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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2017)
Polk County Sports Polk County Itemizer-Observer • October 11, 2017 9A Dragons Continued from Page 8A His freshman year, that’s not what he saw in Dallas. He saw a fragmented team that rarely bonded off the field and didn’t play togeth- er on it. “When I came in as a freshman, it was just a lot of individual play,” Davison said. That has slowly changed. “We’ve grown with one another,” he said. “We joke around in school. We have fun in practices. I think it's great we have some fresh- men who are playing really well, because they are the future of this program.” Davison has done all he could to help his team- mates learn and grow. “Michael is a natural leader,” coach John Jones said. “Athletically, it’s in- c re d i b l e s o m e o f t h e things he can pull off on the field. He can score, and he can pass. He gives us a lot of options on the attack.” Even when it didn’t show on the scoreboard, Davison saw the improvement – a crisp pass here or a scoring chance there. Against Lebanon, things came together in a big way, with multiple players scor- ing goals against the War- riors. “I was able to score be- cause of some beautiful as- sists from my teammates,” Davison said. “It was our first league win in six years. That meant everything to me.” The Dragons followed that match with a 4-1 loss to Crescent Valley on Thursday. Dallas trailed 2-1 at the half before the Raiders pulled away in the second half. In past years, that loss would have been much worse. In 2016, the Dragons lost to the Raiders 7-1. Now, Jones’ attention is turning players attitudes on their heads from expecting to lose to believing they can win. “We had a decent per- formance and played well,” Jones said. “We have to learn not to be satisfied with that. This team can be better. We have to figure out and decide that we can compete with the top teams. It’s hard because there’s still that little doubt in the back of their minds.” Building the soccer pro- gram, will take time, but it’s getting there. “We played a beautiful game,” Davison said. Wolves: Junior leads WOU to win Continued from Page 8A Now, the Wolves look to build on Saturday’s win. WOU hosts Alaska Fair- banks Thursday at 7 p.m. and Alaska Anchorage Sat- urday at 7 p.m. “We want to take that next step,” Gott said. “We talk about always wanting to climb up the ladder. We don’t want to plateau. (The Alaska teams) are playing good ball. We have to ac- cept the challenge and win the little battles within the whole match.” The Wolves entered the week in a three-way tie for eighth place in the GNAC standings. It wasn’t the start they e n v i s i o n e d , b u t Va n - denkooy can see brighter days ahead. “We’ve had a rough be- ginning,” Vandenkooy said. “I think the pieces are fi- nally coming together and things are starting to turn around. We’re hungry for more.” WESTERN OREGON ROUNDUP Duckworth ties school mark with six TD passes Itemizer-Observer staff report BURNABY, B.C. — Quar- terback Nick Duckworth tied a school record with six touchdown passes to help Western Oregon University’s football team dominate Simon Fraser 82-21 on Sat- urday. The points were the most scored by WOU since joining Division II. Duckworth threw five of his six touchdowns in the first half, as the Wolves built a 44-14 lead at the break. D u c k - worth fin- ished the game with 294 yards. Receiver Paul Revis had five catches Duckworth for 69 yards and three touch- downs. Keoni Piceno had two catches for 112 yards and two touchdowns, and returned a punt for a touchdown. Running back Taylor Poyadue rushed for 130 yards and a t o u c h - d o w n . D e v o n Revis Fortier and Phillip Fenumiai also had rushing touchdowns. Defensive back Trebriel Larry also returned an inter- ception 55 yards for a touch- down. The Wolves gained 604 yards of total offense. WOU (2-4 overall, 1-3 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) returns home to host Central Washington Saturday at 1 p.m. WOMEN'S SOCCER DE- FEATS CENTRAL WASHING- T