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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 2015)
PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, DECEMBER 18, 2015 KEIZERTIMES.COM Wrestlers win 3 of 5 duals KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald Celt freshman Brooke Burrows picks up near-fall points en route to her fi rst win as part of the McNary varsity wrestling team Thursday, Dec. 10. By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes The McNary High School varsity wrestling team got a lot of mat time last week, but only one Celt emerged from the fray unscathed. Junior Wyatt Kessler won all fi ve of his matches in two days. “What’s made the differ- ence is getting with the best partners and the toughest ones during practices,” said Kessler, who also wrestles with Sa- lem Elite Wrestling Club at Sprague High School. Kessler said the best match of the bunch was with Afansay Chernishoff of Silverton High School at a tournament Fri- day, Dec. 11. “It was good because he was tough and strong and I had to overcome that with technique,” Kessler said. Kes- sler won by pin in the third round. McNary won three of fi ve duals at the Silverton Tourna- ment, but it was the two losses that stuck in the craw of Jason Ebbs, McNary head coach. “We lost to Mountain View and Cascade (high schools). Both of them had solid pro- grams, but we lost and I didn’t think that was going to hap- pen. Both those teams also lost to Silverton and I thought we were going to have some trouble with them, too, but we KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald McNary’s Jerry Martinez drags down his South Salem opponent. got the win,” Ebbs said. After the losses, Ebbs pulled the team aside for a pep talk and McNary won the Silver- ton match 42-37. “The lesson we got was just to raise our expectations. We have to stop asking ourselves if we can compete and just go out there and start listening to our hearts,” Ebbs said. McNary junior Sean Bur- rows said his Silverton match was the highlight of the week. He won by pin in the fi rst round. Burrows said a re- freshed mental approach has seen him through this season after a rough sophomore year. “I’m more prepared men- tally to go out a little more at- ease and ready to do my thing. It was a lot of time spent just trying to stop dogging myself, but there’s also been a lot of KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald Celt Madi Hingston makes a drive to the hoop in the West Albany game Friday, Dec. 11. help from my teammates who are looking to me and believ- ing I can do it,” Burrows said. Other winners in the Sil- verton match were: Jerry Martinez by pin in the sec- ond round; Brayden Ebbs by pin in the fi rst round; Drake Repp by pin in the fi rst round; Kyle Bonn by pin in the sec- ond round; and Joey Kibbey by forfeit. McNary lost the Cascade match 47-27. McNary match winners were: Kibbey by pin; Burrows by major decision; Jon Phelps by pin; Kessler by technical fall; and Brooke Burrows by pin. The Celtics lost to Moun- tain View 38-31. McNary winners were: Tony Castaneda by decision; B. Ebbs by major decision; Kessler by decision; Rally not enough to beat Tualatin Please see WRESTLE, Page A11 Please see GIRLS, Page A11 By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes At the end of the third quarter, in a non- league girls varsity basketball match with Tu- alatin High School, the Lady Celts were trailing 54-38. “Going into the fourth quarter, we told them that if they could get the lead down to single digits by the fi nal four minutes, we could win,” said Derick Handley, McNary High School head coach. With four minutes left in the game Tuesday, Dec. 8, the Lady Celts had cut the Timber- wolves’ lead to 11 points, and the Keizer girls lost by four points, 68-64. It was the fi rst loss for the McNary team this season, but the game tested the mettle in ways few expected. At the end of the fi rst half, the Lady Celts had dug themselves a 25-point defi cit. “We were just shocked they were pressuring so much and by how aggressive they were,” said Kaelie Flores, a Celtic senior. The Timberwolves ran up a huge lead by holding McNary to eight points in the fi rst frame and nine in the second. “We came out really slow to shoot in the fi rst half, and point-blank shots, too,” Hand- ley said. “We had brain freezes on running our press break and we were getting trapped on plays we should never have gotten trapped on.” After the half, Handley said the team went on the offensive rather than sitting and waiting to be attacked. “I was proud of how we came together and came out making adjustments to beat their press,” said Madi Hingston, a McNary senior. While the effort fell short of the win, she said the team might have given up but didn’t. Timberwolves, Dawgs fall to Celts By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes Slow starts made for some in- tense moments but eventually led to a pair of wins for the McNary High School boys varsity basketball team last week. “We started off a little slow and unprepared in both games, but we defi nitely fi xed that as the second halves started,” said Alex Martin, a McNary junior. The Celtics played Tualatin High School to a 56-43 win Tuesday, Dec. 8, then handed West Albany High School its most decisive defeat (58- 40) so far this season Friday, Dec. 11. “I think we made good adjust- ments in the second half of both games. We shared the ball well and defended well in the second halves,” said Celt senior Harry Cavell. In the fi rst frame of the game with the Timberwolves, McNary ran up a 10-point lead with the help of consistent shooting by ju- nior Adam Harvey. Tualatin kept pressure high, closed the gap and then took a 20- 17 lead just after the start of the second period. The Timberwolves rode the surge out through the end of the half. The teams went to the locker room with McNary trailing 31-30. “We had a competitive fi rst half with Tualatin, but we gave up too many points,” said Ryan Kirch, Mc- Nary head coach. Celt Mathew Ismay tied the game from the foul line at the top of the third frame. Cade Goff put the Celts ahead on a two-point bucket. After Martin struck from three- point range to make the score 38- 36, McNary maintained the lead the rest of the night. Cavell led the team on offense with 16 points. Harvey, who ended up under heavy coverage after his blistering start, fi nished with 10 points for the outing. The Celts started out from be- hind and stayed there for much of the fi rst half in the game with West Albany High School. “We come out at the beginning and try to force stuff offensively when we could do more to move the ball with the pass, and that hap- pens in almost every game,” said Cavell. It wasn’t until the beginning of the second quarter that McNary found its legs on offense, beginning with two-point and three-point buckets by junior Easton Neitzel. McNary fi nally overtook the Bulldogs at 5:12 in the second frame, but it was a short-lived lead. The half ended with a three-point buzzer-beater by Ismay that cut West’s lead to 25-22. From the outset of the third quarter, it was a different game for McNary. Between strong attacks and stifl ing defense, the Celts out- scored the Bulldogs 24-6. “In the third quarter, we made the extra passes and made more bal- anced shots,” said Martin. From that point onward, Mc- Nary controlled the pace and tone of the game to emerge with the win. “We played how we envision ourselves playing,” Kirch said. “We were passing, attacking, running and trapping and it showed in the score.” Cavell led scoring with 18 points. Neitzel added 17, including 4 of 6 from three-point range. McNary’s opponents this week were North Salem High School Please see BOYS, Page A11 KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald Under heavy coverage, McNary’s Mathew Ismay looks for an open teammate in the game with West Albany High School Friday, Dec. 11.