2B
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL OCTOBER 31, 2018
Lions sneak into playoffs, fall in play-in game
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Th e Cottage Grove boys’ soc-
cer team was searching for a
victory.
“We needed to win this game
for many reasons. One, because
it’s senior night and two, it would
ease our way into playoff s. And
it was Marist,” said Cottage
Grove’s George Cervantes who
netted the only goal of the game.
“What better way to go out
then to beat the undefeated (in
league-play) team? Th ey’re not
undefeated anymore.”
Behind Cervantes’ 46th min-
ute stunner of a goal, the Lions
(7-5-2) defeated the Spartans
(9-3-1) 1-0 at home last Tuesday
night to grab the fi nal playoff
spot in the 4A classifi cation.
Entering Tuesday’s contest,
Cottage Grove was ranked 21st
with the top 20 teams making
the playoff s this year. Twelve
playoff spots go to the fi rst and
second place team in each of the
six leagues while the fi nal eight
spots go to the highest-ranking
teams remaining. On the out-
side looking in, the Lions knew
what they had to do.
“We were really level-headed
coming in because we had been
talking about this game for a
long time. We all knew we need-
ed to give it everything we have,”
said Cottage Grove senior Jas-
per Nichols-Ferguson. “Th ere’s
a lot of energy – there’s so much
energy in the locker room. Like
a quiet energy, like a calm before
a storm kind of energy.”
Going into the game, the
Spartans had outscored their
Sky-Em opponents 28-1 on
the season. With Marist’s abil-
ity to pick apart a defense with
their precision passing, it was
the Cottage Grove defense that
came up big on the night.
“It’s better for us to just be in
the position, to make sure that
we’re shutting them down. Th ey
can pass it all day long and con-
trol it all day long as long as we
don’t let it go in our defensive
third of the fi eld,” said Cottage
Grove head coach Vern Stewart.
“And they were just getting frus-
trated.”
In the fi rst half, the Spartans
were able to get onto the Cot-
tage Grove half but were unable
to create meaningful opportu-
nities. Th e Lions had chances
including a header from Nich-
ols-Ferguson that just went wide
halfway through the fi rst half.
Six minutes into the second
half the Lions were able to cap-
italize as Cervantes hit a strike
from 25-yards out on the left
side of the fi eld. Th e ball curved
up before nestling into the top
right corner of the goal.
Cottage Grove’s Abelio Carillo-Chales passes to a teammate against Marist last week.
“I was like alone, I was like,
‘Yo, drop the ball.’ And (Lathan
Van Wagner) dropped the ball
and I had so much space. I had
time to take a touch, look up,
fi nd the angle. Because usually
against Marist you don’t really
have time because they’re al-
ways like on you,” said Cervant-
es. “I just had all the time in the
world. So I was just like – easy
shot.”
Over the course of the fi nal
half hour, and especially in the
fi nal 10 minutes of the game,
Marist was searching for the
goal and controlled possession
but they were continuously
plagued by the Cottage Grove
defense.
“We just wanted to make sure
that everybody got behind the
ball. So we practiced all week
about everybody getting back,
even our forwards and every-
body before we did anything up
front,” said Stewart.
It worked for the Lions as they
recorded their third-straight
shutout and fi ft h in the last sev-
en games.
Last Saturday, the Lions trav-
elled to McLoughlin where they
lost 1-0 to the eighth-ranked Pi-
oneers in a play-in game.
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