By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

TURNER, Ore.– Cascade’s Spencer Horne was that guy for the Cougars in the second half of their game against Marshfield.

It didn’t matter if he wasn’t a captain, he just knew his team needed him with the game tied with the Pirates at one going into the final forty minutes.  And he made sure he made his mark for his team.

Three second half goals by Horne helped separate Cascade in their 4-1 lead to push the Cougs record to 3-0 on the season following the home victory.

It was a slow start to the game, sure, new field conditions going to the Middle School field.  Tight conditions, but they adjusted to the new field conditions.

“We were asleep in the first half and Coach had a good speech there at halftime.  Players, our captains, got us into the game and started pushing it on up and working harder,” Horne said.  “It definitely felt nice, I got to be a leader even though I’m not a captain, I still need to be a leader for the team.  I’m a senior in my last year with the team and trying to push my teammates to do better.

“We’re hoping to be undefeated in preseason so we got one more game to go 4-0.  We’re really going to change the program around, we’re going to work hard in practice.”

It was practice about two weeks ago, a talk they had that had fired them up, either you’re out there to work or you’re not.  They want to change the culture of the program into one that’s respectable.

“Ever since then we’ve been working hard, trying to prove ourselves,” Horne said.  “We got to play our first half like how we play our second half, we got to play harder and come out strong.  That’s most important.  We’re a strong team, but when you don’t work hard, we’ll be nothing.  We’ll get outworked and move around us.  But we need to work hard and we’ll be unstoppable.”

Cascade heads to Cottage Grove on Saturday for a 5pm kickoff to close out non-league play before opening Oregon West Conference play Thursday against Philomath at home