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