The Yreka Miners’ football team opened their season with a 27-16 win over the Trinity Wolves in Weaverville, last Friday.
Each squad scored a touchdown in the first quarter, but failed to convert the PAT. The teams matched each other again in the second quarter, with a TD and a two-point conversion, to make the score 14-14 at the half. (more…)

ETNA – After a tight first half, the Etna Lions blew open their game against the Weed Cougars in both teams season opener on Friday night. Etna score 27 second half points—20 in the third quarter.

Etna kicked off to start the contest. Weed was unable to move the ball and punted from its own 29. There was no return on the punt, and Etna took over on its own 41. One play, and fifty-nine yards later, Lion running back Travis Whittaker was celebrating in the end zone. The PAT hit the left upright, and the Lions led 6-0, with 9:17 left in the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter, the cougars took possession on their 45, following an Etna punt. Weed converted two fourth-and-short plays and moved to the Etna 13. It appeared that the Lions had stopped the Cougars drive, when Jordan Pehle-Munson picked off a pass in the end zone. However, a roughing the passer call on the Lions gave the ball back to the Cougars on the Etna 8-yard-line. Three plays later, Weed’s Travis Andrews punched into the end zone, tying the score 6-6. Omar Fernandez’ PAT hit the crossbar, and bounced through. The Cougars led 7-6, at the half. (more…)

WEED – The College of the Siskiyous hosted the COS Classic on Friday, with the COS Lady Eagles, Napa Lady Storm, and Sierra Lady Wolverines participating.

The Lady Eagles won their first match 3-2 over Napa. COS won a tough first game 31-29, but Napa rebounded to take game-two 25-22. The Lady Eagles went ahead again, winning game-three 25-21. However, the Storm blew away the Eagles in game-four 25-10.

That set up the decisive game-five. The Lady Eagles jumped to a 5-1 lead, but Napa battled back to take the lead 8-7. A block by Laura McMahon tied the game at 8-8, and COS scored the next two points to take a 10-8 lead. The Storm tied it again at 10-10, and again a McMahon block started a mini three point run by COS, including a McMahon kill, making it 13-10. A kill by Kinzy Towry made it match point for the Lady Eagles at 14-11. The Storm narrowed the gap to 14-13, but COS held on to win the game 15-13.

The Lady Eagles dropped their next match to Sierra 1-3 (25-22, 18-25, 22-25, 16-25). Sierra also beat Napa, to go 2-0 at the Classic. Napa was 0-2.

Overall, Coach Tom Powers was happy with the performance of his team.

“We’re going to be good,” said Powers. “We’ll figure it out. We play Tuesday. So, we’ll see if we learned anything.”

COS hosts Umpqua on Tuesday, September 2, at 5:00 pm.

ETNA – The Etna Lions have made the playoffs for two straight years, and are coming off a solid 2007 campaign, finishing 7-4 overall. Of course, last year they had the top quarterback, wide receiver, and linebacker in the Shasta Cascade League. Indeed, all three were in the top three at their position in the North Section. They’ve all graduated, leaving a lot of questions for Etna.

Etna participated in a scrimmage with Yreka, Mt. Shasta, and Weed last Friday. Despite not having five or six starters at the scrimmage, Coach Ken Dysert liked what he saw. And, he came to what might be a surprising conclusion.

“We got a look at everybody, and that’s what I wanted to do—get a fair look at everybody,” said Dysert “I think defensively, we’re better than we have been since I’ve been herel. We’ve got good team speed on the defensive side of the ball. No big burners, but in overall team speed, we’re better than we have been.”

Two areas that Dysert feels need work are the offensive and defensive lines. The offensive line in particular could have a big impact on the proficiency of the Lion offense.

“Offensively, we have a lot of work to do. I think we’ll be as good as that line wants to be,” said Dysert.

Asked about players that have surprised him this preseason, Dysert noted two. (more…)

WEED – In what has to be the biggest win in the history of their soccer program, the Weed Cougars defeated the Tulelake Honkers 3-2 on Thursday. In order to understand the magnitude of the win, one has to look at the two team’s recent history.

Over the last three seasons, the Cougars were a combined 5-31-4. Tulelake was 40-5-0. Tulelake has been to the last three Small Schools Division championship games, winning once. When the teams met last year, Tulelake embarrassed the Cougars 12-1.

Make no mistake. This was a huge win for the Cougars.

About five minutes into the game, you could sense that the Cougars had something going, when Salvador Avila scored a goal worthy of an ESPN highlight segment, making it 1-0. Daniel Paulin had the assist.

More evidence of something special happening for the Cougars surfaced in the twelfth minute when Tulelake hit the crossbar with a shot; it didn’t go in. Just before halftime, a shot got behind Weed goalkeeper Roberto Sanchez, but Sanchez turned and dove for the ball, denying Tulelake the game-tying tally. (more…)

WEED – The Weed Cougars finished the 2007 season at 2-8 overall, and fifth in the Shasta Cascade League, at 1-4. The Cougars have had a couple of down years, but may be poised for a better showing this season under the guidance of new Coach Steve Neel.

Among other changes, Neel has put in a new offense and realizes that it will take time for his squad to learn and master all the intricacies.

“We put in a new offense this year. And, when you try to do something like that, everything changes—terminology and everything. So, it’s still ongoing. We’ve put in about half our offense, and in the scrimmage (last week) we were very basic. We have other things that our offense has to have in to be successful,” said Neel. “Going into our first ball game against Etna, I feel like we’re getting there.” (more…)

HAYFORK – The Etna Lady Lions opened their volleyball season with a long and winding trip to Hayfork to face the always tough Lady Timberjacks. Early in the match it appeared that Etna was well on its way to beating Hayfork for the second straight season opener.

Etna won the first two sets 25-19, and 25-18. They were leading in set three, but allowed the Lady Timberjacks to come back and win 26-24. Hayfork went on to win set four convincingly, 25-14, and set five 15-11. (more…)

MOUNT SHASTA – Mt. Shasta High School football player Corben Brooks was severely injured during a pre-season scrimmage last Friday, and is in the intensive care unit at Mercy Medical Center, in Redding.

Brooks suffered damage to his neck and spinal cord, and initially was paralyzed from the neck down. Following surgery, Brooks regained some movement and feeling above the waist, with the possibility of further improvement.

Several efforts are underway to raise money to assist the Brooks family in coping with their medical expenses. (more…)

WEED – The Weed Cougars soccer team took the field with a new coach, and a new and improved style of play. However, Coach Mike Gilmore and his squad will have to wait a bit for their first win, after dropping the season opener to the Redding Christian Lions 4-2.

Spectators were treated to a physical match, with multiple momentum swings. Weed had the better of the early play, and narrowly missed notching the contest’s first goal at the four minute mark, when a shot by Usmaro Sanchez was tipped by the Lion goal keeper, and then went off the crossbar.

Near the midway point in the first half, Redding Christian seemed to gain an advantage in play. With about twenty-five minutes gone, Lion Drew VanderWerff shanked a shot from point blank range, but would redeem himself later in the match, twice.

VanderWerff found the back of the Cougar net with three minutes remaining in the half, to give Redding Christian a 1-0 lead going into the intermission.

Four minutes into the second half, a foul was called on the Lions’ goalkeeper in the box, and Omar Fernandez was awarded a penalty kick. Fernandez placed his kick perfectly into the corner of the net, to tie the match 1-1.

Six minutes later the Cougars took the lead 2-1, when Lori Garcia fought a crowd for possession of the ball in front of the Lion net, and tapped it home. (more…)