Polk County Sports
16A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • November 1, 2017
CENTRAL ROUNDUP
Football season ends
with win over Corvallis
Itemizer-Observer staff report
INDEPENDENCE — Cen-
tral’s football team defeated
Corvallis 36-18 in the team’s
season finale.
The Panthers jumped out
to the lead, thanks to a
touchdown pass from Peter
Me n d a z o n a t o Ma rc o s
Cedillo in the first quarter.
Mendazona hit Jesse Cable
for a touchdown to put the
Panthers up 12-0 after the
first quarter.
A 37-yard field goal from
Omar gave the Panthers a
15-7 lead at the half.
The Spartans scored the
first 10 points of the second
half to take an 18-15 lead in
the third quarter. An 8-yard
touchdown from Hunter
Chase gave Central the lead
back for good.
Mendazona ran for a 1-
yard touchdown, and Tris-
tan Agard scored on a 1-
yard touchdown in the
fourth quarter for the Pan-
thers.
Ce n t ra l f i n i s h e d t h e
season with a 5-4 record
overall and 3-4 mark in
Mid-Willamette Confer-
ence play, good for fifth
place.
GIRLS SOCCER FALLS TO
WOODBURN: Central’s girls
soccer team lost to Woodburn
3-0 on Oct. 24. The Panthers fin-
ished the 2017 season with a 2-
10 record overall and 1-6 record
in league play.
Dragons
Continued from Page 14A
After what seemed a long
wait for the coach and
team, the boys learned they
earned the chance to run
one more race — on the
state biggest stage.
Dallas boys took second
place, edged out by Cres-
cent Valley, which scored 50
points to Dallas’ 52.
Junior Trevor Cross, who
took third in the race, said
the boys had been studying
Crescent Valley’s times and
believed they had shot at
beating their long-time
rival.
“This last week, we were
looking at our times and
started thinking, ‘Oh no. We
can get them,’” he said.
Cross tried out a different
strategy to finish ahead for
Crescent Valley’s top two
runners — going out fast.
“I know that they are re-
ally good a running a really
fast last mile,” he said. “My
thought was if I get ahead of
them, they won’t be able to
catch me, but I didn’t get
enough of a lead.”
They caught him in the
last mile 3.1-mile race to
take first (Drew Roberts, 15
minutes, 47.9 seconds) and
second place (AJ Sandvig,
15:51.1).
Cross finished with a
time of 16.02.1, followed by
freshman Toby Ruston
(sixth, 16:43.1); sophomore
Gavin Grass (ninth, 17:01.4);
junior Orion Knudson
(13th, 17:25.2); and fresh-
man Dillion Stuhr (21st,
17:40) to round out the
scoring.
The team may have fell
just short of beating the
Raiders, but it accom-
plished its bigger goal.
“They ran tough and they
ran like warriors,” Lankheet
said. “It’s awesome. I’m just
so proud of them.”
Ruston, who by placing
in the top seven would have
been headed as an individ-
ual, competed until the very
end. A last-second burst at
the finish line moved him
from seventh to sixth.
He said he was more
worried about his place
than his time.
“My coaches told me
what place I was in and I
just followed that,” he said.
“I just picked them off slow-
ly, one-by-one. It was a hard
finish.”
Cross, who’s headed to
state for the second time,
said he’s happy to get an-
other crack at knocking off
the district champs at the
state meet.
“As a team, we’ll see if we
can beat Crescent Valley,”
he said with a grin.
The girls team faced in-
juries to several of its run-
ners, so it wasn’t competing
for a state berth, but
Lankheet said her team’s
r unning wounded ran
courageous races Thursday.
Sophomore Melody
Hight, (31st, 23:00) was the
team’s top finisher, followed
by junior Bekah Rocak (35th,
23:14.12); junior Madelyn
Kennedy (44th, 25:34.4);
sophomore Mikayla Thiel
(45th, 36:34.9); and Rachael
Ruman (47th, 26.17.0) to
round out the top five.
The team placed seventh
in the meet.
“They didn’t run as well
as they were hoping to, but
they never gave up and
they finished and compet-
ed as hard as they could,”
Lankheet said. “If you look
at times, maybe they didn’t
get their best time, but they
battled through their pain
and finished with a lot of
class.”
