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.