
in Blazers win
Associated Press
PORTLAND — A fiery half-
time speech from coach Terry
Stotts spurred the Trail Blazers
over the Nuggets.
Portland had fallen behind
57-50 at the break and the defense
was struggling.
“He got after us, and pretty
much told us what we were
doing was not acceptable and we
couldn’t keep doing it — putting
ourselves in that position and not
playing smart as we’re capable of
and not playing as hard as we need
to be to give ourselves a chance,”
Damian Lillard said.
Lillard finished with 32 points
and Portland handed Denver its
fourth straight loss with a 112-105
victory on Sunday night.
CJ McCollum added 21 points
for the Blazers, who have won
five of their last six games. Port-
land came alive in the second half
after Stotts’ speech and outscored
Denver 36-15 in the third quarter.
“He got on us, he yelled at us a
little bit, and it’s up to us to go out
and answer the call,” Lillard said
about the halftime talk. “I thought
we did a great job responding.”
Jamal Murray hit a 3-pointer to
pull Denver within 110-105 in the
final seconds, but the rally came
up short. It was the Blazers’ sev-
enth straight victory over the Nug-
gets at the Moda Center.
UP NEXT: BLAZERS
• Chicago Bulls (6-4)
at Portland Trail Blazers (7-4)
• Tuesday, 7 p.m. TV: NBATV
Astoria players embrace after
their loss, and as their season
comes to an end at 8-2 overall.
Astoria’s Tyler Ranta runs down the field against Cottage Grove.
Instead, the Lions forced a
punt, then answered with a 15-play,
80-yard drive, keyed by a 10-yard run
on a fake punt and capped by Blake
Sentman’s 8-yard touchdown throw
to Zane Levings on the first play of
the fourth quarter.
Astoria’s next big play came on
special teams. With the Lions set to
punt deep in their own territory, the
punter’s rugby-style kick backfired,
as Astoria’s Keldon Littell broke
through and blocked the punt, and the
Fishermen took over at the Cottage
Grove 5-yard line.
Tyler Lyngstad scored on second
down, and the Fishermen once again
had a comfortable 21-10 lead.
But the Lions didn’t quit.
Roberts said, “We were saying,
‘we’ve got 7 minutes and we need
two scores. We’ve done this. We can
do this.’”
After a nice kick return, Sentman
engineered a 41-yard drive, complet-
ing two short passes before throwing
a 25-yard strike to Kory Parent in the
end zone. His pass to Giffen on the
two-point conversion cut Astoria’s
lead to 21-18.
“After we scored, I got the sense
that (the Fishermen) were getting
a little tired, and our kids were still
fresh and wanted to fight,” Roberts
said.
Rub said, “We have a lot of two-
way starters, but we’re well-condi-
tioned. We just didn’t execute well
enough offensively, and because
of that, the defense was on the field
too much. So the defense could have
been tired, being on the field as much
as they were.”
Astoria was forced to punt on its
next drive, but the Fishermen defense
stopped the Lions on a fourth-down
play after that, and Astoria took over
at the Cottage Grove 35, with just
3:12 left.
But two straight plays by the Fish-
ermen lost 14 yards, and a personal
foul (a player removed his helmet
before coming off the field) pushed
Seahawks find some balance,
toughness in win over Patriots
By KYLE HIGHTOWER
AP Sports Writer
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. —
Some of the best Seahawks teams
under coach Pete Carroll have been
the ones that gradually improved
throughout the season.
Seattle’s latest climb may be
underway.
The Seahawks put together per-
haps their most balanced 60 minutes
on both sides of the ball this season
in Sunday night’s 31-24 win over the
New England Patriots.
Not only did Seattle (6-2-1) force
Tom Brady into his first interception
this season , but it kept him with-
out a passing touchdown for the first
time in 2016 and denied the Patriots
an opportunity to tie the game with a
goal-line stand in the closing minute.
“It’s one of the great challenges
that a team and a defense gets and
we’ve had some bouts down there
the last few weeks and our guys just
came through and hung in there and
fought for every inch,” Carroll said.
Quarterback Russell Wilson has
typically been at his best outside
the pocket, making plays with his
feet. Leg injuries have kept him in
the pocket recently, but he was still
effective in keeping the Patriots’
defense guessing.
Wilson was sacked three times
but passed for 348 yards with three
touchdowns and no interceptions,
completing passes to seven different
receivers.
Meanwhile, the Patriots (7-2)
must regroup after suffering their
first loss since Brady returned from
his four-game “Deflategate” sus-
pension this season. They’re still in
AP Photo/Steven Senne
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin (89) catches a pass for
his third touchdown of the game during the second half of an NFL
football game against the New England Patriots Sunday in Foxbor-
ough, Mass. The Seahawks won 31-24.
UP NEXT: SEAHAWKS
• Philadelphia Eagles (5-4)
at Seattle Seahawks (6-2-1)
• Sunday, 1:30 p.m. TV: CBS
command of the AFC East but are on
the road the next two weeks against
the 49ers and Jets.
