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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 2016)
B S PORTS Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016 Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Parent, Giffen shine in Lions' rout of Newport Cubs CG racks up over 250 yards through the air and dominate in its opening matchup in a 59-7 dismantling of Newport BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel With Blake Sentman still un- available for play, Head Coach Gary Roberts made another switch at the quarterback posi- tion, putting senior Kory Parent behind the center. While Juice Clafl in gave a strong demon- stration of his running abilities at the Jamboree, his passing game was not yet at the level to perform strongly at the varsity level. Instead, it was Parent who showed the Lions how it’s done. The star athlete threw for over 300 yards and fi ve touchdowns on Friday night in a dominant 59-7 win over the Newport Cubs. It was a demolition of the Cubs’ defense from the begin- ning. On the fi rst drive, the Li- ons drove down the fi eld and scored a touchdown to Eric Giffen, a sophomore receiver. On Newport’s following posses- sion, a fumbled snap resulted in a Cottage Grove recovery in the red zone and an ensuing fi eld goal, giving the Lions’ an early 10-0 lead. Newport’s next possession ended in a three-and-out and a punt. Giffen made another state- ment, avoiding would-be tack- lers and taking the Cubs’ special teams squad from all the way to the left of the fi eld to the right in an over-50-yard return for a touchdown. At 17-0, the on- slaught was on. On the next possession for Cottage Grove, it seemed New- port found somewhat of an an- swer to slow down the Lions, that is, until Parent threw a dart over the middle to Giffen who then carried the rock the rest of the way for a 54-yard touch- down. At 24-0 midway through the second quarter, there was no looking back. Before the fi rst half ended, however, Newport was able to take advantage of a costly Cot- tage Grove turnover. A Newport defensive end managed to pick off Parent’s option pitch (which counted as an interception be- cause the pitch was forward) with nothing but green in front of him. But Parent’s speed took Photo by Sam Wright Erick Giffen (Soph.) sprints to the end zone during a 54-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter. Athlete of the Week Sophomore Erick Giffen scored two receiv- ing touchdowns and a punt return for a touchdown, adding fl air to the Lions' win Please see , FOOTBALL Page 3B Volleyball starts off season 3-0 after opening week BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel Up against formidable oppo- nents, the Lions’ volleyball team has found itself on a three-game winning streak to start the sea- son. Last Tuesday marked the beginning of the season, where Cottage Grove hosted a double- header against North Valley and North Bend high schools. North Valley suffered the most in the double-header, los- ing 3-0 to both Cottage Grove and North Bend back-to-back. North Valley attempted to stay with the Lions during each set, but many offensive attacks were severely disrupted by defensive put-backs or strong counters. The small but coordinated Ka- lea Borrelli helped prevent mul- tiple kills with several digs that ended in an strong spike by Cot- tage Grove. After seeing North Bend perform very similarly against North Valley in the preceding game, it seemed that Cottage Grove would face a more diffi - cult North Bend team. And they did. North Bend kept the score much closer in individual sets, but Cottage Grove’s tenacity prevented the Bulldogs from taking any sets and sent them home with a 3-0 loss. The team’s schedule then took the Lions to Coos Bay, where they played Marshfi eld, a school that was 3-0 going into the game and went 22-3 and fi n- ished third in the state last year. The Lions handed the Pirates a 3-1 loss, Marshfi eld’s fi rst loss of the season. A 3-0 start puts the Lions in a much better position than the previous year, where they started 1-2 with the only win in the fi rst three games came over North Bend. Cottage Grove ended up going 9-13 overall and fi nished with an OSAA ranking of 18. Right now, Cottage Grove fi nds itself undefeated and ranked number one in OSAA 4A clas- sifi cation. To hold onto that po- sition, Cottage Grove will have to beat South Umpqua, which sits at 1-1 (pending results from Tuesday’s game against Hidden Valley). The Lions struggled against South Umpqua last year, losing in three straight sets. However, with what has been done on the court in the fi rst three games, Cottage Grove will be taking all of the momentum into the matchup. Photo by Sam Wright The Lions made easy work of North Bend and North Valley, beating each team 3-0. Boys' soccer opens season with win CG XC travels to Tillamook to compete in 'Ultimook' run Lions spark second half comeback over Philomath BY JIM SETTELMEYER For the Sentinel A mud pit and two river crossings entwined in a classic 3.1 mile running trail made the fi rst full 5K of the Cross Country season for the Lions one to re- member. The times were not fast, but the struggles were real (though some- times “enhanced” with the enticement of the mud pit). Sabrina James (26:16) and Jimmy Talley (21:00), two fresh- men, were the fastest Lion fi nishers this week. The early season conditioning con- tinued this past week with the explo- ration of two “new to the team” hills. The team spent extended time togeth- er during the morphed two-day team camp showing talents such as meal preparation and bark-moving abilities, as athletes continued work to rejuve- nate the Neely fi tness trail and tackled the challenge of supplying each other’s meals and snacks. Next week the Harriers travel to Tualatin to run in a meet they have Photo courtesy of Jim Settelmeyer never participated in. It should be a Konnor Owens and Lake Fultz splash their way through the fun of the Ultimook good early indicator of how ready for mud pit. a more traditional 5K race. 541-942-7561 It wasn’t looking all that great for the boys’ soccer team after its fi rst half of play this season. The Lions found themselves down 1-0 at halftime against the Warriors on the road. But Head Coach Vern Stewart told his players not to panic and to trust each other. “They’re not completely used to the new system, so I told them to calm down and let what we’ve been practicing work for us,” Stewart said. And that’s exactly what they did. As the game wore down the Philomath team, the Lions were able to form several counter at- tacks that ended in two second- half goals to secure the victory over the Warriors. “We were in better shape than Philomath,” Stewart noted. In the fi rst half, Cottage Grove wasn’t putting in enough hustle to get to the ball fi rst, making possession a concern. But in the second half, Jesus Chuy “Chew- ey” Urenda pushed forward with a goal that tied the game, and Garrett Woodcock “Woody” put the Lions ahead with another goal later in the game. The new implementation of the 4-2-3-1 formation allows the team to be able to take a lot of pressure from an opponents' attack and then quickly snap back for a counter-attack, which is how Cottage Grove took its lead. With the lead intact, Stewart then tightened up the defense. “We tightened everything up and just played defense for about the last eight minutes,” he said. Goalie Zachariah Stewart had 15 saves on the night, some of which his coached described as “spectacular.” The Lions travel to Phoenix and to North Bend this week. Stewart was able to scout Phoe- nix while they visited for their jamboree (though CG and Phoe- nix didn’t play each other), and says they are also vulnerable to the counter-attack. The Lions move forward looking to sharp- en their teamwork and to play the ball more aggressively. JOIN US SEPTEMBER 10TH CHAMPIONSHIP NIGHT www.cottagegrovespeedway.com 360 Sprints, Late Models, Quality RV Repair Hornets, OPEN COMP Modifi eds
