B
S PORTS
Section B
Bulldogs
triumph
Wednesday, October 18 , 2017
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Lions keep 'chipping away' as they win big
Cottage Grove girls
soccer fall in game with
playoff implications
By Zach Silva
With a home loss last Thurs-
day to Sutherlin, the road to the
playoffs is now fi lled with barri-
ers for the Cottage Grove girls’
soccer team.
The clearest path to the play-
offs for the Lions is fi nishing in
the top three in league play. The
top three teams in each league
get automatic bids while any
team below has to depend on
the OSAA ranking to determine
if they will be a non-automatic
qualifi er. The Lions now sit in
fourth place and the non-auto-
matic qualifi ers are based on
overall record which hurts the
Lions because of their slow start
to the season has them ranked
31st of the 40 4A teams.
Going into Thursday's game,
the Lions and Bulldogs were
neck and neck in the league
standings. And because of an
Elmira loss to top seed Junc-
tion City earlier in the day, a
win could have vaulted the Li-
ons to second but the 1-0 loss to
Sutherlin dropped the team to
fourth.
“Very disappointing,” said
head coach Reed Levings. “We
have to bring the intensity from
the beginning. We can’t wait un-
til there’s three minutes left on
the scoreboard to decide, ‘Hey,
we’re down we got to go get a
goal.’”
In the fi rst half it was Cottage
Grove who opened the game up
in control. The best opportunity
came on a corner kick delivered
by Payton Cameron right in
front of the goal that was cor-
ralled in by the Bulldogs.
As the rain continued to
pour down, Sutherlin began to
take over the game. Starting in
the 20th minute, they fl ipped
a switch and starting creating
chance after chance. It started
after a Cottage Grove foul set
up a set piece from 35 yards out
bounced around the box but was
saved by Lions goalie Irene Fer-
guson.
When it looked like the Lions
had a strong counterattack in the
27th minute, Sutherlin’s center
back was able to stop the ball,
pass it forward and suddenly
what looked like a Lions ad-
vantage turned into a Bulldogs’
two-on-one against Guzman.
Hadley Brooksby slipped the
ball by and it dribbled along the
soaked turf and into the back of
the net for the only goal of the
game.
“I think the main thing was
we weren’t connecting on our
passes like we typically do. We
didn’t stick to the basics and we
got frustrated when we went
down and stopped making good
passes,” said Levings. “We can’t
just make it right through their
defense, we got to move up the
fi eld as a unit and pass around
them.”
This continued to be a prob-
lem in the second half as the Li-
ons could not get by the Suther-
lin back line that were set up at
the midfi eld line.
Cottage Grove struggled to
possess but after a Sutherlin
foul in the 20th minute, they
had a chance in the form of an
Annie Gibson shot attempt that
was saved. The Lions found
some energy in the last ten
minutes and started attacking
and got into the Sutherlin half
of play. With just two minutes
left to play, a ball was played
into the box and a collision
caused Sutherlin’s goalie to go
down and have to come out of
the game with an injury. With a
backup goalie in, the Lions had
a corner kick but could not cre-
ate a real opportunity.
“Oh I wanted to get that W,”
said Levings.
The Lions play in their fi nal
regular season game of the sea-
son tomorrow at Sweet Home.
PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA
Cottage Grove running back Chad Bottorff jukes out a Junction City defender on Friday night.
Cottage Grove football
fl attens Junction City in
home victory
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
It was not a perfect or the prettiest
of games for Cottage Grove last Friday
night but when Junction City came to
town, the Lions powered their way to a
48-6 victory.
Cottage Grove committed three in-
terceptions, had three fumbles (all of
which they recovered) and some brief
injury concerns on their way to their
fi fth win by over 30 points on the sea-
son.
