OCTOBER 28, 2016, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A13
McNary drops non-conference game
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
McNary head coach Jeff
Auvinen was blunt after his
team’s 38-17 loss to North
Medford on Friday, Oct. 21.
The Celtics laid an egg.
“They just played a lot
harder than we did,” Auvinen
said. “They took it to us and
played with more intensity. We
got caught kind of fl at-footed
and by the time we responded,
we were still in the game, and
then we got caught fl at-footed
again and didn’t respond near-
ly as well.”
North Medford entered the
game with a pass-fi rst spread
offense but the Black Tornado
did most of its damage against
McNary on the ground, rush-
ing for 200 yards and passing
for only 49.
“I fi gured they would like
to run the ball,” Auvinen said.
“They just haven’t been very
effective at at. They were
much better today, obviously,
and took it to us.”
North Medford scored on
its fi rst drive with a 6-yard run
to take an early 7-0 lead. But
the Celtics quickly answered
as quarterback Josiah Gilbert
hit Brendan Van Voorhis in
stride for an 84-yard touch-
down pass to tie the game at
7-7 with 7:19 remaining in
the fi rst quarter.
The Black Tornadoes add-
ed another 6-yard touchdown
run on its next possession but
McNary again responded.
On fourth-and-goal from the
1-yard line, Gilbert pushed his
way into the end zone and AJ
NETS,
continued from Page 12
think they’re much improved.
I know our girls have been
working really hard so I think
GRIDIRON,
continued from Page 12
“Our offensive line blocked
very well and gave Jack plenty
of time to get his passes off,”
Claggett head coach Aaron
Johnk’s extra point tied the
game 14-14 with 7:23 re-
maining in the second quarter.
North Medford returned
the following kickoff 87 yards
to take a 21-14 lead.
Gilbert them fumbled, giv-
ing the Black Tornadoes the
ball at their own 41-yard line.
But the Celtic defense stood
strong as Caleb Kiefi uk-Yates
sacked North Medford quar-
terback Javan Gail on third
down to force a punt.
With 36 seconds remaining
in the second quarter, Lucas
Garvey lined up at quarter-
back but the North Medford
defense wasn’t fooled and
Garvey threw an interception
to close the fi rst half.
McNary caught a break
early in the third quarter
when the Black Tornadoes
muffed a punt and the Celtics
recovered at their opponent’s
35-yard line.
On third-and-8 from the
18-yard line, Gilbert appeared
to have Van Voorhis open in
the end zone but the pass was
short and McNary had to set-
tle for a Johnk 35-yard fi eld
goal to get within 21-17.
North Medford had its own
chance to kick a fi eld goal but
on fourth-and-6 from the
Celtic 16, decided to go for it
and Garvey broke up a pass in
the end zone.
Defense then took over the
game. The Black Tornadoes
started their next two posses-
sions at the McNary 39 and
24-yard lines, respectively, but
got zero points to show for it
as both drives ended in punts.
In between, the Celtics
weren’t able to do anything
either. After a 5-yard pen-
alty, Gilbert threw three in-
complete passes and McNary
punted.
North Medford was then
able to place a punt on the
Celtic 1-yard line. After three
plays and gaining zero yards,
the Celtics elected to take a
knee in the end zone for a
safety rather than try to punt.
“That was my call,” Auvin-
en said. “We had trouble on
the last punt. We were on the
1-yard line and the last punt
went to about the 23. Let’s see
if we can reverse the fi eld a
little bit.”
The decision looked like
the correct one when North
Medford later blocked a Mc-
Nary punt and returned it for
a touchdown to expand its
lead to 30-17 with 11:25 re-
maining in the game.
The Celtics continued to
do little on offense, turning
the ball over on downs at the
North Medford 42-yard line
with 10:06 left to play.
“We struggled all night
long controlling the line of
scrimmage,” Auvinen said. “I
thought we had them tired in
the second quarter and started
moving the ball a little bit but
we couldn’t duplicate that af-
ter. We weren’t throwing the
ball on time frequently, rather
it was good coverage or the
rush was too much pressure.
There were a lot of reasons.”
