B
S PORTS
Section B
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Lions shut out Sutherlin despite 'average' play
Coach Gary Roberts didn't see total domination on both sides of the ball as the score might have suggested
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Despite several offensive
miscues, the Lions were able to
run the Sutherlin Bulldogs out
of Cottage Grove with a domi-
nating 44-0 victory on Friday,
Oct. 16. With such a shutout,
it’s hard to believe that the Li-
ons weren’t performing at their
highest potential, but according
to Head Coach Gary Roberts,
Cottage Grove’s play on Friday
was described as “average.”
“We didn’t really dominate
on either side of the ball, and we
benefi ted from some of their in-
juries,” Roberts said. “The game
just kind of had a weird, ho-hum
feeling to it.”
Roberts referred to a few
dropped passes on offense that
“bogged us down at times.”
During the shutout, quarterback
Blake Sentman completed only
eight of 16 passes for 170 yards
and one touchdown. But hybrid
player Kory Parent who also
took over the quarterback posi-
tion for a series, who also faced
a few bad-luck drops.
“The coaches wanted to give
the kid a look at some quick-
change potential adversity,"
Roberts said. Parent executed
his plays well, helping his team
move the ball down fi eld on the
series, which eventually ended
due to some dropped passes.
Parent unfortunately complete
zero passes out of three at-
tempts.
The other side of the Lions’
offensive spectrum saw a great
amount of production. Cottage
Grove ran the ball 44 times for
a bold 305 yards overall. A to-
tal of 10 different Lions man-
aged to carry the ball (mostly
due to them being able to put in
second and third-stringers), but
the leading rushers were once
again star wide receiver Bryn-
den Howell and running back
Zane Levings. Howell carried
the ball 10 times for 73 yards,
and Levings had a similar game
of 11 carries for 64 yards and a
touchdown. Sentman was once
again able to show off his legs
with fi ve rushes for 39 yards and
two touchdowns.
A new rusher emerged from
the sideline this week, too. Reily
Boyce, a senior who is listed as
a wide receiver and linebacker,
had four carries for 32 yards as
well as a touchdown.
“[It was] great to get Reily
Boyce involved with the of-
fense,” Roberts said. “He gave
us a nice little spark for a series.”
Boyce has been hurt for most of
the year, and his play time has
consequentially been limited.
This week was the Lions’
most impressive defensive per-
formance. Last week, 28 points
was the least that the Lions had
allowed. Needless to say, the 0
points allowed this week has
topped that and won’t be topped
again this season.
“Our defense did a good job
of buckling down when we
needed to,” Roberts said. “We
probably gave up too many
rushing yards.”
Leave it to the Cottage Grove
Lions to have the most perfect
defensive statistic (zero points
scored on) and still look for
ways to improve.
Friday’s win qualifi ed the
Lions for the play-in round,
as their power ranking is high
enough.
However, should Cottage
Grove defeat the Junction City
Tigers, the Lions will be tied for
second in the Sky-Em league
and will therefore have a coin
fl ip to determine the play-in
seeding (which subsequently
will determine if the Lions get a
home game or not).
“Junction city is really solid.
They have good backs and a
solid line,” Roberts noted.
The Lions will host the Tigers
this Friday at 7 p.m.
Athlete of
the Week
Reily Boyce returns
to boost the Lions'
offense
The senior wide re-
ceiver and linebacker
carried the ball four
times for 32 yards
and a touchdown,
and Head Coach Gary
Roberts said he "lit a
spark" in the offense
for a series that really
helped the team.
Cross Country continues
to set personal bests
The Lions' cross country team has seen numerous
personal bests three weeks in a row
BY JIM SETTELMEYER
For the Sentinel
The Lion runners keep getting
personal records. Thirteen more
were set in Wednesday’s meet at
the Country Fair Cross Country
meet last Wednesday including
Ryan Barger (19:18), Alex Clif-
ton (21:37), Max Gause (21:30),
Jeramy Hall (20:51), Connor
Howard (18:40), Kevin Ma-
nuntag (32:34), Konnor Owens
(22:26), Jayden Tucker (21:54),
Abigail Bunce (26:33), Lilly
Burleson (28:07), Savannah
Davis (25:18), Abril Leal-Coro-
nel (21:58) and Sandy Locke
(31:14). The fl at, entertaining
course weaves through the trails
and shops that house the sum-
mer event the run is named after
that hordes of people fl ock to a
couple miles north of Elmira.
As far as getting ready for the
district meet, the team is doing
everything right. As an added
bonus to the fast times, nagging
injuries and dings seem to be
healed enough so all but two of
the harriers that have been out
of action in the last couple of
weeks or longer are expected to
participate today (Wednesday,
Oct. 21) at LCC in the Sky-Em
Championship meet. If all 32
compete, it will be the largest
group from Cottage Grove to
participate in the season-ending
classic in the last eight years.
Abril (currently with the 10th
best time in the district) and
Konrad Raum (with the 7th best
time) are the two lions with the
best chance of placing in the
top fi ve of their races to extend
their season to the OSAA Cross
Country Championships to be
held on Halloween at LCC.
Kale'a Galbreath, Tyra Gordon and Allie Harris pace themselves during their race.
Girls' Soccer in the hunt to take Sky-Em pending Sisters match
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
he Lions’ soccer team is near-
ing the end of its race to take the
Sky Em league’s top seeding with two
more victories this past week against
Junction City and Sweet Home.
Cottage Grove hosted the Junction
City Tigers on Tuesday, Oct. 13, and
shut them out with a dominating 4-0
victory.
It’s the second time this year that
the girls’ soccer team has beaten the
Tigers (winning 2-1 at Junction City
earlier in the season) after a previous
decade of being unable to top them.
The four goals came from senior Me-
lissa McCasline, who scored twice,
accompanied by Kia Hemenway and
Jasmin Lopez with one goal each.
“We did really well with our move-
ment and with fi nishing,” Head Coach
Vern Stewart said. A lot of the Lions’
problems have come from not being
able to close a match, or not being
able to play strongly for the entirety
of a match.
“It’s good to see us play well and
play our game for the entire match,”
Stewart added.
After defeating Junction City, Cot-
tage Grove moved up to No. 8 in the
power rankings.
On Thursday, the team traveled to
Sweet Home where the girls put on
another dominating performance,
defeating the Huskies 7-2. The high
scoring game saw goals from players
who are less common to show up on
the scoreboard. Junior Hudson Wey-
bright had one goal, along with senior
Brooke Fisher. Then, of course, top
scorers Josie Mootz and Hemenway
had two goals apiece, topped off with
another high scorer, McCasline.
“This was a game we came in ex-
pecting to be able to take care of busi-
ness, and we did,” Stewart said.
Kia Hemenway strides toward the goal as her teammates watch on.
Please see SOCCER, Page 2B
Boys' Soccer
defeats Sweet
Home after
Junction City
loss
The boys' soccer team hopes
to fi nd success in this week's
match ups against Sisters and
Elmira after suffering a loss to
the Junction City Tigers and
nabbing a win against Sweet
Home on Thursday at home.
The Lions will then look to
their play-in match up on
Halloween.
Cassidy Herbert jumps to put the ball over the net.
Volleyball downs Junction City
before Sweet Home loss
The Lions lost to Sweet Home 3-0 on Thurs-
day, but not before they were able to take down
Junction City 3-0 on Tuesday.
Senior Jadon Snauer chases down a Sweet Home player to take the ball away.