B
S PORTS
Section B
Lions can't
be tamed
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Home, Sweet Home: Lions stay undefeated
Cottage Grove boys' soccer
undefeated in league play
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
As fl eet of foot as the Cottage
Grove boys soccer team is, this
season has seen them struggle to
get out to fast starts. This continued
last Tuesday when the Lions (6-
0-1, Sky-Em 5-0) hosted Junction
City and despite a slow start defeat-
ed the Tigers (1-6-1, Sky-Em 1-3-
1) 3-0 with all three goals coming
within 15 minutes at the end of the
fi rst half.
In the early going, it was Junction
City that was playing like the bet-
ter team. They disrupted any fl ow
from Cottage Grove and controlled
possession. By the 20th minute,
the Tigers had created chances and
Colton Ditlefsen had twice worked
into the box for some near misses.
“These guys are just slow in
starting, I guess,” said head coach
Vern Stewart. “And eventually they
get it together.”
It was at the end of the fi rst half
when the Lions got it together.
In the 33rd minute, a Junction
City turnover in their own half, the
Lions got the ball to Konrad Raum
who was able to take a touch at the
edge of the 18-yard box and sent
a shot to the upper left corner of
the goal. The ball was defl ected by
Junction City’s goalie but found the
back of the net to put the Lions up
1-0.
“Konrad had a nice goal,”
said Stewart. “We talked about
shoot[ing and] he shot. It wasn’t a
perfect shot but the keeper made a
mistake and it was a goal.”
After the goal, the Lions seemed
to be playing with a little more en-
ergy as they maintained possession
and were completing passes that
had previously been off target.
With just three minutes left in the
half, the half Jasper Nichols-Fergu-
son got a steal deep in the Junction
City half. He found Kyle Conley
who was momentarily dispossessed
in the box. Conley stayed with it,
won back the ball and struck the
ball to the right side of the goal for
a Cottage Grove score.
With the Lions up 2-0 with less
than three minutes remaining in
the half, their work was not done.
Raum found Conley for a chance
that just missed wide.
But with under ten seconds left in
the half, Nichols-Ferguson passed
wide to George Cervantes who was
outside the 18-yard box on the left
side of the goal. Knowing the clock
was winding down, Cervantes im-
mediately played the ball into the
box where Kyle Browning put it
away a moment before the clock
struck zero.
The Lions went to the break up
3-0 with Stewart looking for the
team to correct any bad behaviors
that they played with in the opening
30 minutes of the game.
“At [halftime] I told them the
score didn’t matter. I want to see
you fi rst to the ball, talking, move-
ment, all the things that they know
how to do,” said Stewart. “And I
told them to take shots. And if it
goes in, it goes in and if it doesn’t
it doesn’t matter. 3-0, that’s a very
good score.”
The second half, the Lions came
out a different team. Now with a
comfortable lead, they controlled
the game with possession and
poised passing. They created a
handful of chances in the second
half that saw Raum, Conley and
Browning all get close to scoring a
second goal but were unable to get
past the keeper.
Thursday the Lions went on the
road and beat Sweet Home 5-1.
On one of his four receptions, Jacob Woods tries to avoid a Sweet Home defender and pick up extra yards.
Cottage Grove football rolls over
the previously undefeated Sweet
Home Huskies to stay perfect on
the season
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
On paper, it looked like the Cottage Grove football
team was going to be tested in ways that they had
not seen this year. Facing the previously undefeated
Sweet Home Huskies at home, a team who had al-
lowed just 20 points through their fi rst four games,
Cottage Grove was going to need to bring their A
game to compete in this battle of top 10 teams in 4A.
They did just that as they overpowered the Huskies
to win 53-12 and improve to 5-0 on the season.
“I knew that they were a good team, they’re unde-
feated just like we were and honestly, intimidating,”
said Cottage Grove quarterback Dylan Graves who
fi nished 12 for 16 on the day for 183 yards passing
and two touchdowns.
Sweet Home started the game with the ball and af-
ter four plays found the end zone on a 62-yard pass-
ing play to take an early 6-0 lead.
“I thought our kids did a good job at answering
their touchdown. We had kind of went into the week
with hey we got to make them put together drives,
PHOTO BY CHANDLER BASCUE
they are kind of a big play team,” said head coach
Gary Roberts. “And then we give up a big play on
the third or fourth play. So our kids did a good job at
buckling down and making them line up again. And
then from then on in we did a good job. “
After that initial score from the Huskies, Cottage
Grove went on to score 53 unanswered points. Not
only were the Lions scoring, but they were scoring
in every way – except a punt return – possible: kick
return, interception return, receiving, rushing, fi eld
goal and a safety.
It began with an explosive fi rst quarter that saw the
Lions put 27 points on the board. After going down
early, Erick Giffen returned the ensuing kick for an
80-yard touchdown.
On the next offensive drive, Graves found Hayden
Glenn for a 17 yard touchdown pass. Just a few
plays later, it was Jacob Woods on defense coming
up with an interception that he ran back 40 yards for
the touchdown to put the Lions up 20-6. And on the
next offensive drive, a 22-yard Woods reception was
capped off by a Juice Clafl in one yard rushing touch-
down to put the Lions up 27-6 at the end of a busy
fi rst quarter.
“I had expected us to play well but I don’t know if
I had expected us to do what we did. Especially early
where it seemed like we stymied them. I was real
proud of our kids,” said Roberts.
In the second quarter, it was the Lions defense
that continued to make big plays. The Huskies had
worked the ball down to the Cottage Grove 3-yard
line where they faced a 3rd and one. The Lions de-
fense swarmed their running back Austin James for
a loss of fi ve and the defense made another stop on
fourth down to give the offense the ball.
Moving away from the quick strikes in the fi rst
quarter, the Lions then marched the ball 90 yards
downfi eld over 10 plays ending with a Graves to
Giffen 19-yard touchdown connection to go up 34-6
at the half.
In the second half the Lions worked through the
run game after making halftime adjustments to ac-
commodate for Sweet Home coming out in a dif-
ferent defensive set than they normally run. After a
Graves interception and a Giffen made fi eld goal, the
Lions struck again through the air with a Woods 38
yard touchdown reception to put Cottage Grove up
46-6.
Woods fi nished off his busy day of 77 receiving
yards on four receptions, 52 yards on a kick return,
39 yards on a punt return, 60 yards on his intercep-
tion return with a 12 yard rushing touchdown to put
the Lions up 53-6.
“You’ve just got to trust in yourself and your of-
fense,” said Woods. “I’ve been with [my teammates]
since like day one and we’ve just grown up and
trained together and after last week’s performance
we really picked it up this week.”
The Lions will now move on to face the Sisters
Outlaws (2-3) on the road next Friday.
PHOTO BY CHANDLER BASCUE
A Cottage Grove receiver looks to fi nd the end zone.
Athlete of
the Week
Ages 5 and Under – FREE
Ages 6-12 $5.00
ALL OTHERS JUST
$10 BUCKS!!
PHOTO BY CHANDLER BASCUE
The Cottage Grove defense shuts down the Sweet Home run game.
This week's athlete of the
week is sophomore cross-
country runner Jimmy
Talley. Talley fi nished fi rst
for the Lions at both races
last week and took an entire
minute off his personal
best time. To read more
about Cottage Grove cross-
country turn to page B4.
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