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Sports Cottage Grove Sentinel Wednesday, May 30, 2018 South Lane County Sports and Recreation The most exciting games of 2017-18 Section B Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com Warriors fall in quarterfinals A look back at the good and great moments of the last year By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com The 2017-18 high school sports year has now come and gone. A year ago, I did not fully know that my life would soon be consumed by the joy that is high school ath- letics. But after a year full of buzzer-beaters and blowouts, I decided to rank the top 10 games of the year played at area schools (Cottage Grove, North Douglas, Yoncalla and Elkton). Please remember, this is just my list and yours may look very different — and that’s okay. (Just know that yours is probably wrong, though.) Okay, here we go. Honorable mention: I would like to note that the North Douglas boys’ basket- ball team’s 56-47 loss to Trian- gle Lake almost made the list just because of the dominance of the Laker guards. And by guards (plural), I mean guard (singular). And by guard (sin- gular), I mean Parker Wynn. Triangle Lake had six play- ers suited up for this game and there was no doubt that the entire offense was going to go through Wynn. Every- one in the gym knew it. North Douglas threw everything it had at him but Wynn looked at the defense draped all over him said "nah," hit a step-back three and finished with 30. Just an amazing performance. Now to the list. 10. Yoncalla boys’ basketball defeats Rogue River 71-61 The first thing that should be noted is that Rogue River won just one game this year. So, that’s not good. Although it seemed like the Eagles should have just rolled straight to a victory, Rogue River was able to hang around, causing Yon- calla’s Ted Wickman to go off. Wickman turned it on in this game as he dusted Rogue Riv- er off to finish with 28 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists and 6 blocks. 9. Cottage Grove boys track and field first place finish at districts This was exciting in the same way it would be excit- ing to watch the Golden State Warriors play a college team in basketball. You know the Warriors are going to domi- nate but at least part of you is intrigued enough to watch. And if you think, no, maybe it was closer than that, it really wasn’t. Cottage Grove was so confident that it would win that it brought championship shirts along for the final day. That is a serious flex on the rest of the league. There was never a doubt that they would win. And why should there have been? There was Jacob Woods and Hunter Hall getting a com- bined 53 points together — and that’s without including the 4x100 relay that Woods was on. Throw that in with a strong distance group, hur- dlers and Mitchell Krokus suddenly jumping out of his mind, things come together pretty nicely. District meets are not sup- posed to be won by 89 points. 8. North Douglas boys’ bas- ketball beats Elkton at the buzzer Against their rivals, the Warriors survived their fourth EXCITING see B2 PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL North Douglas’ Hope Morgan (left) is relieved from her pitching duties last Friday in a 13-0 loss to Kennedy in the quarterfinals. North Douglas softball beats Knappa in first round, loses to second-ranked Kennedy in state playoffs By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com An up and down season came to an abrupt end last Friday on the road as the North Douglas softball team fell to Ken- nedy, 13-0, in the state quarterfinals. Weeks before the first pitch of the season was thrown, things took a turn when pitcher Nicki Derrick, who helped lead the team to a state title last season, tore her ACL in the final seconds of the basketball season. It was an injury that loomed over the entirety of the season. “Nobody gave us hope of doing any- thing this year. I mean, they wrote us off. They really did. They said, ‘Well, with- out Nicki they can’t do anything.’ But we made it to the quarterfinals of the state playoffs. So, I’m really proud of these girls,” said head coach Jesse Rice after last Friday’s loss. But before they could play last Fri- day, their playoff journey went through Knappa. On the road last Wednesday, the 10th seeded Warriors started the playoffs with a 6-4 victory over the seventh-seeded Loggers. “We’ve been struggling with popping the ball up, and our last few practices we’ve focused on hitting. We focused on getting out there and waiting for the right pitch and not getting too anxious,” said Rice. “But you know, they were much more focused today. Found the pitch to swing at and keep the ball on the ground and it paid off.” It paid off right away for the visiting team. After recording the first