PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016
KEIZERTIMES.COM
‘Gus’ returns to McNary
LIFE
OF
W iley
Celtics
show
fi ght in
Week 1
One game in, it is way too
early to tell if McNary is a
contender in the Greater Valley
Conference. But one thing is
for sure—the Celtics will not
go down without a fi ght.
They proved that again
and again Friday, Sept. 2 in a
come-from-behind 38-35 win
over North Salem that was as
exciting as any high school
football game you will see.
Playing on the road,
McNary could not have gotten
off to a better start. After the
Celtic defense forced a three-
and-out, the offense marched
down the fi eld to take a quick
7-0 lead.
But the Vikings defense
stopped McNary on 4th-and-
goal from the 1-yard line and
answered with 21 straight
points, taking advantage of
two McNary turnovers, to lead
by two touchdowns with 15
seconds remaining in the fi rst
half.
Instead of taking a knee and
regrouping, McNary tried to
grab the momentum going
into halftime.
At midfi eld, quarterback
Josiah Gilbert, who had just
thrown an interception that
led to a Vikings touchdown,
stepped up in the pocket
and rocketed a Hail Mary to
Brendan Van Voorhis, who
boxed out his defender to
come down with the football
in the end zone.
Down 35-24, the Celtics
chances of winning their
season opener looked even
more inauspicious with 7:21
remaining in the fourth quarter.
But McNary, again, did not
give up.
Gilbert got the Celtics
within fi ve points on a 1-yard
touchdown run, the defense
got a quick stop and then
Marc Baiza scored the game-
winning touchdown.
“I am just relieved and so
happy,” Gilbert said after the
game. “I can’t even explain to
you how happy I am to see us
come back and battle, keep our
noses in it and keep pushing
and pushing, keep the tempo
going. We just came together as
a team. We just zoned in.”
Head coach Jeff Auvinen was
impressed by the comeback.
“It’s competitive. It’s a will
to win,” he said “I saw some
things in my team I didn’t
know were there. It’s defi nitely
exciting.”
McNary will fi nd out just
how good it is the next two
weeks with the home opener
Friday, Sept. 9 against back-to-
back league champion South
Salem and then a road game
versus Sprague, who certainly
looked the part in Week 1,
handling the Saxons 48-7.
But no one should
underestimate the Celtics,
especially not their fi ght.
At least not after Week 1.
Just ask North Salem.
(Derek Wiley is the Associate
Editor of the Keizertimes.
Opions expressed are those of
the writer)
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Gustavo Villalvazo, No. 3, returned to the McNary boys soccer
team after tearing his ACL last October.
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
McNary got one of its cap-
tains back.
Less than a year after tear-
ing his ACL, senior Gustavo
Villalvazo returned to the
fi eld Thursday, Sept. 1 to help
the Celtics shut out Lebanon
7-0 for their fi rst win of the
season.
“I’m back, never felt bet-
ter,” Villalvazo said. “The team
was excellent. They were per-
fect in every way, high pres-
sure, defensive wise, offensive
wise, ball control, possession,
everything was good. It felt
good to be back.”
Villalvazo suffered the
season-ending injury on Oct.
13 in a 3-3 tie against Forest
Grove and McNary went on
to lose three of its fi nal four
games.
While rehabbing the knee
through physical therapy
fi ve days a week, Villalvazo
thought of his teammates and
returning for his senior year.
“We have a bunch of good
guys and I just wanted to play
with them and make this town
proud,” Villalvazo said.
McNary
head
coach
Miguel Camarena said Vil-
lalvazo’s ability to control the
pace of the game was the key
to the Celtics win over Leba-
non.
“When I see a kid work-
ing that had to come back and
play the game, I love it,” Ca-
marena said. “This is a kid that
can play at the next level and
I’m happy to have him back.”
After scoring one goal on a
penalty kick in its fi rst game,
McNary put on an emphasis
on fi nishing, which paid off
almost instantly as the Celtics
scored two goals in the fi rst
fi ve minutes against Lebanon.
The fi rst goal came from
Jesus Lopez a little more than
four minutes into the game.
Bryan Keo then gave the
Celtics a 2-0 lead just 30 sec-
onds later.
Please see GUS, Page 14
Celtics come back (twice)
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
SALEM—With four sec-
onds remaining in the fi rst
half, McNary quarterback
Josiah Gilbert threw a prayer
into the end zone to Brendan
Van Voorhis, who was able to
haul it in for a 52-yard touch-
down.
But the magic didn’t end
there, not even close, as the
Celtics stormed from behind
to defeat North Salem 38-35
in their season opener.
Trailing 35-24 with 7:21
left to play, McNary went on
a 12-play, 61-yard drive to
give itself a chance as Gilbert
fought his way into the end
zone from the 1-yard line to
get the Celtics within 35-30
with 4:10 remaining.
