NOVEMBER 11, 2016, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A11
Opening day of pheasant season and the pup
If you have ever gone
pheasant hunting with a six-
month-old Brittany pup, you
know they can get into trouble
as fast as Britney Spears.
Opening day of pheas-
ant season, in some areas, is
like the rush for the “blue
light special” the Friday after
Thanksgiving.
My partner, George, comes
up with this clever plan for
opening day – pick a farm
with little habitat – in an area
where poor soil produces
more thistles and cockleburs
than grain, which will obvi-
ously have fewer birds. So,
while hordes of hunters – in
the bird rich grain belt – are
jockeying for position, George
and I have solitude. He refers
to it as “quality,” rather than
“quantity,” hunting.
So, opening morning fi nds
us approaching a farmhouse
that looks more like a junkyard
than a farm. When we ask for
permission to hunt, the farmer
– no shirt or shoes – fi res off
a stream of tobacco juice and
responds. “Shore, hep yurself.
Ain’t many around. Did see
one a couple weeks ago down
by the crick.” George did a fair
job of stifl ing his excitement.
We are hunting! The pup
points a house cat, a pot-bel-
lied pig and a bull snake, and
that’s before we get out of the
backyard.
We are soon faced with
a fence that looks like it had
been thrown together by an
Iraqi Republican guard during
a hasty retreat. An assortment
of woven wires effectively has
the bottom half dog proof. A
single wire – that looks to be
hot – runs across the top at
varying heights.
We eventually fi nd a gap –
below the top wire – to thrust
the pup through. As you dog
owners know, when a dog re-
alizes you are going to give
him a toss, he tenses up, brings
the head back and upwards,
preparing to land. Doing so,
the pup’s ear touches the over-
head wire – thereby proving
my theory that the wire is hot.
The current radiates through
MIDDLE,
we have practiced this contin-
uously, our backside contain
was 15 yards out of position.
It’s hard for kids to stay disci-
plined when the play is on the
other side of the fi eld. When
he (Ethan Martin) reversed
course he was able to get to
the edge because we simply
were not there.”
The Wolverines kept bat-
tling as Canini connected
with Cameron Parks for a 51-
yard gain.
Ian Martin then reached
the end zone with a 2-yard
run to get Whiteaker within
20-12 with 5:47 remaining in
the fi rst half.
The Wolverines then re-
covered an onside kick but
dropped a pass in the end zone
on fourth down.
But that’s as close as White-
aker would get to the Pan-
thers.
On fourth-and-1, McCarty
threw a 25-yard touchdown
pass to Devoursney with 36
remaining in the fi rst half.
“I noticed Whiteaker was
really stacking the box on de-
fense, expecting the run so we
decided to put the ball up in
the air,” Carr said.
Ian Martin found Canini
for a 32-yard gain but then
Whiteaker threw four incom-
plete passes to give Claggett
the ball back with nine sec-
onds remaining.
That’s all the time Ethan
Martin needed as he took a
fl y sweep 72 yards as the horn
sounded on the fi rst half.
“The plan was to put some
points on the board with
nine seconds left,” Carr said.
“I knew if he (Martin) could
get outside, no one is going to
catch him.”
The Panthers carried their
momentum into the second
half, further putting the game
out of reach.
Rios fi nished with four
touchdowns. Devoursney had
three.
Unable to run the ball,
Whiteaker wasn’t able to
control the clock and keep
Claggett’s offense off the fi eld.
“I was disappointed that
we couldn’t run the ball better
because it forced us into a little
bit more panicked offensive
scheme that did not do a good
enough job of keeping Ethan
by G.I. Wilson
continued from Page 10
CCMS then recovered an
inadvertent onside kick and
on the fi rst offensive play from
scrimmage Ethan Martin took
a sweep to the right, then re-
versed fi eld, stiff-armed a de-
fender and sprinted 51 yards
down the left sideline to ex-
tend the Panthers lead to 20-6.
“It just shows how athletic
that kid is,” Claggett Creek
head coach Aaron Carr said of
Martin.
“He turned a blown up
play into a touchdown. Once
he sees open fi eld, it’s hard to
contain him. He is so fast. He
has progressively seen the fi eld
better in the last few weeks.
We’ve really been working
on keying on the blockers
and he’s defi nitely improved
there.”
Whiteaker head coach Tom
Larimer noted his kids were
just simply out of position.
