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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 2017)
B S PORTS Section B College football is back Wednesday, August 30, 2017 South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Lions start off strong at jamboree OSU looks to bounce back, UO ready for fi rst game By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Last weekend the college foot- ball season began with the Ore- gon State Beavers going on the road to Colorado State. In one of fi ve games of the fi rst weekend of football, Oregon State fell to the Rams 58-27. Oregon State’s 6-7 quarter- back Jake Luton, who got a “mysterious” illness in the off- season that caused him to lose 30 pounds which he is still working to gain back, threw three inter- ceptions including one that was returned for a touchdown. Run- ning back Ryan Nall fi nished the game with 115 yards rushing including a 75 yard scamper that gave the Beavers a lead. Former University of Oregon running back and high school phenom Thomas Tyner ended his fi rst game in black and or- ange with four rushes for eight yards. Last year the Beavers fi nished 4-8 and have been projected around the same win total for this upcoming year. They were projected to fi nish near the bot- tom of the Pac-12 South. The team is now shifting its focus to the Vikings of Portland State. They will welcome them into Reser Stadium on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. The Ducks will begin their 2017 campaign at home on Sat- urday against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. After a disap- pointing 2016 season that saw the Ducks go 4-8 and lose to the Beavers in the Civil War, the Ducks are looking to get back to their winning ways. Coming in to the season, there is a general unknown about what this team, that is now be- ing coached by Willie Taggart, can accomplish. What is known is that the Ducks will be led by Eugene native Justin Herbert at quarterback. Herbert took over the starting job midway through last season. In the Pac-12 the Ducks are projected to be a middle of the pack team and in the fi rst series of polls, they received votes that placed them just outside the top 25. Outside of the state of Oregon, Saturday has two big games that have captured national attention. The fi rst game is #11 Michigan taking on #17 Florida in Arling- ton, Texas at 12:30 p.m. and fol- lowing that is the must-watch game between #3 Florida State and #1 Alabama in Atlanta at 5:00 p.m. Cottage Grove quaterback Dylan Graves fi nds a receiver in the back of the end zone for the Lions' only touchdown against North Bend. By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Friday night, the Cottage Grove High School (CGHS) football program played host to a jamboree with North Bend, North Eugene and the Churchill JV team. For each matchup of the jamboree, each offense ran 18 plays against the other team’s defense. Play started from the 40 yard line and if there was a turnover or a touchdown, the ball returned to the 40. The varsity played on one side of the fi eld while the JV was on the other side. The night began with CGHS facing off against the all-too-familiar foe of the North Bend High School. Last year the Bulldogs beat CGHS 35-21 in the OSAA State Championship game. Going into the jamboree, the Cottage Grove players were well aware of this re- match with the team that stopped their title hopes. “There’s a lot of unfi nished business with them,” said senior center and linebacker Cooper Ladd the day before the game. “They’ve proven they can play so we got to show up ready to just fi ght.” Fellow senior, Nate Farrell was of the same mind. “You got to come into this bringing a chip on your shoulder because these guys, they’re going to think they’re tough stuff with their blue [championship] tro- phy and we played them last year. We still have to give it to them again,” said Farrell. Ladd went on to say that the goal against North Bend was to “get 18 touchdowns” to which Farrell re- sponded “and then 18 stops.” On the defensive side they came close to achieving their goal. It took 11 plays for the Bulldogs to get a fi rst down and they never were able to fi nd the end zone despite getting a fi rst and goal opportunity. The defense applied constant pressure and both quarter- backs that played for North Bend were constantly fl us- tered as they were forced out of the pocket. Cottage Grove Head Coach Gary Roberts was impressed with his squad. “I thought the defense played really well in the fi rst game… I thought our kids fl ew around well. They have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder about what happened last year playing North Bend,” said Roberts. “They kind of felt like we had a shot last year in that game and it didn’t work out in the way we were hop- ing. We had a little motivation. I thought they did a good job.” On the offensive side, the Lions got out to a fast North Eugene's Alec Tucker just gets his foot and scores a touchdown. Athlete of the Week start when on the third play quarterback Dylan Graves rolled left and completed a 30 yard pass to a Lions re- ceiver in the end zone. That was their only touchdown of the game. The biggest detriment to their success was not North Bend’s defense but snaps that hit the ground and four offensive penalties. “We got to get our snaps up and penalties cleaned up that’s without a doubt the thing we got to do be- fore next game,” said Roberts. “Because if we have a bunch of penalties and we keep putting balls in the ground we’re not going to go far.” In the second game of the jamboree, Cottage Grove faced off against North Eugene. An impenetrable force in the fi rst game, the defense had holes in the second game that allowed the Highlanders to score three touchdowns. On the offensive side, the Lions were eager to not only match but outdo North Eugene’s pro- duction as they scored fi ve touchdowns throughout the contest. “I thought it was a little shaky against North Eugene which, I don’t think North Eugene is better than North Bend. I really don’t. I think we just need to clean up some things and we’ll be better,” said Roberts. On Friday, the Lions will travel to North Marion where they will face the Huskies at 7:00 p.m. Cottage Grove's Jacob Woods runs in for a touchdown against North Eugene. This week's athlete of the week was Elkton senior Hannah Maxwell. Maxwell led the Elks to a 2-0 start after beating Mohawk High School twice last week. JOIN US SEPTEMBER 2ND & 3RD MIKE LYONS MEMORIAL KAGE KART KING OF THE WEST FREE GENERAL ADMISSION Event Classes: Pee Wee, 5HP Intermediate, 125cc, 250cc, Open Kage