After the McNary defense
forced a three-and-out, the
Celtics offense went back
to work as Marc Baiza had a
3-yard touchdown run and
two-point conversion to give
McNary its fi rst lead of the
second half with a 1:23 re-
maining in the game.
The Vikings didn’t stop
fi ghting and after a defensive
pass interference penalty on
an underthrown ball, got into
Celtics territory.
But McNary’s defense held
strong forcing three incom-
plete passes with a quarter-
back sack in between to end
the game.
“That fi nish is why you
(play the game),” McNary
head coach Jeff Auvinen said.
“It’s quite an adrenaline rush.
I was just really proud of the
kids for never giving up and
even though we were strug-
gling on defense and strug-
gling a little bit on our pen-
alties and turnovers, we could
have let that get us down but
you saw the end of the fi rst
half, we continued to battle.
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
McNary junior Lucas Garvey intercepts a North Salem pass in the second quarter of a football game played Friday Sept. 2. On
offense, Garvey also rushed for 131 yards and a touchdown in a 38-35 victory.
Fourth quarter obviously was
a great quarter for us.”
The 11-point defi cit in the
fourth quarter wasn’t the only
double digit one the Celtics
had to overcome. McNary
trailed 21-7 late in the fi rst
half after North Salem turned
two Celtic turnovers into
touchdowns.
The Hail Mary from Gil-
bert to Van Voorhis just before
halftime got McNary to with-
in one score.
“I just saw my man (Van
Voorhis) down fi eld and I gave
him a shot,” Gilbert said. “He
came down with the football
and we were all ecstatic. That
was a great play and defi nitely
took the momentum into the
second half.”
Van Voorhis wasn’t sure if
Gilbert was going to get the
pass off but kept running to-
wards the end zone.
“He was scrambling around
a little bit,” Van Voorhis said. “I
was kind of thinking he was
going to get sacked but then
he threw it up. I adjusted to it
in the air, the defender didn’t
make as good an adjustment
and I caught the ball and after
I caught the ball, I tried to fi nd
out where the end zone was, if
I needed to push, I was in the
end zone, so I just fell over and
scored.”
Please see BACK, Page 14
McNary thinking redemption in home opener
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
Sam Farr, a senior on the
McNary offensive line, hasn’t
forgotten about last season’s
game against South Salem, a
56-12 loss to the Saxons.
“It’s defi nitely a redemp-
tion game because of the loss
we had last year,” Farr said.
“We’re looking to gel together
as a team and come away with
a win. I know every single
person on this varsity football
team wants to win and that’s,
I think, what is going to carry
us.”
The Celtics actually led
12-0 a year ago before South
Salem answered with 56
straight points.
“We played them good for
a half last year,” McNary head
coach Jeff Auvinen said.
“The second half was a
nightmare. They played well.
We fell apart. It was a combi-
nation of factors that weren’t
very good.”
McNary hosts the Saxons
Friday, Sept. 9 in its home
opener at 7 p.m.
South Salem coming off
back-to-back Greater Valley
Conference championships
but return just one starter on
defense and only four linemen
and running back Francisco
Ramirez-Perez on offense.
The Saxons are breaking in
a new quarterback in Harri-
son Broadus.
Even playing at home,
South Salem had growing
pains in Week 1, falling to
Sprague 48-7.
Ramirez-Perez rushed for
82 yards and the team’s only
touchdown. Broadus com-
pleted just four of 14 passes for
22 yards and an interception.
“I think they are trying to
see who they are,” Auvinen
said. “It looked like they were
kind of getting used to var-
sity speed, kind of like we are.
They are not as talented as
they were last year. They were
pretty good up front. They
had a great quarterback. They
had a great pair of receivers. I
think it’s going to be a good
game. I think they do a lot of
things that we do. I think it’s
going to be a good battle.”
Auvinen added that the
Saxons skill players are similar
to North Salem’s, who Mc-
Nary defeated to open the
season, but that he liked the
Vikings running backs a little
more.
“Up front, they are very
comparable to North,” he said.
McNary offensive lineman
Caleb Kiefi uk-Yates defi nitely
isn’t overlooking South Sa-
lem after its blowout loss to
Sprague.
“I think they’re still a good
football team because they’ve
had a good program built up,”
he said.
“I don’t think we’ve had
our best games against them.
If we can just play as a team,
I think we have enough play-
ers if we put it all together
and have a good game against
them we should be able to
beat them.”
Auvinen wants to see the
Celtics clean up some things
in their second game of the
season, especially on defense
after allowing three touch-
downs of 40-plus yards to
North Salem.
“We need to get more dis-
ciplined on defense,” Auvinen
said. “We had a lot of guys
doing their own thing. We
need to get to our assignments
and work as a unit, trust each
other, everybody individu-
ally doing what they should
do. I thought we came out
and played hard. I thought we
competed but have a lot of
mistakes to clean up.”