“We knew what play they
were going to run,” he said.
“Our backside contain and
FIRST,
continued from Page 10
McNary freshman Junior
Walling then recovered a fum-
ble, giving the Celtic offense
the ball right back, at the Ti-
gard 32-yard line. After Lucas
Garvey took a screen pass 18
yards to set up fi rst-and-goal
from the 10, Gilbert scored a
1-yard touchdown on third
down to give McNary its fi rst
lead, 14-7 with 6:29 to go in
the fi rst quarter.
However, the Tigers didn’t
stay down long. On the fi rst
play of their next possession,
Ryan Wothley threw a 52-
yard touchdown pass to tie the
game at 14-14.
After Tigard’s defense got a
stop, the offense began march-
ing back down the fi eld. But
on third-and-10 inside the
McNary 35-yard line, Van
Voorhis intercepted a pass and
returned it 76 yards to put the
Celtics back on top, 21-14,
with 1:17 remaining in the
fi rst quarter.
However, that’s as excited
as the McNary crowd would
get.
The Tigers tied the game
with a 33-yard touchdown
run 30 seconds into the sec-
ond quarter and took the lead
on a 40-yard pass with 8:54
remaining in the fi rst half.
Van Voorhis, who had fi ve
catches for 100 yards, exited
the game early in the second
quarter with concussion-like
symptoms and didn’t return.
Tigard added three more
touchdowns, including a 20-
yard pass with 19 seconds
remaining, to enter halftime
with a commanding 49-21
lead.
“We just couldn’t get them
tackled,” McNary head coach
Jeff Auvinen said. “We couldn’t
get them stopped. There were
a number of plays where I
swear we had them for no gain
or one or two yards and they’d
end up with 15 or 20. They’d
come back and play-action
pass and throw a perfect ball.”
The Tigers expanded their
lead to 56-21 on a 7-yard
touchdown run midway
the dog’s body to the ground-
ed spot, which happens to be
my hand. Again, you dog folks
know, any dog will grab what-
ever it is that’s causing the pain.
The jolt of the electricity
– and crunch of canine fangs
on my hand – results in a “pup
toss” for a perfect full gainer,
followed by some spirited
dancing and bouncing among
the thistles.
A shrill yipe, yipe, yipe,
reaching the threshold of
pain, fl ushes a covey of quail
and two cows out of a near-
by thicket. The pup was doing
some pretty pitiful whining
also.
“I thought your rendition
of the old ‘hurt hand in the
crotch dance’ was almost fl aw-
less,” old George offers with a
grin, touching both ears.
We are hot, thirsty and tired
Martin off the fi eld because
if you want to beat Claggett,
you have to keep Ethan Mar-
tin off the fi eld,” Larimer said.
“He’s too fast, he’s too good.
He’s a touchdown waiting to
happen every time he touches
the ball. I’m really glad he’ll
now be my kids’ teammate (at
McNary) instead of playing
against that kid.”
Quentin Camenisch scored
Whiteaker’s only touchdown
of the second half on a pass
from Canini in the fourth
quarter.
“Because it (giving up two
touchdowns in the fi nal min-
ute of the fi rst half) happened
so quickly it was a really, re-
ally tough blow for kids this
age to overcome,” Larimer
said. “Up until a minute to go
in halftime, it was one of the
most fun experiences I’ve ever
had coaching a football team
because I knew we were out-
matched physically from the
beginning but we were in the
game. They were the better
team from the fi rst snap but I
was so proud of the way our
kids were hanging in there.”
Claggett won its fi nal six
– with no roosters – when
we make it back to the farm-
house. The farmer has recently
plowed an area that resembles
a garden spot.
A big Rhode Island Red
hen – followed by two half-
grown chicks – takes off across
the freshly plowed ground,
screeching for dear life. The
pup is in hot pursuit.
The pup’s big clumsy feet
sink in just deep enough to
keep him from catching the
panicked brood. He ignores
my frantic “No-s,” that ap-
proach the threshold of pain.
I enter the chase waving the
12GA, like an eight-pound
whip. I sink into the soft soil
just deep enough to keep me
from catching up. On one of
our laps past the house, the
farmer’s wife joins the melee,
swinging a broom like a heli-
copter blade.
The chickens do a quick
U-turn and I’m able to get a
swipe at the pup. He goes end
over end, yipping as if he had
been shot – which wasn’t such
a remote possibility at the time.
