Top performances: Cottage Grove and Churchill boys soccer, Sheldon and Thurston volleyball
As the postseason is set to begin for some fall high school sports, Eugene-area teams saw a couple league title wins.
Cottage Grove and Churchill boys soccer and Sheldon and Thurston volleyball are among this week's top performances.
Each week, The Register-Guard highlights top performances from student-athletes and teams. Coaches can send stats and nominate a player of the week by emailing enoriega@registerguard.com.
Here are this week's top prep performers.
Cottage Grove boys soccer wins Sky Em League
Tristyn Burnes scored the tying goal Wednesday night at Marist Catholic as the Cottage Grove boys soccer team were crowned the Sky Em League champions for the first time since 2017.
The Lions needed a win or tie against Marist in a duel between the first and second-place teams in the league, and a 2-2 draw is what the Lions got.
Cottage Grove finished the regular season 11-2-1, 7-0-1. Marist, at 9-3-2, 6-1-1, finished in second as the OSAA boys soccer playoffs are set to begin soon.
Cottage Grove had multiple scoring chances, but substitute keeper Raith Huffman helped Marist keep the game scoreless in the first half.
Senior Javi Sandoval-Gongora scored the first goal of the night for the Spartans with 17:55 left in the second half.
Armando Legorreta's assist off a corner kick to Eli Williams evened the score for the Lions with 5:20 left in the match.
A minute later, the Spartans regained a 2-1 lead when Joey Cooper netted a right-footed goal to the left corner of the net. Cameron Kline earned the assist.
Burnes scored the tying goal with 1:21 remaining.
"This is a testament to the work that the team has put in throughout the preseason," Cottage Grove head coach Jaime Urenda said. "And then throughout the whole season itself off the field and just working as hard as they can. Buying into what us coaches are trying to do, what our philosophy is and then going with it."
Churchill lands late goal, remains undefeated in league play
SPRINGFIELD — Churchill freshman forward Alonzo Reyes recorded the winning goal late in the second half to come away with a 1-0 victory over Springfield on Tuesday.
"My coach promotes pressure, so I attack every and I'm pretty fast," Reyes said. "So, if I see pressure and the goalie is not all the way, then I'll just try to tip it in or toe it."
Churchill improved to 4-4-3 overall and 3-0-1 in league play, remaining at the top of the Midwestern League as the Lancers enter the final week of the regular season. Churchill plays Thurston/Mohawk (6-4-2, 3-1) at Thurston Stadium at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The Millers dropped to 1-10-1 overall and 1-2-1 in league play after tying Crater 2-2 on Saturday. Springfield will host North Eugene (1-8-3, 0-4) at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Sheldon repeats as Southwest Conference champions
The Sheldon volleyball team is now back-to-back Southwest Conference champions.
With their 25-21, 25-18, 25-19 victory over North Medford on Thursday, Sheldon completed the regular season 21-8 overall and 11-1 in league play.
Senior outside hitter Jordan McKibben led the Irish with 11 kills. Senior middle blocker Gracee Robertson had seven kills and two blocks.
Emma Fairbairn led Sheldon with 10 digs and Alyssa Lewey had 27 assists and added seven digs and four aces.
The first round of the Class 6A volleyball state playoffs begin on Wednesday when Sheldon hosts Tigard (10-10, 6-6) at a time to be announced.
Thurston earns No. 3 OSAA Class 5A ranking
Class 5A Thurston volleyball is No. 3 in the OSAA rankings after beating Springfield at home, losing at Crater and winning against Eagle Point this week.
Thurston (18-5, 11-1) extended their winning streak Thursday to 10 with a sweep at home (25-14, 25-20, 25-7) against Springfield before having its streak snapped at Crater on Saturday.
Julia Cook led the Colts with 16 kills and five aces, Bailey Tovey had 16 digs and added six kills and one block against Springfield.
North Eugene volleyball ends regular season on a high note
The North Eugene volleyball team closed out the regular season with a thrilling four-set victory over No. 7 ranked Churchill on Thursday.
Senior libero Sarah Speasl finished with 27 digs, 10 assists and two aces. Junior setter Cameron Pierce led with 20 kills and added 27 digs and four aces.
North Eugene ended the regular season 5-18 overall and 2-10 in league play.
Churchill is set to host Ashland (7-16, 2-9) at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday in a league matchup.
Pleasant Hill girls soccer beats Elmira
Senior Lydia Whitney scored the lone goal with an assist from senior co-captain Tressa Geyer as the Pleasant Hill girls soccer team defeated Elmira 1-0 on senior night Thursday.
The Billies closed out the regular season 8-5-2 overall and 8-4-2 in league play. Elmira dropped to 5-10 overall and 4-10 in league.
Pleasant Hill hosts Santiam Christian (5-7-2, 5-7-2) in a league playoff game at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Edith Noriega is a sports reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at ENoriega@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Noriega_Edith.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Sheldon volleyball, Cottage Grove boys soccer win league titles
