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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2018)
OCTOBER 5, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE B1 KEIZERTIMES.COM LIFE OF Whalen twins pace Celtics W iley KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes Ethan and Brennan Wha- len, twin brothers, spent the summer competing in region- al and national track meets in Bend, Los Angeles and Reno, Nev. That experience is now paying off in their sophomore high school cross country sea- son. Running for McNary, the Whalen brothers have shat- tered their best times as fresh- men. Ethan, who entered the season with a PR of 18:37, fi nished the Meriwether Na- tional Cross Country Classic in Hillsboro in 17:50 on Sept. 21. “I just stayed in shape and got better,” Ethan said. “I came back stronger than last year.” Finishing just eight sec- onds behind Ethan was Bren- nan, whose freshman PR was 18:59. “That was my goal for the season, said Brennan of breaking 18 minutes. “I’m still working hard. I’m making a new one.” Both Brennan and Ethan, who started cross country as sixth graders at Whiteaker McNary sophomores Brennan and Ethan Whalen have both run under 18 minutes for the Celtic cross country team. Please see WHALEN, Page B2 The battle of the winless A league championship won’t be on the line when Sprague visits McNary tonight. In 6A, where teams play only four confer- ence games, league championships don’t re- ally exist anymore. No, the Celtics and Olympians will com- pete for much more. Pride. Playing two of the toughest schedules in the state, McNary and Sprague are both 0-5. The Celtics have been outscored 251-80, the Olympians 200 to 103. “We are trying to get better every week and I’m sure they are, too,” McNary head coach Jeff Auvinen said. “I think it will be a battle. I think it will be a war with both teams pretty hungry. They do a great job over there as coaches and they’ll be as hungry as we are.” Which team will get the monkey off their back? Whose nightmare will continue? My picks: McKay at Corvallis The Royal Scots (0-5) are the other win- less Salem-Keizer team and their prospects don’t look good after falling at home to North Salem 52-31 last Friday. Looking at their fi nal four games, Corvallis (2-3) may be their best shot. The Spartans are coming off a 20-point loss to Silverton and 45-point loss at Crescent Valley. But in between, Corvallis did knock off Dallas. Prediction: Spartans 30, Royal Scots 20 West Albany at North Salem The Vikings (1-4) are celebrating their fi rst win of the season at McKay but now host undefeated West Albany (5-0), which unlike North Salem and McKay has thrived moving down to 5A. West Albany and North Salem have only one common opponent— Crescent Valley. The Bulldogs won 20-7. The Vikings lost 34-0. North Salem won last sea- son’s matchup 22-21. West Albany gets re- venge. Prediction: Bulldogs 34, Vikings 17 South Salem at West Salem The Titans (2-3) open Mountain Valley Conference play after losing back-to-back games to Sheldon and Beaverton. The Saxons (2-3) couldn’t carry over the momentum of defeating rival Sprague, falling to Bend 34- 24 last week. While the two teams share the same record, West Salem has played the much tougher schedule. The Titans, projected to be one of the top teams in the state, have got off to a disappointing start, but should have enough fi re power on offense to get past South Salem at home. Prediction: Titans 50, Saxons 28 Sprague at McNary A win here would obviously be huge for both teams, and a loss just as devastating. Opening the season with fi ve straight losses to the likes of West Linn, Tualatin, Tigard and Central Catholic is one thing but to fall to another 0-5 team down the road in the same school district is another. Sprague (0-5) al- ready has a bad loss, falling to South Salem 21-20 in a game it led 20-0 entering the fourth quarter. But the Olympians at least showed they are capable of beating a team, even if for just three quarters. McNary (0-5) has hardly been competi- tive and its 55-27 loss to North Medford to open the season is looking even worse after the Black Tornado have lost three games in a row, including two to Mountain Valley Con- ference teams Bend and Mountain View. While the Celtics schedule has been a bit tougher, McNary’s defense has struggled to stop the run, giving up more than 500 yards to North Medford and Tumwater. And Sprague has the running back in Chris Sharp (694 yards and nine touchdowns this season) to take advantage. A much more experienced Olympian squad came to Keizer and dominated Mc- Nary 62-6 last season. The Celtics haven’t forgotten. While Sprague enters this matchup hungry for its fi rst win, McNary is starving, for both the taste of victory and sweet re- venge. Prediction: Celtics 30, Olympians 27 Derek Wiley is the Associate Editor of the Keizertimes. Last week: 2-3, Overall: 17-11 Lady Celts end dry spell By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes SALEM—After getting into the playoffs based on its power ranking the past two seasons, Mc- Nary wants to earn its spot this year with a top four fi nish in the conference. The Lady Celts went a long way to getting there Tuesday, de- feating South Salem 2-1. “We knew that this was a pivotal conference matchup and there was a lot on the line,” Mc- Nary head coach AJ Nash said. The Lady Celts came to South Salem on a seven-game losing streak, scoring just one goal in September. “We’ve been playing good ball,” Nash said. “We’ve been in the games up until the fi nal whis- tle on all of them. Even though it was a rough spell, morale was good.” McNary had also played its toughest schedule in years, which got the Lady Celts ready for league play. “Coming into the night, this is as prepared as I’ve ever felt,” Nash said. “Even though they were losses, we played the teams Please see END, Page B3 KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley McNary’s girls soccer team celebrates with Audrey Williams after the sophomore scored to give the Lady Celts a 2-0 lead in the fi rst half at South Salem. Auvinen sees fi ght in latest loss KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley McNary senior Nigel Harris returns a kickoff against South Medford on Friday, September 28. By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes After another disappoint- ing fi rst half of football, Mc- Nary head coach Jeff Auvin- en saw something in his team that gave him “a glimmer of hope.” Trailing by three touch- downs, McNary senior Ja- cob Jackson intercepted South Medford quarterback Giovanni Bottero on the third play of the second half. Erik Barker then connect- ed with Griffi n Oliveira to get the Celtics on the score- board and McNary’s defense stood tall, stopping the Pan- thers on fourth-and-1. But McNary’s offense couldn’t get anything else going and South Medford added two more touch- downs, including a 60-yard punt return, to defeat the Celtics 35-7 on homecom- ing. “I saw some fi ght tonight that I hadn’t seen for a while, since that West Linn game,” Auvinen said. “The interception, going down and scoring and then the fourth down stop. That was exciting football right there. That’s the kind of foot- ball we’re used to. That was fun football, that little stretch. If we play that way all of the time, we just have to get after it and fl y around, trust each other and play together, play hard, play tough. That was a glimmer of hope.” Please see HOPE, Page B3
