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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 2020)
Cottage Grove Sentinel Sports & Recreation SOUTH LANE COUNTY SPORTS AND RECREATION • Jan. 17 Jan. 18 • Wrestling: Cottage Grove @ Siuslaw @ TBD • Basketball: North Douglas vs. Elkton (girls @ 6 p.m., boys @ 7:30 p.m.) CONTACT SPORTS REPORTER NICK SNYDER AT 942-3325 OR NSNYDER@CGSENTINEL.COM Lions wrap up non-league play Calendar • Basketball: Cottage Grove vs. Siuslaw (boys @ 5:45 p.m., girls @ 7:15 p.m.) • Basketball: Yoncalla vs. North Douglas (girls @ 6 p.m., boys @ 7:30 p.m.) • Basketball: Elkton @ Days Creek (girls @ 6 p.m., boys @ 7:30 p.m.) • THURSDAY | JANUARY 16, 2020 B1 CG goes 1-1 at Phoenix cross- over event, the lone Sky-Em team to earn a win By Nick Snyder nsnyder@cgsentinel.com PHOTO BY NICK SNYDER/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL After a return from injury, junior Matty Ladd scored 21 points for the Lions in their win over Henley. The Lions surely wanted to come home from the Sky-Em/Skyline Crossover with a pair of wins, but after all twelve games concluded, Cottage Grove felt more en- couraged than ever heading into the league season. Phoenix High School played host to the annual event held last Fri., Jan. 10 and Sat., Jan. 11, featuring all six Sky-Em teams — Cottage Grove, Elmira, Junction City, Marist, Marshfield and Siuslaw — as well as their Skyline counterparts. The Lions (9-5, ranked #9) couldn’t snag a victory over #2-ranked Hidden Valley (12-2), falling 39-27, but their 46- 25 Friday drubbing of Henley (9-5, #13) proved to be the only game a Sky-Em team won all weekend. Saturday’s matchup held an opportunity — their second of the season against Hid- den Valley — for the Lions to take down a top-ranked team and establish themselves as a threat come playoff time. After getting beat handily, 60-44, in their first matchup of the year on Dec. 12, Cottage Grove made improvements on the defensive side of the ball. In the end, however, they couldn’t drum up the of- fense necessary to stay with Hidden Valley See LIONS 2B Pirates punish Warriors with press Jan. 20 • Basketball: Elkton vs. Cascade Christian (girls @ 5 p.m., boys @ 6:30 p.m.) Jan. 21 • Basketball: Cottage Grove @ Marshfield (boys @ 5:45 p.m., girls @ 7:15 p.m.) Jan. 22 • Wrestling: Cottage Grove vs. Creswell dual meet @ TBD) PHOTOS BY NICK SNYDER/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL (Left) North Douglas senior Nicki Derrick matches up with Perrydale’s Amity Deters (12). (Top right) Senior Rilie-Jo Olds (right) battles Deters for the rebound. (Bottom right) Warriors head coach Jody Cyr had to make adjustments all game against a swarm- ing Pirates defense. By Nick Snyder nsnyder@cgsentinel.com ODFW R ECREATION R EPORT www.dfw.state.or.us/RR BEST BETS FOR FISHING • Friday (and maybe Thursday) is looking like the best day of the week to hit north coast rivers like Kilchis, Necanicum, North Fork Nehalem and Wilson. Some of these may fish this weekend, but with more rain on the way condi- tions may not be ideal. • Several Willamette Valley fisheries will be stocked with brood trout this week. • Anglers are starting to catch steelhead in the Tenmile, Coos and Coquille systems. • Steelhead also are being caught in the Sandy and Clacka- mas rivers. • Steelhead fishing on the lower Deschutes continues to be fair. Though numbers are fewer this year, fish are well-dispersed from the mouth to the angling dead- line. • The first winter steelhead are just beginning to return to the Hood River. • Anglers have been ice fishing on several waterbodies including Kinney Lake, Lofton Reservoir, Magone Lake, Phillips Reservoir, Unity Reservoir and Yellowjacket Lake. TIME TO REPORT YOUR HUNT Hunters have until Jan. 31 to report their 2019 hunts. If you purchased a tag, reporting is mandatory even if you didn’t hunt or harvest an animal. Before the game tipped off, North Doug- las head girls’ basketball coach Jody Cyr said his team needed a challenge after starting the year 11-0. On Friday, Jan. 10 the visiting Perry- dale Pirates (12-2, ranked #3) brought that challenge to the Warriors’ home gym and, at the end of four quarters, North Douglas (12-1, #8) was no longer undefeated, losing 44-40 to the visitors in a physical, close- ly-contested matchup of two top-10 teams. “I told the girls before the game, ‘Who- ever handles the pressure better wins this game’,” Cyr said. “I thought Perrydale did a tremendous job with continuing the press down the floor.” The Pirates defensive prowess and phys- icality was on display in the first quarter, holding North Douglas to just six points while forcing multiple turnovers, clogging passing lanes and gobbling up offensive re- bounds. If the first quarter sets the tone — and Cyr was right about handling pressure lead- ing to a win — Perrydale had the clear ear- ly advantage. Each time a Warrior touched the ball, there were at least two Perrydale defenders on her almost immediately. “It’s the first big game for a lot of younger girls and I didn’t think we managed it very well,” Cyr said. “I thought we were very well prepared for the game, but you never know how you’re gonna handle pressure. I don’t think Perrydale handled our pressure very well either.” Indeed, each time it seemed as though Perrydale was pulling away, North Doug- las found a way to adjust and claw back into the competition. The Warriors found themselves down only one point, 19-18, at halftime and the tension lasted until the fi- nal buzzer. The game remained physical throughout — at times resembling a wrestling match that happened to take place on a basketball court — with a multitude of loose balls, See WARRIORS 2B CG football looks for new head coach as Smith steps down By Nick Snyder nsnyder@cgsentinel.com For the second time in as many seasons, Cottage Grove High School (CGHS) will be searching for a new face to take the reigns of the football team. Chad Smith, who was hired last July to take over the pro- gram from longtime head coach Gary Roberts, resigned from his position in a letter given to CGHS administrators on Nov. 21, around a month after the fi nal game of the foot- ball season. Smith will remain at the school teaching health and P.E. at least until the end of the 2020 school year. “I hereby give notice of my intention to leave the Cottage Grove football program,” Smith wrote in the letter. “I look forward to watching the school in the future and I wish Cottage Grove continued suc- Athlete of the Week cess.” CGHS athletic director Matt Myers and other school ad- ministrators have already ten- tatively begun their search for the Lions’ next head coach. “We have been kind of putting our feelers out, noth- ing formal, but just asking around,” Myers said. While the primary focus will be fi nding its leader on the gridiron, Myers added that the position is made more at- Th is week’s athlete of the week is Cottage Grove junior wrestler Raina Herzog who fi nished fourth out of 36 total wrestlers in her weight class at the weekend’s all- girls Kelso Invitational in Kelso, Wash. tractive to potential candidates if there are available teaching positions on top of the coach- ing vacancy, allowing them to double up on responsibilities and have a larger presence within the school. “We do have a window com- ing up in the next month or so when teachers need to tell us if they intend to return [for next year],” Myers said. “Once we See SMITH 2B The Invita- tional is the biggest girls wrestling event on the West Coast with over 735 participants. Herzog will look to win an OSAA state title this year. COURTESY PHOTO