Garvey was able to mo-
mentarily stop the bleeding,
intercepting Gail at the Mc-
Nary 3-yard line. However,
three plays later, McNary was
called for intentional ground-
ing, which resulted in another
safety and gave North Med-
ford a 32-17 lead.
With only 21 seconds re-
maining, Gail threw a 4-yard
touchdown pass to complete
the scoring.
McNary fi nished with 59
yards rushing on 31 carries.
Gilbert was 9-for-25 passing
for 203 yards.
“It was a playoff type atmo-
sphere,” Auvinen said. “Maybe
we got our egg laid at this
juncture and in the scheme of
things it’s not going to make
or break us, two weeks from
now it will make or break us.”
it will be a very competitive
match.”
Claggett’s varsity team im-
proved to 4-4 after defeating
Waldo on Monday, Oct. 24.
“They’re a dynamic group
of girls and they play very
well,” Richardson said of her
team.
“We beat Walker (earlier
this year), which was a huge
defeat because we hadn’t beat
them in years. That was a huge
accomplishment
because
they’ve always been a really
good team. We’ve had close
matches with them in the past
and hadn’t come out on top. It
was a huge victory.”
A win over Whiteaker
would also be huge since the
Wolverines have won every
game in the series but one,
fi ve years ago.
“I think Whiteaker is going
to be a good game,” Richard-
son said.
“We’ve always played
tough against Whiteaker so
I’m expecting another tough
game. It’s going to be a good
rival matchup.”
The B-teams will begin the
action at 3:30 p.m. Varsity will
then follow.
Carr said. “We’ve been on
quite a roll lately, the hard
work of our kids and the way
they’ve improved so much
over a short time. Defi nite-
ly, we are improving every
game.”
Led by its defense, White-
aker opened its season 3-0
before falling to Waldo and
Crossler.
The Wolverines then tied
Leslie 8-8 on Wednesday, Oct.
19.
Whiteaker dominated to-
tal yardage and time of pos-
session, but failed to score on
three drives that ended inside
the Leslie 25.
“We did a very poor job of
fi nishing our drives,” Larimer
said. “When you work hard to
move down the fi eld like that,
you need to capitalize, and we
did not do it.”
Whiteaker drove the length
of the fi eld on its fi rst poses-
sion and scored on a 6-yard
touchdown run by Cameron
Parks. Running back Quen-
tin Camenisch led all rushers
with 83 yards on 18 carries.
“We did a solid job run-
ning the ball and our offense
was good enough to run by
far the most plays in a game
that we have all year,” Larimer
said. “We just executed poorly
in the red zone.”
The Wolverines drove
nearly 60 yards in the fi nal
four minutes to the Leslie
8-yard line.
But
ultimately,
Les-
lie stopped the Panthers on
fourth-and-2 just short of the
fi rst down.
Whiteaker’s defense was led
by Ethan Schurr, who recov-
ered a fumble and an onside
kick, and Griffi n Hubbard,
who had four tackles for loss
and a sack. Isaac Evarts and
Hunter Zimmermann each
had a game-high six tackles.
Whiteaker and Claggett
Creek will play at McNary
High School. The junior var-
sity teams kick off at 5 p.m.
followed by the varsity at 7.
“For a lot of these kids
it’s the fi rst time they’ve ever
played under the lights so it’s a
huge deal and it’s a big rivalry
game,” Carr said. “The kids
should be pumped up and
ready to go.”
The players will also get
the full experience of hav-
ing a color guard present the
national anthem as well as
school bands.
“We want the kids to
feel like they’re playing high
school football for one night
because then we hook them
in to McNary,” Larimer said.
There’s tenuous balance be-
tween wanting to have a rival-
ry with your sister school but
not forgetting that Aaron Carr
and I both have the same goal,
that (Whiteaker Principal) Ju-
lie DeWitt and (Claggett Prin-
cipal) Rob Schoepper both
have the same goal, to have
these kids have a great experi-
ence in football that will make
them better people, that will
make them more disciplined,
make them better students,
make their whole experience
at McNary more worthwhile.
We want to win and we want
to be competitive but we can’t
forget that really we’re all in
it for the same reason, just to
give the kids a good experi-
ence here.”
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
McNary freshman Junior Walling pressures North Medford quarterback Javan Gail in the second
half of a 38-17 loss on Friday, Oct. 21.
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