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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 2015)
B S PORTS Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Wednesday, September 2, 2015 Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Lions showcase versatile offense, explosive defense In their annual jamboree, the Lions offense moved the ball effectively both on the ground and through the air. The defense brought a lot of explosiveness to the line of scrimmage and rattled opposing quarterbacks Athlete of the Week Michael Tharpe takes control of Lion's offense during jamboree BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel I t’s that time of year. The air is getting cooler, the leaves are changing color, and the lights are lit up again on Friday nights. Fall football is back. The Lions geared up on Friday, to host Sutherlin and Phoenix for their annual jamboree. Follow- ing a not-so-successful season last year, the Lions are look- ing sharper, stronger, faster and more disciplined. The scrimmages brought quite a crowd on Friday and the school spirit was high as stu- dents, parents and community members waited to see the Li- ons preview their skills against other schools. The varsity teams took one half of the fi eld while the junior varsity teams scrimmaged on the other half. Senior Michael Tharpe stepped up to showcase his ath- leticism at wide receiver with a scrappy TD reception off of a short pass from junior quarter- back Blake Sentman. Through- out the touchdown drive, Thar- pe battled Phoenix’s cornerback tirelessly. At one point, Sent- man let loose a beautiful deep pass towards the front right pylon to Tharpe but was impres- Photo by SamWright Senior Wide Receiver Michael Tharpe leaps for a deep pass. He would score within the next few plays. sively contested by the Phoenix cornerback, and the two athletes fought for a jump ball which resulted in an incomplete pass. However, it was a play that dis- played both accuracy in the arm of Sentman and the athleticism of Tharpe. On the other side of the ball, the Lions found themselves blowing up plays, causing three fumbles in a row, but fortunately for Phoenix, none were recov- ered by the Lions’ defense. “Find the ball!” Head Coach Gary Roberts yelled across the fi eld to his players. It was an impressive show of defensive capability. The defensive line found penetration on almost every play. The Lions blew up Phoenix’s fi rst set of downs, but the Pirates eventually found some footing. After a facemask call on third down, the Lions gave up several running plays, and eventually Pirates quarter- back Dylan Knudson found his receiver wide-open, who wres- tled Sentman (who plays as a defensive back on defense) into the end zone. Athletic Director Dave Pre- sley says that the team is look- ing well rounded and that coach Roberts seems to be working the players hard. The Lions will travel south- west to Coos Bay on Friday, Sept. 4 to battle Marshfi eld High School. The Lions look to kick off their season with a strong presentation on the coast, and will return to Lane County to play California school Del Norte at Autzen Stadium on Sat- urday, Sept. 12. The Lions did a great job at spreading the ball around at Friday night's jamboree. Head Coach Gary Roberts showed versatility in the Lions offense, but no one stood out more than Michael Tharpe. Tharpe caught several key passes includ- ing a short pass towards the right side of the end zone for a touchdown. Tharpe cradled the bullet pass from Blake Sentman, which managed to barely slip through his arms, but he managed to use his legs to maintain control of the ball as he fell to the ground. Curtis Towns wins 2015 Logger’s Cup; Braaten, G. Thomas and Sine also get CGS victories Cottage Grove local Curtis Towns won the main event as the Logger's Cup returns to the Speedway for the fi rst time since the early 1990s Superb turnout for XC's Two Mile Trial BY BEN DEATHERAGE For the Sentinel Cottage Grove Speedway would bring back a Stock Car tradition of the 1980s and early 90s, the Logger’s Cup. Al- though the defunct Super Stocks were the headliner decades ago, their descendants, the Late Models, would take over the spotlight with the $1,500-to-win main event. In addition to the Late Models racing, so were the IMCA Sport Mods, Northwest Focus Midget Series and Street Stocks. The 40-lap Late Model feature would begin with Bricen James of Albany getting out front to the early race lead. James would be in the position until lap seven. The driver to take over the posi- tion was Cottage Grove’s Curtis Towns. Towns would lose the lead on lap 21 to Justin Duty from Molalla. Duty would begin to Over 250 compete at CGHS' friendly meet BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel C Photo courtesy of Dirty Monkey Productions Curtis Towns does his town proud by taking fi rst place in the Logger's Cup and taking home the $1,500 prize. check out but in the closing laps Towns would begin to reel him in. On lap 34, Towns would re- possess the lead and capture the victory. It was the eighth time he has won for car owner Paul Culp. The IMCA Sport Mods would have a great car count for the night with 10 entries in the pits. It may have taken him nine laps but Jordan Braaten of Central Point would remain the leader the rest of the way despite a few cautions before the checkered fl ag. It was Braaten’s second win this year. The Northwest Focus Midget Series were on hand for their only cars appearance at Cottage Grove Speedway in 2015. Once the green fl ag dropped it would be a dominating effort by Mc- Cleary, Washington’s Garrett Thomas. Thomas would lead every lap. Finally it was Chris Sine showing his muscle in the Street Stocks yet again. Sine, from Eu- gene, was fast all race and even though he would be smoking quite a bit he managed to keep all challengers back after com- pletely securing the lead on lap nine. It would be the eighth win for the Murphy Plywood/Quan- tum Mechanics/Pure Romance By April #24 Camaro entry. ottage Grove High School hosted its fi rst event of the season Thursday with the friendly “Two Mile Trial” meet. Over 250 runners found themselves on the trail. The race featured teams from Roseburg, North Eugene, East Linn Christian, Junction City, Sutherlin, Crow, Pleasant Hill and Creswell. The race also fea- tured “open” runners from the community, visiting coaches, and even spectators gave the tri- al a try. The race featured eight Lion boys and 19 Lion girls. Please see , Cross Country Page 2B Join us September 5th for KIDS NIGHT- KART EXHIBITION (NO POINTS) Clark Printing Extreme Sprints, IMCA SportMods, Pee Wee, 5HP Intermediate, 125cc, 250cc, Open Kage, Micros September 6th for MIKE LYONS MEMORIAL KING OF THE WEST KART RACE Pee Wee, 5HP Intermediate, 125cc, 250cc, Open Kage, Micros