DALLAS ROUNDUP
Dallas falls to Lebanon
Itemizer-Observer staff report
LEBANON — Dallas’ foot-
ball team lost to Lebanon
44-7 on Friday. The Dragons
finished the 2017 season
with a 2-7 record overall and
a 2-6 record in Mid-
Willamette Conference play,
good for seventh place.
Dallas lost its final seven
games of the season.
BOYS SOCCER FALLS TO
SOUTH ALBANY: Dallas’ boys
soccer team lost to South Al-
bany 9-1. The Dragons finished
the season with a 2-11 record
overall and a 1-6 mark in league
play.
GIRLS SOCCER LOSES TO
REBELS: Dallas’ girls soccer
team lost to South Albany 3-0 in
the team’s final match of the
season.
The Dragons finished the
2017 campaign with a 0-12
record overall and 0-7 mark in
league play.
PREP GIRLS SOCCER
Pioneers advance to state
Itemizer-Observer staff report
SALEM — Western Mennon-
ite/Perrydale’s girls soccer team
clinched a trip to the 3A-2A-1A
state playoffs after defeating
Taft 2-1 in overtime in a league
playoff match on Oct. 24.
“It was a high intensity game
with a lot on the line, so the
pressure can control your play,”
coach Matt Kenitzer said. “We
battled hard and kept fighting,
which is one of the many things
I love about our team.”
Western Mennonite/Perry-
dale lost to Blanchet Catholic 1-
0 on Saturday in the league
championship match.
The Pioneers played St.
Mary’s Tuesday after press time
in the first round of the state
playoffs. The winner advances
to face Pleasant Hill on Satur-
day.
PREP CROSS-COUNTRY
Panthers’ season comes to a bittersweet end
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
GERVAIS — Central High
School cross-country season
came to a bittersweet end
Thursday at the Mid-
Willamette Conference Dis-
trict meet.
“They ran their hearts out.
They competed,” coach Eli
Cirino said. “They ran about
like we planned on, and it
just didn’t happen today.”
The boys finished sixth in
the district and the girls fifth/
No individual runner quali-
fied for state, ending the
team’s season.
Cirino said even though
the teams didn’t cross the
state-qualifying thresholds,
there’s still a lot to be proud
of this season.
The boys’ top runner,
Jonathan Brown, placed 10th
in a time of 17 minutes, 3.8
seconds.
“He’s made incredible
progress this year as a run-
ner. It’s amazing to see,” Ciri-
no said. “He actually ran in
the JV race last year as a
sophomore, so to be 10th in
the varsity race one year later
is pretty amazing progress.”
Following Brown was
Jaime Cantu (24th,
17:45.8); Caylen Thomas
( 2 8 t h , 1 7 : 5 5 . 2 ) ; Ru f u s
Schrader (30th, 18:04.4);
and junior Maynard De-
Witt (44th, 18:40.3).
The girls team had several
seniors running their last
ra c e. C i r i n o s a i d h e’s
coached many of them since
they were sixth-graders, so
Thursday was a tough good-
bye.
“It was sad, but it was
awesome at the same time.
Those girls are like my
daughters,” Cirino said. “I
have two boys, but those are
my girls. They know it. I tell
them that all the time.”
Senior Bailie Hartford led
the Panthers, placing 16th in
a time of 21:10.1. Diana Nye
finished a place behind
Hartford in 21:18.1, followed
by sophomore Naomi Vega
Perrydale football falls to Sherman
Itemizer-Observer staff report
PERRYDALE — Perry-
dale’s football team lost to
Sherman 68-14 on Friday.
The Pirates finished the
2017 season with a 4-5
record overall and an 0-3
mark in Special District 4
play.
(20th, 21:30.6); senior Beatriz
Trujillo (32nd, 23:07.1); and
senior Bethanie Altamirano
(33rd, 23:12.1).
Cirino said he’s hopeful
for next year’s group of run-
ners.
“I feel really good about
our boys next year. We have
several strong returning
boys, several strong retuning
girls,” Cirino said. “I feel like
Diana Nye, she ran second
for us today, she’s really put
in a lot of work. She has also
made tremendous progress.
… Naomi is a sophomore
this year and also a very
strong runner. I think those
girls will step into that lead-
ership role next year.”
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