By James Day
The Stayton High boys soccer team has won its sixth consecutive Oregon West Conference title, and the Eagles will take an 11-0-2 record into the playoffs.
Stayton, which lost 2-0 to Oregon West Conference rival North Marion in last year’s Class 4A title game, played two pressure-packed matches with the Huskies this season. The two sides battled to a 1-1 draw Sept. 29 at Aurora, with the Eagles taking command of the league race with a 3-2 win Oct. 22 at Stayton. The Eagles closed the season in dominant fashion, blanking Cascade 3-0 and Philomath 8-0.
“North Marion is a very good team with 11 seniors, many of which were part of the state title team from last year,” Stayton coach Chris Shields told Our Town. “We seem to step up in games like that, but you can’t take anything away from them. Our keys to victory is nothing more than playing with effort, believing we can win, and having two of the better players in the league with Ivan Navarro and Freddy Navarro.”
Ivan scored twice against North Marion and Freddy once. Their senior leadership has been crucial on a side that includes two freshmen, three sophomores and one junior in the starting lineup. One of the freshmen, goalkeeper Juan Navarro (the three Navarros are second cousins) “has kept us in games,” Shields said, adding that Chris Peregrina and Christian Gomez have been key contributors defensively.
The Eagles have a bye this weekend and will host a playoff game Nov. 3 against an opponent yet to be determined. Stayton is seeded first, with North Marion No. 3. Cascade, which finished third in the Oregon West and tied Stayton 2-2 on Oct. 1, hosts Elmira this weekend in the play-in round.
Football: Four area teams will be participating in the playoffs in three classes. Cascade and Stayton have advanced in Class 4A, Scio in Class 3A and Regis in Class 2A. And three of the teams – Cascade, Scio and Regis – are ranked in the top 5 by the OSAA.
Cascade rallied from an Oregon West Conference-opening loss to Philomath to run the table, finishing the regular season 4-1 in league and 7-1 overall. Included was a 31-7 win against arch-rival Stayton on Oct. 16 before an overflow crowd in Stayton.
The Eagles came into the contest undefeated, but the Cougars used a relentless ground game and stout defense to control the game. Senior running back Garrett Coffey carried the ball 41 times for 298 yards and a touchdown and senior quarterback Jon Schirmer passed for two scores and ran for one. In addition, the Cascade defense held Stayton to two first downs in the second half.
Cascade and Stayton, which finished 3-2 in league and 6-2 overall, both will play at home in the first round of the playoffs this weekend. The Cougars host Klamath Union, and the Eagles entertain Gladstone.
Scio, which is 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the PacWest, is ranked No. 1 in Class 3A. The Loggers close the regular season this weekend against Chemawa and will face their first playoff test Nov. 6-7.
Regis, which scored an impressive 35-18 win against previously undefeated Central Linn on Oct. 23, closes the Tri-River Conference season at Santiam and a win will give the Rams a share of the league title with Kennedy. Central Linn, meanwhile, can make it a three-way knot at the top with a win vs. St. Paul. Regis almost assuredly will have a home game when the Class 2A playoffs open the weekend of Nov. 6-7.
Volleyball: Cascade captured its third consecutive Oregon West title and will take the seventh seed into the Class 4A playoffs. Cascade, which finished the league season with a 9-1 mark, one game ahead of Philomath, will host a match Oct. 31 against a team that was not yet determined by Our Town presstime. A win on Halloween puts Cascade in the Nov. 6-7 state tournament at Forest Grove. The Cougars took sixth last year at state and were runners-up in 2013.
Cascade is 12-5 overall, with two of the losses to Class 4A’s top two teams, Banks and Sisters.
Cross country: Cascade girls team took second in the Oct. 24 Oregon West Conference district meet at Willamette Mission State Park and the Cougars will participate in this weekend’s OSAA Class 4A state championships at Lane Community College in Eugene.
The Cougars scored 44 points, 30 behind champion Philomath. Leading the way for Cascade was junior Lizzie Mack, who finished the 5,000 meters sixth in 20:55.8. Also scoring for Cascade were junior Celini Ciampi-Hicks (ninth in 21:37.2), sophomore Kalulu Ngaida (10th in 21:47.6), freshman Adriane Bergerson (12th in 22:08.6) and junior Emmalee Moul (15th in 23:04.5).
Stayton finished fourth in the team race, led by senior Mackenzie Anundi, who was 14th in 23:03.9.
In the boys competition Cascade was fourth and Stayton was fifth. Sophomore Casey Pugh finished third for the Eagles in 16:41.9, while Cascade junior Nate Lack was fourth in 16:45.5. Both Lack and Pugh will compete in the state meet as individuals.
Meanwhile, the resurgent program at Santiam took fifth in the boys competition at the Special District 2 meet Oct. 22 at Bush’s Pasture Park, led by senior Caleb Stair, who finished 17th in 18:43.4. Sophomore Sophie Damon finished 37th in the girls race in 28:31.7, but the Wolverines did not have enough runners to compete as a full team.
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