Cottage Grove Sentinel
Sports
Sports & Leisure
B1
THURSDAY | APRIL 8, 2021
Making strides
Note: Game times and
dates are subject to change
Lions fi nish
soccer season
with a roar
Spring openers
By Zeahna Young
April 13
Cottage Grove Sentinel
• CG Baseball hosts
Siuslaw 5 pm
• CG Softball hosts
Siuslaw 5 pm
• ND/Yonc. Baseball
hosts Ump. V. Chr.
4:30 pm
• Elkton Softball at
Oakridge 4:30 pm
• CG Track & Field
at J. City 4 pm
April 16
• Elkton Baseball at
North D/Yoncalla
Noon and 2 pm
• ND Softball hosts
Riddle 2/4 pm
• Yoncalla Softball
at Oakridge 2/4 pm
• CG Baseball hosts
Marist 3/5 pm
• CG Softball hosts
Marist 3/5 pm
NED HICKSON/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
C
ottage Grove junior Piper Youngmayr led the girls cross country team at last week’s Sky-
Em League districts, finishing with the highest individual finish for either Cottage
Grove team after placing 12th in 23:51.80. Her finish earned her Second Team All-League
honors.
Results:
Lions look
to future
April 2
• Yoncalla Volleyball
defeated Elkton:
25-20, 25-20, 25-20
• Elkton Football
defeated Siletz Valley:
45-26
April 3
• Powers Volleyball
defeated Elkton:
25-21, 25-17, 25-14
• Days Creek Volleyball
defeated Yoncalla:
25-20, 25-18, 25-14
By Zeahna Young
Cottage Grove Sentinel
S
COURTESY PHOTO
Lions head coach Joe Polamalu says the Lions will
return to varsity next fall after the successful JV
season the team just completed.
ome teams have had a more
difficult time this athletic season
as a result of COVID-19. For the
Lions’ football program, it was already
going to be a rebuilding year with a
coach who was new to the school.
However, the added stress of the
pandemic affected participation, and
Coach Joe Polamalu, along with Ath-
letic Director Matt Myers and other
school staff, made the decision to play
junior varsity for this season.
Rather than compete beyond
See LIONS 2B
Lady Lions reach playoffs, fall to Sweet Home
By Zeahna Young
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Last week, the Lions’ volley-
ball team had the chance to com-
pete for first place in the Sky-Em
League, with playoffs being a pos-
sibility as well. Although they did
not win the game needed to take
first place in the league, Cottage
Grove did place high enough to
compete in the playoffs this week.
The Lady Lions’ final league
game of the regular season was
last Thursday (April 1) at Siu-
slaw High School. Going into the
game, Cottage Grove knew that if
they won, they would play against
Junction City the next night to de-
termine who would take first place
in the league.
It was a very high energy game,
but despite the fact that they were
able to pull out a win in the first
set, the Vikings swept the next
three sets to win the match —
Athlete of
the Week
putting the Lions in second place
overall. Since the Lions had de-
feated the Vikings in their previ-
ous match-up, the loss was defi-
nitely an upset. Coach Abby Ladd
discussed the possible reasons her
team struggled to take the win
over Siuslaw this time around.
“I think that we went into the
game feeling really confident be-
cause we had beaten them before,”
said Ladd. “We were focused on
playing a tiebreaker against Junc-
Th is week’s Athlete of the
Week is Cottage Grove
High School standout,
Piper Youngmayr, who
was named to the
Sky-Em Second Team
All-League girls cross
country team
tion City the next day, and not
completely focused and all in on
that game.
“Then, when Siuslaw was play-
ing hard and doing really well,
individually, the girls all started to
shut down. They were frustrated
with themselves; they were frus-
trated with each other; they were
struggling to pull it together.”
Overall, it seemed that Cottage
See CGHS 2B
Piper
Youngmayr,
a junior, had
the Lions’
highest
fi nish at last
week’s Sky-
Em League
cross coun-
try districts,
placing 12th
overall.
PHOTO BY NED HICKSON/
CG SENTINEL
The Lions’ soccer program had
a very successful season this year,
coming in third place in the Sky-
Em League with a record of 5-3-
1. Coach Vern Stewart discussed
some of the season’s highlights,
as well as key factors important to
him as a high school soccer coach.
“Our season was kind of mixed,”
said Stewart. “Being a short sea-
son, you’re trying as a coach to
get as much out of it as you can.
The seniors, this is their last hur-
rah, and they were robbed out of
their normal season — so you try
to make it as normal as you possi-
bly can.”
Stewart certainly gave it his all
this season as their coach, and the
Lions were quite a team to follow
this season. However, winning
was only a portion of what Stewart
spent his time coaching the kids
to do.
“One of the main things I always
tell my guys is that every game
is only 80 minutes, but it’s all the
other time you spend with your
teammates and friends that real-
ly makes it something that you’re
going to remember,” Stewart said.
“It’s the journey as opposed to just
that final destination — because
if you’re making the journey im-
portant, that destination is going
to be that much sweeter. The peo-
ple that win games and champion-
ships, if they don’t enjoy getting
there, it’s very short-lived.”
Team camaraderie is vital to
Stewart. For him, the success of
the program is dependent upon
the enjoyment of the kids in the
long run.
“As a high school coach, you
don’t have the luxury of selection,”
said Stewart. “You are getting the
kids that are coming to your
See SOCCER 2B
Elks buck
Warriors
at home
By Zeahna Young
Cottage Grove Sentinel
On Friday (April 2), Elkton’s
football team hosted Siletz Valley
at home. The Elks played an out-
standing game and were able to
defeat the Warriors soundly, 45-
26.
According to coach Jeremy
Lockhart, the Elks were on fire
from the get-go.
“We came out of the gates really
well, we were flying,” said Lock-
hart. “We got on it early, and we
took a pretty commanding lead.”
Elkton scored 18 points in the
first quarter. Cooper Peters had
the first touchdown rushing, fol-
lowed by Jayce Clevenger throw-
ing the second touchdown to Ben
Bowen. Peters then had a 49-yard
touchdown.
They only allowed the Warriors
one touchdown in the first quar-
ter.
In the second quarter, Peters
had a five-yard touchdown run.
Clevenger then had a 59-yard
touchdown pass to Peters, who
had a 15-yard touchdown run af-
ter that, allowing the Elks to score
20 points in the second quarter,
and bringing their score to 38.
They managed to keep Siletz at
12 points, allowing them only one
touchdown in the second quarter
as well. At halftime, the score was
38-12 in Elkton’s favor.
“I was really impressed with our
defense,” said Lockhart. “That was
probably our best defensive game,
besides the Jewell game, which
was a good game, too, defensive-
ly. We tackled really well, we were
flying to the ball, and I was really
See ELKS 2B