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Sports & recreation Cottage Grove Sentinel Wednesday, October 3, 2018 South Lane County Sports and Recreation Second-half surge seals Spartan victory Section B Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com Kings of the Hill: Lions find midseason success Cottage Grove football falls to Marist on the road By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Behind a second half rally and a trail of Cottage Grove turnovers, it was Marist (3-2) coming up with a 32-22 vic- tory over the Lions (2-3) last Friday night in Eugene. “If we turn the ball over four times in a game we’re not going to win many games. Es- pecially against a good team. And the last three games have been a tale of mistakes and we have to get better. I’ll be the one who takes the blame, we’ve got to get bet- ter,” said Cottage Grove head coach Gary Roberts. “The effort is there. We just have to get better on the fun- damentals of tackling, taking on blocks, blocking, catching the ball and tucking it away. The turnovers just killed us tonight.” This is the first time the Lions have had a three-game losing streak since the 2014 season. Despite the final result, it was Cottage Grove who led early. To get the game started, the Lions marched 72-yards downfield in 17 plays for an opening drive that finished with an Erick Giffen sev- en-yard touchdown recep- tion from Dylan Graves. The Spartans found their offense footing in their first drive and capitalized on a conversion on third and 13 and a 30-yard touchdown pass from Max Campbell to Hagan Stephenson on 4th and four. The Spartans found the end zone again in the second quarter on a four-yard run from Campbell. A Marist interception of Graves late in the second quarter was followed up by a pick from Giffen on the very next play. In the final minutes of the half, the Lions put to- gether a drive highlighted by a 29-yard scramble from Graves. Three plays later, Graves found an open Jacob Dunn in the corner of the end zone who pulled down the pass for a touchdown to put the Lions up 14-12 head- ing into the half. “We were just messing up all over the place. Some of it was forced because Dylan Graves is a hell of a quar- terback and an athlete and a competitor and the whole bit,” said Marist head coach Frank Geske. At halftime the Spartans regrouped and came out fo- cusing on their run game. Of the 33 offensive plays Marist ran in the second half, they rushed the ball on 30 of them. The team finished with 293 rushing yards. Lucas Pat- terson had 214 and a touch- down while Campbell added 35 yards and three touch- downs on the ground. “We’ve got to get our kids coached up better. We do have to get tougher up front on both sides of the ball. It’s the second week in a row that teams have just ran all over us but, I’ve got to do a better job as head coach of getting the kids ready to play,” said Roberts. After the Spartans scored on the opening drive, Marist then capitalized on a Cottage Grove fumble and scored again to take a 25-14 lead FOOTBALL see B2 PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL Cottage Grove’s Annah Nyburg (left) took first place at Oak Hill’s King of the Hill race last Thursday in the varsity girls race. Paesen Timm (right) finished in second for the varsity boys. Lions shine at 4,300-meter race at Oak Hill By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Competing against smaller schools on a short course, it was the Cottage Grove girls’ cross country taking first place as a team last Thursday at Oak Hill's "King of the Hill" race. Leading the way for the Lions was sophomore Annah Nyburg who cruised to a first-place finish on the 4,300-meter course in a time of 18:03. “I was right behind the first-place girl up until the top of that hill. Then I passed her and surged down the hill and... that kept me in a positive mindset and I just kept that throughout the race,” said Ny- burg who finished 32 seconds ahead of second place. “And I didn’t know how far behind me she was but I just kept think- ing she was right behind me and that kept me going.” On the hilly course runners raced through forests and fields on an 82-de- gree day at Oak Hill’s campus near Lane Community College. The Lions compet- ed against teams from Oak Hill (1A), Oakridge (2A) and Harrisburg (3A). And for Nyburg, she knew this was a race to be near the front. “I started out at a good pace. It wasn’t too fast so that kind of helped me keep a good mindset throughout the race. I knew I hand’t burnt out,” she said. “My goal was to be up in the front, for sure.” Nyburg’s teammates were not far be- hind as freshmen Evie Smith (19:22) and Eternity Remiche (21:03) finished fourth and fifth respectively. Kenzie Parsons in 10th place (21:38) and Emma Gil- bert-Spires in 12th (22:25) rounded out the Cottage Grove top-five. “I