O N : W e s t e r n O r e g o n ’s women’s soccer team defeated Central Washington 2-0 on Sat- urday. The Wolves and Wildcats played to a scoreless tie in the first half before Sydney Thomas scored in the opening mo- ments of the second half to give the Wolves the lead. Meli Cortez added a goal in the 55th minute. WOU (2-7-1, 1-4-1 GNAC) plays at Montana State, Billings on Thursday and at Northwest Nazarene on Saturday. WOU ANNOUNCES HALL OF FAME CLASS: Western Ore- gon announced its 2017 Hall of Fame class. Bob Frantz (men’s basketball and baseball), Toby Wolf (men’s basketball, football and track and field), Rob Mobley (track and field and football), Jessica Jones (volleyball), Shana Lavier (softball and volleyball), and Wayne Hamersly (Meritus serv- ice) were voted into the Wolves’ Hall of fame. The 2017 class will be recog- nized Saturday during the WOU football and volleyball games and will be officially in- ducted during a ceremony be- tween games. The ceremony will be held at the conclusion of the football game, estimated around 4:45 p.m., in the Willamette Room in Werner University Center. Fo r m o re i n fo r m a t i o n : www.wouwolves.com. PREP FOOTBALL Rebels rally in fourth quarter to stun Dragons By Lukas Eggen The Itemizer-Observer DALL AS — Halfway through the fourth quar- ter, it appeared Dallas’ football team was headed toward its first league vic- tory of the season on Homecoming night. A pair of rushing touch- downs in the fourth quar- ter from Brycen Grillo gave the Dragons an 18-7 lead over South Albany with 5:37 left in the game. The Rebels had other plans, scoring two touch- downs to stun Dallas 22-18 on Friday. The rally started thanks to a 30-yard touchdown pass from Rebel quarter- back Jake Costello to Eli Nafziger that trimmed Dallas’ lead to 18-15 with 3:27 remaining. The Dragons received the ensuing kickoff and needed three first downs to be able to run the clock out. LUKAS EGGEN/Itemizer-Observer Dallas’ Treve Earhart (43) reacts after the Dragons lost to South Albany 22-18 on Friday. Dallas led 18-7 in the fourth quarter before the Rebels rallied for the victory. Dallas drove into Rebel territory, but South Albany recovered and returned a fumble to the Dragons’ 39- yard line with 1:13 left in the game. Three plays later, the Rebels scored from 2 yards out to take a 22-18 lead Final draft outlines new league makeups for 2018-22 By Lukas Eggen The Itemizer-Observer POLK COUNTY — The OSAA Classification and Districting Committee re- leased its final recommen- dations for new leagues for 2018-22. T h e Mi d - W i l l a m e t t e League, of which Dallas and Central are a part, would in- crease to 10 teams. Previous drafts had eight teams in the MWC. Under the final recom- mendation, Woodburn will no longer be a part of the MWC while North Salem, Cascade and West Albany will join the league. Current league members Central, Dallas, Corvallis, Crescent Valley, Lebanon, Silverton and South Albany will remain part of the league. “It seems like it changes every time,” Central athletic director Shane Hedrick said. “I don’t know if it’s a good thing for Cascade. I don’t know if it’s a good thing for North Salem to leave the other Salem schools, but they are proba- bly looking at information I’m not privy to. Whatever they decide, we’ll make it work.” Dallas athletic director Tim Larson said he was in support of the proposed league. “With a league of 10, there’s no nonleague games necessary for football,” Lar- son said. “In other sports, we don’t have to schedule as many preseason games. We love having West Albany. All of us, we’re going to do well. I don’t know what the pitfalls are going to be, but it can’t be that bad. Our big push was, just keep us to- gether. We work so well to- gether and proximity, we’re close.” At the 1A level, Perry- dale and Falls City will be part of the Casco League, which would have 10 teams: Falls City, Perry- dale, C.S. Lewis, Crosshill Christian, Jewell, Living- stone Adventist, Oregon School for the Deaf, St. Pa u l , Ve r i t a s a n d Willamette Valley Chris- tian. The OSAA Executive