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