had people engaged all the way through the course that I could wit- ness,” said Cottage Grove head coach Jim Settelmeyer on his team’s performance. “And they came in and definitely had used their energy and then they are bub- bly and bouncy a few minutes later. What else could you ask for?” Settelmeyer noted that while it wasn't a particularly fast course, it is setting the team up for the rest of the season that will feature four flatter courses to help the team see improved times. On the boys’ side, with top runners Jimmy Talley and Konrad Raum “indis- posed” according to Settelmeyer, it was Paesen Timm’s time to shine. “It’s wonderful for Paesen to be our leader today. One of the things I men- tioned to him was, ‘Hey, two of your big- gest competitors aren’t here. We know that. So it’s your day.’ And he did a great job representing,” said Settelmeyer. Timm took the lead early in the race before Oakridge’s Isaac Whitney passed him and was able to hold on for the win. Timm took second in a time of 16:04. “I knew that it wasn’t like a very com- petitive field. I knew that it was going to be like me and some other guy. So I decided to just pace off of first place,” he said. Adding, “Second isn’t too bad but on this, I wasn’t really gauging for time. It was a weird course.” Harrisburg took first as a team and the Lions finished tied for second, of three teams, with Oak Hill. Jaden Thuesen (18:26, 13th place), Justin Fancis (19:05, 19th), Maycol Pablo Herrera (19:43, 24th) and Jaxson Cooper (22:05, 32nd) were the top five finishers for Cottage Grove. The Lions travel to the Paul Mariman Invitational in Philomath on Saturday. Lions overpower Spartans in road win Top-ranked Cottage Grove volleyball stays perfect in league play By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Cottage Grove’s Matty Ladd comes up with a block against Marist. Ladd recorded five blocks on the day. Athlete of the Week When Marist left the Sky-Em league after the 2009 volleyball season, Cottage Grove’s parting gift was a Lions victory over the Spartans. Last Thursday, Cot- tage Grove (12-2, 5-0 Sky-Em) welcomed Marist (4-7, 4-1 Sky- Em) back into the league in sim- ilar fashion as the number-one ranked Lions defeated the Spar- tans on the road 24-26, 25-19, 25-21, 25-14. Entering the game, both teams were undefeated in league play despite the Spartans having not won a non-league game this season. But despite a losing re- cord, Marist was ready to play. “Very intense game. We knew they’re fighters. Marist is good, they have a great coaching staff,” said Cottage Grove head coach Kendra Anderson, a former Marist assistant coach. In the opening set, it was the This week’s athlete of the week is Cottage Grove’s Sawyer Weybright. Weybright scored three goals in a game for the third time this year in a win over Elmira last Tuesday. To read more about the game, turn to B2. Lions in control early taking an 11-3 lead behind serves that were able to take Marist out of their offense. “Serving it away to keep the ball from being set to (outside hitter) Britney (Duvall). That was the thing we... made a few adjustments to that, too, realiz- ing, ‘Oh, they’re going to set her even when she’s in the back row’ and making that adjustment. So it was just having consistent serves and Cassidy’s serve was on tonight which is always nice,” said Anderson. But the Spartans were able to regroup and rally back to take the first set. A rare lost set for Cottage Grove, their fifth on the season, was promptly followed up with a set highlighting the strength of the team. The Lions leaned on kills from Reilly Kelty, Cassidy Herbert and IsaBelle Hirst in addition to a Herbert ace to end the set. Kelty finished the day with 14 kills, 12 aces and four aces; Herbert had 16 kills, 18 digs and six aces; Hirst had five kills and two aces. Setter Lauren Witty had 41 assists. With the teams tied, it was a pivotal third set that saw Marist with a lead. The Lions then ripped off a ferocious 13-2 run that took the air out of the building and all but sealed the victory. “We needed to just play our game. We got a little tight and when we play tight, we don’t play fluid. I think we called timeout and we were just like, ‘Come on, let’s go.’ And Reilly was serving and she did a great job,” said Anderson. “She does a great job at finding those open spots and that flow is just all over the place. I think that really pushed because we had consistent serve and we could go forward.” The Lions were aided by the standout play of sophomore middle blocker Matty Ladd. In the span of two points Ladd came up with three blocks and was constantly disrupting Marist’s offensive flow. Ladd fin- ished with five blocks and four kills. VOLLEYBALL see B3 Sawyer Wey- bright looks to pass to a teammate during last Tuesday’s game. PHOTO BY JADEN DOOLITTLE/CGHS PHOTOGRAPHY