Board and Delegate Assem- bly will meet on Oct. 16 in Wilsonville to consider the final recommendation. The Board will consider member school and public input, either written or in person, prior to acting on the recommendation. The Delegate Assembly will subsequently meet to adopt cutoff points. with 51 seconds left. “It was a gut-wrencher,” coach Tracy Jackson said. “Sometimes when you’re giving that extra effort, that’s when goofy things like that can happen.” Dallas got off to a slow start against the Rebels. South Albany took a 7-0 lead into the half after Dal- las lost two fumbles. “ We’r e s t a r t i n g o u t s l o w, ” r u n n i n g b a c k Brycen Grillo said. “We’re getting to halftime, getting yelled at by coaches — I’m not saying that’s a bad thing — and the leaders on the team are trying to get everyone to go out there and perform.” The Dragons got on the board in the third quarter after Evan Courtney scored on a 10-yard run. The game was the third heartbreaking loss in as many weeks. Dallas led Glencoe 35-33 on Sept. 22 before Glencoe returned an interception 9 9 - y a rd s t o s c o re t h e game-winning touchdown. T h e Dra g o n s t ra i l e d Central 21-14 on Sept. 29 before fumbling at the 1- yard line, allowing the Panthers to run out the clock. “It feels like we’ve been a little snake-bit, but it comes with the territory,” Jackson said. “You better be able to handle what’s coming. We’re going to keep working hard, correct some things that made it hard on us and get ready for the next game.” Dallas (2-4 overall, 0-3 Mid-Willamette Confer- ence) plays at Corvallis Thursday at 7 p.m. “I think everyone has to realize you’re not doing this for yourself. You’re doing it for everyone around you,” Grillo said. “Once we start figuring that out, we’ve got the skills and everything we need to be a good football team.” DALLAS ROUNDUP Cross places fifth at Harrier Classic Itemizer-Observer staff report DALLAS — Dallas junior cross-country runner Trevor Cross finished fifth at the Harrier Classic on Saturday. Cross finished the 5,000- meter race in 16 min- utes, 3.90 s econds. Cross The Drag- ons’ boys squad finished seventh in the team stand- ings. Gavin Grass placed 29th in 16:55.70, and team- mate Toby Ruston took 30th in 16:55.90. Orion Knudson took 82nd in 18:52.70, and Ryan Bibler rounded out the team’s scoring runners, fin- ishing 125th in 18:33.70. Bekah Rocak took 114th in the girls race with a time of 22:35.90. Dallas will compete at the George Fox XC Classic on Saturday at Willamette Mis- sion State Park in Gervais. GIRLS SOCCER DROPS TWO: Dallas’ girls soccer team opened league play with a pair of losses. The Dragons fell to Lebanon 8-0 on Oct. 3 and Crescent Valley 10-0 on Thurs- day. Dallas lost to Corvallis 9-0 on Monday. The Dragons (0-7 overall, 0-2 Mid-Willamette Conference) host Silverton Wednesday (today) at 4 p.m. before playing at Central Tuesday at 6 p.m. FALLS CITY ROUNDUP Falls City football defeats Horizon Christian 66-6 Itemizer-Observer staff report FALLS CITY — Falls City’s football team rolled to a 66-6 victory over Horizon Chris- tian on Friday. Senior Noah Sickles had 12 rushes for 150 yards and three touchdowns. Sickles also had six solo tackles on defense. Jeremy Labrado ran 10 times for 123 yards and two touchdowns. The Mountaineers (4-1 overall, 2-0 Special District 3) host Yoncalla Friday at 7 p.m. in the team’s final home game of the regular season. Falls City has won four games in a row since a sea- son-opening loss to Dufur. VOLLEYBALL EARNS A PAIR OF WINS: Falls City’s vol- leyball team earned a pair of league wins last week. The Mountaineers defeat- ed Livingstone Adventist 25- 17, 25-22, 21-25, 25-16 on Oct. 3 before defeating C.S. Lewis 26-24, 25-13, 25-21 on Thursday. Stats were not available as of press time. Falls City (6-8 overall, 4-6 Casco League) played Willamette Valley Christian Tuesday after press time. The Mountaineers entered the week in fifth place in the league standings. Falls City hosts Jewell Tues- day at 6 p.m. in the team’s final regular season match of the season.