out, they opened up the inning with four straight singles from Joanna Alcantar, Whit- ney Anderson, Hope Morgan and Amy Dooley that led to three runs. Another single from Alcantar in the third gave way to a 4-1 advantage before the Log- gers scored another run in the fourth to keep the game interesting. In the fifth inning, it was North Doug- las coming out active on the bats and aggressive on the base paths. Morgan started things off with a line drive to the fence for a double. On Dooley’s hit to right field, Morgan was waved home off of a bobbled ball and poor throw that saw her score. Subbing in for Dooley, Bailey Holcomb was able to score from second off a passed ball to first. “At that point we had scored those two runs, they were a little bit rattled,” said Rice. “And at that point, the pitcher, catcher — their mind is always on the baserun- ner. Get a baserunner on so they’re not just thinking about the batter. They also have to think about the runner. Get them worried about ya,” Rice added. Behind Morgan’s seven strikeouts, the Shortstop Whitney Anderson fields a grounder on Friday at Kennedy. Warriors' defense stayed tough until the seventh inning. “I didn’t think I was ready to carry the team like that and then with the support of everybody on the team, it helped me keep going. At the end, we made a few errors, so I got a little off my game but then got back on,” said Morgan. Dropped balls and hit batters led to the bases being loaded with one out. After a batter was walked in, and an error in the field, the Loggers had cut their defi- cit in half before the Warriors ended the inning. “Nerves kind of took over, had a cou- ple of those oops moments, but we stuck with it. I just think we played a really good game today,” said Rice. With the win, the Warriors punched their ticket to the quarterfinals where they would face Kennedy in the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season. “We always end up meeting Kennedy. And it’s going to be a battle. They were the team we beat to go to the state cham- pionship last year. And they didn’t have one senior on the team. They lost no one,” said Rice. “They are disciplined and they are going to be there and they are mad at us for knocking them out last year. They want it bad.” Just like last season, it was the high- er-seeded Kennedy hosting the Warriors but that is where the similarities stopped last Friday as the Trojans ran away with a 13-0 five-inning victory. “All year long they’ve been telling me, Kennedy is the real deal. And they SOFTBALL see B3 Cottage Grove football staff honored Gary Roberts, Kyle Tucker and Jeff Drumm receive awards from OACA By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com After a historic football season for Cot- tage Grove, the awards keep coming in. This time, for the coaches. At an awards banquet in Eugene on May 19, the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association (OACA) honored Cottage Grove head football coach Gary Roberts with head coach of the year for 4A foot- ball. “It’s a nice way to end what’s been a pretty unbelievable year. It’s just another thing that is a reflection of the good guys that I have to work with and the good kids that we have to coach. You know, it’s just icing on the cake or something like that,” said Roberts. “It’s something that is shared with by all the coaches. And they’re all valuable to what we do. It’s been a great group of kids, it’s a great group of kids to work with. So yeah, it puts a nice finish to the year.” Athletes of the Week Additionally, Kyle Tucker was one of seven coaches honored as assistant coach of the year and Jeff Drumm was hon- ored with the Dave Johnson Contributor Award. Roberts, who nominated both Tucker and Drumm, was happy to see the pair get recognized. “With both those guys they’re really well-deserving. I mean, Kyle has done a lot for our district and he’s done a lot for the football program. I was here for seven years or so and after he came on board we were able to add a few more pieces to our coaching staff and it really rounded This week’s athletes of the week are the members of the soccer team the French Fries. The undefeated U-14 team were the winners of the South Valley Athletics spring soccer tournament. us out,” said Roberts. For Drumm, his presence is felt not only in Cottage Grove but around the state. On Friday nights in the fall, he can be found in the press box running the scoreboard, taking stats and acting as the PA announcer. His work doesn’t stop there as he helps run the state wrestling tournament in the winter and has his hand in track and field in the spring. “He does a lot of stuff behind the scenes and a lot of times those are the people that are the unsung heroes,” said Roberts. The French Fries pose with their trophies. PHOTO C/O SMILEY GLENN
