B
S PORTS
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Section B
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Sky-Em Champ Lions down Elmira to
cap off a perfect regular season
Cottage Grove gets
its fi rst undefeated
regular season in
school history
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
The 2016 Cottage Grove High
School football team has made
school history. For the fi rst time
ever, the Lions have gone 8-0 in
an undefeated regular season,
which has earned them a fi rst-
round bye in the playoffs this
year.
Last year, the Lions went 4-
5 with a loss to Baker in their
play-in match, and in 2014
Cottage Grove went 2-7, just
one year after making it to the
state championship. The current
seniors were freshman when
the Lions last won the Sky-Em
League and went on to the 4A
state fi nal in 2013. Players such
as Kory Parent and Blake Sent-
man have seen many ups and
downs to the program over the
last few years, but now the se-
niors have taken control of their
team and led Cottage Grove to a
perfect regular season.
The Lions once again had con-
trol for the entire game. Cottage
Grove pounded the ball with se-
Please see UNDEFEATED, Page 3B
Photo by Gary Ordway Sports Action Photography
Zane Levings pushes through the Elmira defense. The senior racked up nearly 100 yards on 16 carries Friday night.
Flurry of personal bests for CG harriers
Athlete of the Week
Kory Parent is the back bone of
Cottage Grove's defense
Photo courtesy of Jim Settelmeyer
Jacob Justis and Adam Marsh tread through the mud at the Oregon Country Fair Grounds last Wednesday.
The CGHS cross country
team crashed out of its un-
planned no-race trance to set
a large number of personal
records in a water-drenched
race Wednesday at the Oregon
Country Fair Grounds. The run,
hosted by Elmira High School,
allowed the Lions to race once
again after the crazy uncertain
storm front that moved through
the area had caused Head Coach
Jim Settelmeyer to cancel their
involvement in a run near Ger-
vais last Saturday.
In spite of a course involved
in numerous encounters with
standing water and slick foot-
ing, 22 of the 31 competitors
who ran set season or personal
records led by the whopping
4:10 improvement from Allie
Gifford with her 31:59 effort.
Others setting personal records
were Savannah Davis (24:57),
Kenzie Parsons (25:30), Emma
Sexton (28:44), Jenn Simons
(26:06), Rylee Williams (30:35),
Nadia Witt (24:32), Eric Cor-
tez (19:18), Jesse Ellingworth
(17:49), Justin Francis (19:27),
Mitchell Johnson (23:42), Jacob
Justis (23:19), Matteo Liserre
(22:00), Adam Marsh (22:46),
Konrad Raum (17:01), Cody
Smelser (20:49) and Paesen
Timm (17:40).
Settelmeyer says that the Li-
ons hope to ride these great ef-
forts to a strong fi nish this week
at the Sky-Em Cross Country
Championships on Thursday at
Lane Community College. The
Lion boys led by last year’s dis-
trict runner up, Konrad Raum,
enter the meet seeded third.
Their goal is to jump Elmira
or Junction City and hold off
the other district teams in their
quest to capture one of the top-
two team spots and qualify for
the State meet. The girls’ team
is working to improve on its
projected fi fth place fi nish. Sa-
brina James (seeded ninth) has
the best chance to qualify for
state as an individual for the
girls, but she will have to fi nish
in the top fi ve in a tough fi eld.
Both JV teams are also prepar-
ing to perform at a high level in
the upcoming district meet.
Kory Parent is quite possibly the best overall player on
the Cottage Grove football team. In the absence of start-
ing quarterback Blake Sentman, Parent stepped in and
threw the ball with near-perfect accuracy, moving the
ball through the air with precision. Even when Sentman
was in the game, Parent has a couple of touchdown
passes from plays where he would receive the handoff
on an end-around play and pull up to throw a deep pass.
If plays such as that broke down, Parent had the ability
to tuck the ball and run. But as much of a weapon as
he is on offense, the senior is the leader of the defense.
Saturday's win over Elmira featured Parent making
a crucial interception after the Lions had turned the
ball over on a fumble. With Parent at the helm, Cottage
Grove's defense has only allowed an average of eight
points per game.
Soccer: boys fall fl at, girls end tough season on high note
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
It hasn’t been an easy year
for Cottage Grove’s soccer pro-
gram. Both the girls’ and boys’
varsity teams were introduced to
new coaches and new systems,
and coaches were introduced
to new players. Vern Stewart
switched from being head coach
of the girls’ team (and leading
the team to a Sky-Em title last
year) to the boys’ head coach
after former head coach Brian
Fish stepped down. The girls’
team was introduced to what
could almost be described as an
“interim” head coach in Saman-
tha Shine, Stewart’s daughter,
who is visiting her family from
Georgia.
The struggles of these teams
don't fall on any one coach or
any one player; it’s safe to say
that it’s just been a bit of a weird
year for CG soccer. Stewart is a
veteran soccer coach who has
had tremendous success on both
the girls’ and boys’ programs
in Cottage Grove, along with
coaching at Northwest Chris-
tian University up in Eugene.
But the team was new to him,
and Stewart was forced to spend
most of his season looking into
which player fi t best.
“I found that some players
who would, for example, typi-
cally play forward were much
more useful and talented on de-
fense,” Stewart said. The head
coach also had trouble fi guring
out if his system was a good fi t
for the players.
Like he did with the girls’
team, Stewart implemented a 4-
2-3-1 lineup on the fi eld, but a
few tough losses left him won-
dering if the system was right
for the players.
Regardless of the strategy, the
soccer team consistently stood
behind its coach and trusted his
decisions. The team stepped
away from the 4-2-3-1 for a
while and then went back to it a
few games later. Cottage Grove
ended the season with three
losses in a row to Junction City,
Sweet Home and Sisters. The
losses are disappointing, as the
Lions have usually been able to
bounce back after at least two
losses, but a harsh 5-0 loss to
Sisters put Cottage Grove in
fi fth place in the Sky-Em only
in front of Sutherlin, a team that
went 0-9-1 in league matches.
The disappointing end by no
means indicates that the soc-
cer program is moving in the
wrong direction. Stewart has
been Sky-Em Coach of the Year
before and he will be again. The
team needs to get settled with its
new identity with Stewart at the
helm and the Lions could soon
be back to being a top-perform-
ing team.
The girls’ team struggled just
as much. The Lions went 1-7-
2 in league play with their one
win coming from their most re-
cent game against Sisters, 2-0.
The last time those two teams
played each other, Sisters ran
away with a 4-0 victory. Cot-
tage Grove saw a lot of detri-
mental injuries. Star forward
Kia Hemenway had to sit out
for a few weeks during the sea-
son, making the Lions’ offense
less potent. The fate of the girls’
team is a bit more up un the air,
as Shine will return to Georgia
before next season starts and
Cottage Grove will have to look
for a head coach who can bring
them another Sky-Em title.