Cottage Grove sentinel., September 09, 2015, Image 13

B
S PORTS
Section B
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Lion's soccer beats Klamath Union, struggles with North Bend
The boys varsity
soccer team handled
Klamath Union,
winning over the
Pelican's 1-0 in the
endowment game,
but lost in a rather
disappointing game
to North Bend, 5-1
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
The Lion’s boy’s soccer
team faced off against Klamath
Union High School on Tuesday,
Sept. 1 and then played North
Bend on Thursday, Sept. 3. The
team showed great enthusiasm
and energy for the start of the
season against Klamath Union.
The game was only a friendly
endowment game, but both
teams came out on the fi eld with
maximum effort, and it was the
Lions who emerged victorious
with a 1-0 win.
At the start of the game,
Klamath Union kept up offen-
sive pressure, keeping the ball
on the Lion’s side of the fi eld
and taking a couple of wild
shots at the goal, but the defense
held steady.
The Lions struggled early un-
til No. 8 Kaiden Ramsey broke
out as the star of the game with
the only goal. Ramsey took off
after a long pass down the cen-
ter, scored beating both Klam-
ath defenders with ease late in
Photo by Sam Wright
Senior Zachary Snauer keeps the ball away from a Klamath Union defender. The Lions held their early 1-0 lead to victory on Tuesday.
the fi rst half. From then on out,
it was the Lions' game.
The Lions would have several
more opportunities to score, but
their shooting game wasn’t as
sharp as Head Coach Brian Fish
would have liked.
“We’re going to have to work
on our shooting,” Fish said. “We
missed several great opportuni-
ties.” Aside from the shooting
game however, Fish was happy
with the way the varsity team
played.
“We seem to be passing very
well, we were able to move the
ball,” he said.
Sophomore No. 3 Kyle Con-
ley showcased speed and preci-
sion and compliments Ramsey
at the forward positions. On
several occasions Conley was
able to fi nd himself open shots,
but unfortunately he couldn’t
fi nd the back of the net.
Two days later, the Lions
found themselves struggling to
keep up with North Bend. The
bulldogs took a 2-0 lead in the
fi rst half. The Lions soon found
strength and scored a goal, de-
creasing their defi cit to 2-1.
But the Lions lost their foot-
ing, and North Bend ran away
with the game, leaving with
a 5-1 victory over the Lions.
Coach Fish acknowledged the
power that is North Bend soccer
and predicted that they’ll be at
least a quarterfi nal team. But his
main focus was with the play of
his own team.
“It was a disappointing game;
it looked like we would be back
in it after we scored,” Fish said.
“There were just a lot of men-
tal breakdowns.” Fish made the
point of his team needing to
work on communication, espe-
cially on defense.
M ARSHFIELD 41, CG 22
Athlete of
the Week
Varsity starter
Kaiden Ramsey
stood out with an
impressive and strong
performance in the
endowment game
against Klamath
Union
Photo courtesy of The World, Coos Bay
Kory Parent hands the ball off to running back Zane Levings in the Lions' season-opener.
Lions unable to top Marshfi eld in season-opener
Despite a second-half effort and temporary rally, Cottage Grove struggled Friday, losing to Marshfi eld, 41-22
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
I
t was a tough night for
the Lion’s football team,
which traveled to Coos Bay
on Friday to take on Marsh-
fi eld for its season-opener. The
Lions started slow and found
themselves in a hole early on
in the game. Despite a rallying
effort in the second half, the
Lions succumbed to a 41-22
loss against the Pirates.
“We had a slow start and
we were not very disciplined,”
Head Coach Gary Roberts said.
“We were very timid and not as
physical as we wanted to be.”
On their opening drive,
Marshfi eld scored in eight
plays and in just over two
minutes. From then, the Lions
found themselves in a 21-0
defi cit at halftime.
It was not a fi rst-half perfor-
mance the Lions are used to,
and the energy of the varsity
team seemed to dwindle, so
Roberts made some changes.
Roberts switched his quar-
terback from Kory Parent to
Blake Sentman, who found
his footing in the second half.
Sentman would score two
touchdowns, one on the ground
and one through the air to se-
nior receiver Brynden Howell.
Cottage Grove was fi nally back
in the game, making the score
21-15.
“It was the fi rst game of the
year, and we were trying to
see what both guys can do,”
Roberts said. The switch does
not necessarily determine who
will be consistently starting at
quarterback.
The temporary comeback
was attributed to a far better at-
titude coming out of the locker
room at halftime.
“In terms of effort, we came
out in the second half looking
much better; we were much
more physical,” Roberts ex-
plained.
Physicality will be a big fac-
tor in this week's practice for
the Lions, as they take on Del
Norte this week, a team that
Roberts says looks fairly big
and physical themselves. Rob-
erts also said they will work
on cleaning up their mistakes
and getting more aggressive on
both sides of the ball.
As a Marshfi eld alumnus,
this was Roberts' fi rst time
heading down to Marshfi eld as
head coach of the Lions.
“It’s always nice coming
back and seeing everyone you
grew up with,” he said. “Every-
one is really nice and welcom-
ing over there.”
PLEASE SEE FB SCHEDULE, PG 4B
Lions forward and
star senior Kaiden
Ramsey showcased
great ball control and
break-away speed
while giving his team
a 1-0 lead in the fi rst
half of the endowment
game against Klamath
Union. Ramsey kept
putting pressure on
the Pelican's defense,
allowing the Lions to
maintain control of
the ball and limiting
the amount of oppor-
tunities for Klamath
Union to take shots.
Ramsey is emerging
as a strong leader
for the Lions and will
undoubtedly draw at-
tention at every Lions
game.
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