I go down in a cloud of dust
that later George described as
something like one of those
imploding buildings.
The farmer’s wife comes to
a dust-boiling stop, and stands
there with broom cocked, as if
daring me or the pup to blink.
Somehow, profuse apolo-
gies just don’t seem to mitigate
the situation. We retreat to our
car with daggers from her eyes
blasting plumes of dust from
our sweaty coats.
“This is the kind of quality
opening day a person will al-
ways remember,” George says,
trying to stifl e another chortle.
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Rian Canini had a 68-yard touchdown reception in Whiteaker’s
loss to Claggett Creek on Wednesday, Nov. 2.
games by a 266 to 85 margin.
“We defi nitely got bet-
ter every week and the kids
worked hard,” Carr said.
“They got out of it what they
put into it. They got to learn
the lesson that hard work defi -
nitely pays off.”
VOLLEY,
continued from Page 10
Whiteaker was 33-2 with all
four teams defeating Claggett
Creek.
“This was one of the stron-
gest overall groups we’ve had,”
Coburn said. “It was fun to
have the McNary kids watch-
ing and there were a lot of
parents there cheering. It was
just a really good atmosphere
and we’re looking forward to
doing it again next year.”
“Our setters obviously had
to set the ball well for them to
hit the ball well. It came to-
gether. It was a good end to
our season.”
The varsity team fi nished
10-0 in league play and 13-1
overall. As an entire program,
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
McNary receiver Kyle McCallister tries to get away from a
Tigard defender.
through the third quarter and
then added a safety when Mc-
Nary had a bad snap on a punt
in the end zone.
With 3:48 remaining in the
third quarter, the Celtics com-
pleted the scoring as Gilbert
connected with Josh Benson
for a 27-yard touchdown.
Both McNary and Tigard
primarily played its second
and third teams in the fourth
quarter.
“By far the best team we’ve
played,” Auvinen said. “I com-
mend the kids for battling and
staying with it. It was a great
season. We won’t base it on this
one game. I’m so proud, espe-
cially the senior kids, for bat-
tling through the year. They’ve
been such a nice group of kids
to work with. They come to
practice everyday ready to get
better and they work. They’re
nice to each other. People in
Keizer have just done a great
job with them, raising these
kids. They’re going to be great
members of our community
and society. I just like how
they treat people.”
Auvinen pointed out that
the seniors went 3-6 and the
juniors were 2-7 on their
freshmen teams but fi nished
6-4 together this season.
A loss is never easy, espe-
cially in the playoffs, especially
to go two years in a row losing
in the fi rst round, it doesn’t
feel good,” Gilbert said.
“But we performed bet-
ter this year than anyone ex-
pected us to. I think that was
attributed to leadership and
some phenomenal athletes
coming together.”
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Claggett Creek eighth grader Trinity Kampstra hits the ball over
the net against Whiteaker on Tuesday, Nov. 1.
GVC,
continued from Page 10
“One of the best games I’ve
actually played for McNary,”
Villalvazo said of senior night.
“We went all out and in 25
minutes, we were up 3-0. Ev-
erything from defense to of-
fense, we were on top of our
game.”
The boys too won a play-in
game and then lost in the fi rst
round of the playoffs.
“It’s (All-GVC First Team)
bittersweet because we didn’t
make it as far in the playoffs,”
Villalvazo said. “I’d rather fo-
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cus on teamwork rather than
individual. I wish we would
have made it further in the
playoffs.”
Villalvazo and Smith were
both four-year starters at Mc-
Nary.
Beginning as a goalkeeper,
Villalvazo has played all over
the fi eld for the Celtics.
“He’s a joy to have in the
fi eld,” McNary boys coach
Miguel Camarena said. “He
loves the game. He loves his
teammates. He’s a leader. He’s
coachable. He wants to learn.
He’s eager to always get bet-
ter. He can score goals, on free
kicks, headers, PKs. He was
an amazing additional to our
group.”
Smith led a defense that
went from allowing 55 goals
two years ago to only 16 this
season.
“She was the rock in the
center of our defense,” Mc-
Nary girls coach AJ Nash said.
“She was a stand out player
because she really changed the
direction of how we defend
and she kept game fl ows. She
was a strong leader in the back
as well as a strong player. And
she never stepped off the fi eld.
She logged more minutes than
just about every other player
on the team.”