“We talked about it the last two
weeks, how this game was going to
go all the way down to the last play.
We knew it was going to be simi-
lar to the last game,” safety Devin
McCourty said.
“We knew both teams were going
to fight, no matter what happened in
the game. They were going to just
keep fighting and go blow for blow.
We were prepared for it. But they
just made a couple of more plays
than us and that’s what decided the
game.”
the ball back to the Astoria 36.
The Lions took over at their own
36 with one time out and 2:45 left.
Sentman hit Hayden Glenn for a
9-yard gain, Levings ran 18 yards to
the Astoria 37, and Sentman hit Jacob
Woods for a 13-yard gain on a fourth-
down play to the Astoria 21.
And the two hooked up again on
the very next play, a pass to the side-
line, where Woods broke one tackle,
sidestepped another and raced to the
end zone for a 21-yard touchdown
and a4-point lead.
“The fourth down pass to Woods
was huge,” Roberts said. “And the
touchdown that Woodsy broke after
the fourth down play. There were a
lot of good plays both ways.”
With 1:16 remaining (plus two
time outs), the Fishermen had one
final drive, and made the most of it.
Fremstad twice hit Englund for
fourth-down conversions, and his
14-yard completion to Palek put the
ball at the 16 with one second left.
But Fremstad’s helmet came off
while breaking a tackle on the final
play, and the Lions celebrated their
stunning win.
There’s no telling what would
have happened, but Fremstad had a
lot of open turf in front of him as he
broke past the line of scrimmage on
the last play.
“The kid’s a great quarterback, but
his helmet comes off, so it’s a dead
ball and the game’s over,” Roberts
said. “We’ll take it any way we can
get it.”
He added, “I told our kids at half-
time, the team that wants it the most
and is willing to fight for it would be
the team that wins. It was scratch and
claw both ways until the very end. We
were able to make one more play, and
we got a little bit lucky at the end, on
the last play.”
Looking back, Rub said, “We had
a great drive to open the second half,
then Zac immediately got that inter-
ception. I felt we had good momen-
tum, but we went backwards on first
down and had to punt after three
plays.
“That was big for momentum,”
he said. “We had it all, then needed
to run with it at that point. We had
opportunities to take this game, and
let it get away.”
In his final game with Astoria,
Fremstad was 18-of-30 passing for
259 yards and two touchdowns, cap-
ping one of the greatest seasons ever
for a Fishermen quarterback. Englund
caught nine passes for 112 yards in
his final contest, giving him 17 recep-
tions for 302 yards in his last two
games.
SCOREBOARD
FOOTBALL
Cottage Grove 25, Astoria 21
Cottage Grove 0 3 0 22—25
Astoria
7 0 7 7—21
First Quarter
Ast: Olaf Englund 13 pass from Fridt-
jof Fremstad (Andrew Schauermann
kick) 2:07
Second Quarter
CG: Erick Giffen 33 FG, 7:45
Third Quarter
Ast: Ryan Palek 13 pass from Frems-
tad (Schauermann kick) 6:35
Fourth Quarter
CG: Zane Levings 8 pass from Blake
Sentman (Giffen kick) 11:55
Ast: Tyler Lyngstad 3 run (Schauer-
mann kick) 7:43
CG: Kory Parent 25 pass from Sent-
man (Giffen from Sentman) 6:12
CG: Jacob Woods 21 pass from Sent-
man (Giffen kick) 1:22
Team Statistics
CG
AHS
Total offense 326
373
First downs
17
19
Rushes-yards 22-91
37-114
Comp-Att-Int 25-43-1 18-30-0
Passing yards 235
259
Penalties
4-50
8-90
Fumbles-lost 1-0
0-0
Cottage Grove Statistics
Rushing: Levings 16-91, Woods 1-10,
Claflin 2-3, Parent 1-(-1), Sentman 2-(-
12). Passing: Sentman 25-43-235-1.
Receiving: Woods 9-95, Glenn 9-76,
Levings 4-33, Parent 2-28, Giffen 1-3.
Astoria Statistics
Rushing: Tuimato 15-67, Ranta 7-49,
Lyngstad 3-12, Fremstad 12-(-14).
Passing: Fremstad 18-30-259-0. Re-
ceiving: Englund 9-112, Palek 5-80, Tui-
mato 2-52, J.Olson 1-8, Ranta 1-7.
State Playoff Scores
4A Quarterfinals
North Bend 40, Banks 7
Estacada 44, Ontario 34
Cottage Grove 25, Astoria 21
Cascade 34, South Umpqua 21
3A Quarterfinals
Blanchet Catholic 35, Dayton 7
Salem Academy 34, Santiam Christian
28
Harrisburg 28, Rainier 12
Coquille 52, Cascade Christian 21
2A Quarterfinals
Regis 50, St. Paul 0
Heppner 46, Grant Union 0
Kennedy 47, Toledo 0
Stanfield 13, Santiam 0