“It wasn’t like we came out and it was
48-0 at the end of the fi rst quarter and
just coasted. We faced some adversity
turning over the ball,” said head coach
Gary Roberts. “It is good that our kids
are getting to play full ball games or
close to full ballgames because we need
that. Because we need to just keep chip-
ping away and chipping away and make
things happen.”
And through it all, it was the defense
that held strong for the Lions. While
Junction City is no offensive power-
house and were a meager 2-of-10 pass-
ing, the Cottage Grove defense limited
the Tigers chances. Junction City had
just 118 yards on the game with 78
coming in the fourth quarter, leading to
their lone score of the night, against the
Lions second string unit.
Offensively, the Lions got off to a
slow start but were able to fi nd their
stride late. After a three and out to start
the game, Cottage Grove got the ball
back and were in rhythm with a Jacob
Woods 17-yard reception and a Juice
Clafl in 37-yard touchdown run. Clafl in
fi nished the game with 10 rushes for
121 yards and three touchdowns.
“We had a couple mistakes, execu-
tion errors, but yet we played with ev-
Cottage Grove's Dylan Graves rolls out of the pocket as he looks for a receiver down fi eld.
Not your
average
football player
Freshmen girl Tayla
Swearengin is 'one of the
boys' on the Elkton High
School football team
erything we had,” said Clafl in. “There
were times that all of us were hurting
… but you do it for the team. You can’t
be selfi sh about it, you have to be able
to pursue.”
In the second quarter, Graves was
intercepted and then made the touch-
down-saving tackle at the Cottage
Grove fi ve-yard line. Junction City was
poised to tie the game but the Lions
stopped the Tigers rush attempts on four
straight plays. Cottage Grove then start-
ed their next drive from the one-yard
line and marched down 99 yards in 14
plays for another Clafl in score.
“I’m really proud of our effort to-
night. We were sloppy, we did some
sloppy things, but our effort was there,”
said Roberts. “And that’s what is im-
portant. The kids play with passion,
they play hard and I was proud of them
for how they kept sticking with it.”
The Lions struck again before the
half when a screen pass to Chad Bot-
torff turned into a 56-yard touchdown
reception from Graves to go up 21-0.
Graves fi nished the game 11-for-18 for
244 yards, two touchdowns and three
interceptions.
In the third quarter, Graves took a hit
that caused him to limp off to the side-
lines. With backup quarterback DeJean
Alonzo at home with the fl u, Clafl in
lined up at center and took the ball and
ran it for 66 yards and a score.
On the next two drives it was Jacob
Woods who took over the game. He
capped off each drive with a 43 yard re-
ceiving touchdown and a 10 yard run in
which he found himself running back-
wards after a bad pitch yet was still able
to race into the end zone.
“We came out here and executed
pretty well,” said Woods. “It feels great.
Our main goal is to make it state and
prove what our little town is worth.”
On Friday the Lions will take on
Sutherlin (2-5) at home in the fi nal reg-
ular season of the game.
Cottage Grove's Erick Giffen keeps the ball on a fake punt and rushes for the fi rst down.
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
The game of football is seen as sacred. It is a place
where boys become men as they prove their toughness
play after play; it is the pinnacle of strength as the players
give everything they have to gain a yard or make a stop
and then line up and do it again.
But this boys club has a new member in Elkton High
School’s Tayla Swearengin.
Tayla, who is listed on the roster at 5’7 and 175 pounds,
is a freshman on the offensive and defensive line at Elk-
ton and is in her fi fth year of playing football – the game
she loves. And unlike the rest of her teammates and her
opponents, she is a girl; a girl who is committed to work-
ing hard every day; a girl who gets real playing time
Continued on page B3
Athletes of
the Week
Tayla Swearengin (right) and her coursin Trystn Woody get ready
to go in a recent football game for Elkton.
This week's athletes of
the week are the girls
of the North Douglas
volleyball team. The
Warriors fi nished
undefeated in league
play and with the
number one ranking
in 1A. For more on the
team, turn to B5
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
zsilva@cgsentinel.com