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.