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