PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 25, 2019
KEIZERTIMES.COM
McNary takes down West Salem on the mat
By MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
Even though the McNary
wrestling squad is among the
youngest in the Mountain
Valley Conference, the Celtics
have shown over the course of
the season that they have a lot
of potential.
And they proved it once
in their fi rst home dual of the
year.
The Celtics won their fi rst
MVC meet of the season on
Wednesday, Jan. 16, defeat-
ing West Salem in convincing
fashion by a score of 50-22.
Even though it was an im-
pressive victory, McNary head
coach Jason Ebbs doesn’t want
his kids to lose sight of what
their focus is.
“This was a very nice,
competitive dual for us and I
thought our kids looked good,”
Ebbs said. “But were not going
up and putting notches in our
hat quite yet. We still need to
focus on improvement.”
“We’ve still got a long ways
to go, but if we take advantage
of the time we have over the
next four weeks, we’re going
to win more matches.”
After West Salem forfeit-
ed the 182-pound match,
Garrett Wampler started the
night off for the Celtics in the
195-pound bout. Even though
he was wrestling up a division,
Wampler dominated his oppo-
nent and earned a pin late in
the fi rst round.
“I just went in there know-
ing that I could get in control
right off the bat,” Wampler said.
Anthony
Garcia-Reyes
continued to build the mo-
mentum for McNary in the
following match. The junior
220-pounder took a big lead
on the scoreboard after getting
a big three-point takedown
early in the second round, then
eventually forced a fall late in
the third round.
With two straight pins, as
well as a pair of forfeits, the
Celtics 24-0 lead set the tone
for the rest of the match.
“Winning early and getting
the ball rolling is huge,” Ebbs
said. “It’s a product of the hours
and hours those kids put in at
practice against each other.”
In the 113-pound match,
McNary’s Grady Burrows ap-
peared to be in deep trouble
when he was sent to the mat
late in the fi rst round. But the
sophomore was able to keep
his shoulder blades just off the
ground by the time the buzz-
er sounded, avoiding the early
fall.
When the third round of
the match began, West Salem’s
Lance McClung came at Bur-
rows and tried a leg throw, but
Burrows saw it coming from a
mile away.
“I knew that West (Salem)
likes to throw in legs, so that’s
what I was kind of anticipating
him to do,” Burrows said.
Burrows combated the
move, maneuvered his body
and sent McClung to the fl oor,
earning the fall 21 seconds into
the fi nal round.
After the victory, Burrows
pointed over to McNary assis-
tant coach Sam Martin — who
coached at West Salem last sea-
son.
“It was my way to tell
Coach Martin that win was for
him,” Burrows said.
Ryan Bamford (170 lbs.)
earned the third and fi nal pin
for the Celtics in this one.
McNary’s Daniel Hernan-
dez (126 lbs.) won via 5-3 de-
cision and Matthew Mehlhoff
(152 lbs.) was victorious in
his match with a technical fall
while leading 25-10.
McNary will host their next
match tonight against North
Salem at 7 p.m.
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
TOP: McNary’s Anthony Garcia-Reyes (blue) executes a leg grab in the 220-pound match. BOTTOM LEFT: Matthew Mehlhoff
battles for position in the 152-pound bout. BOTTOM RIGHT: Ivan Vallejo puts his opponent on the mat.
Celtics defeat McKay in blowout fashion
By MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
The McNary boys basketball
team is no stranger to winning
games in convincing fashion.
Coming into their contest
with McKay, eight of the Celt-
ics nine victories had come by
double-digits.
However, it had been a few
years since McNary had won a
game by such a large margin.
Nate Meithof led the way
with a game-high of 17 points
and Boston Smith added 11
points as the Celtics were in
complete control from start to
fi nish in their 75-37 victory
over the Royal Scots on Friday,
Jan. 18.
Devyn Schurr and Griffi n
Oliveria each chipped in with
10 points apiece for McNary.
The 38-point win was the
largest margin of victory for the
Celtics since 2016.
“Our concentration was
consistent right from the get-
go,” McNary head coach Ryan
Kirch said. “We shared the ball
well and I though our defense
looked really good in the fi rst
half.”
Kirch decided to throw a
unique defensive look at McK-
ay right out the gate, putting his
team in a 2-1-2 zone.
It proved to be devastating-
ly effective as the Royal Scots
turned the ball over six times in
the fi rst four minutes, allowing
McNary to grab the early 8-0
lead.
“We were playing with our
arms up and we were just ac-
we also have some football guys
that know how to read eyes and
make interceptions.”
Once McNary extended the
lead to 36-4, McKay’s frustra-
tion became visibly apparent.
After Smith was fouled hard
going up for a shot, both he
and McKay guard Tre Ceja ap-
peared to have words with each
other after the play. Ceja shoved
Smith and then proceeded to
shove Oliveira — who was try-
ing to deescalate the situation.
Ceja got hit with two tech-
nical fouls and was ejected from
the game.
Meithof knocked down all
four technical foul shots to give
McNary their largest lead of the
fi rst half at 40-4.
McKay started to show some
life in the third quarter, but
back-to-back triples from Ol-
iveira and Riley Flores kept the
Celtics with a more than com-
fortable advantage at 58-23.
With the massive lead, Kirch
got the chance to give some of
his young guys their chance to
shine in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore
Eli
Petilo
knocked down a pair of treys
from the top of the key and
freshman Tyler Copeland hit
three of his four foul shots in
the fi nal period.
With each make, the Mc-
Nary sideline erupted in cele-
bration for their teammates.
“The part that I appreciated
the most was that the older guys
who play a lot were super excit-
ed when the younger guys got
in there,” Kirch said. “I was real
proud of that.”
McNary plays host to Moun-
tain View on Saturday at 5 p.m.
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
McNary guard Griffi n Oliveira prepares to make a move off the dribble.
tive on defense the whole time,”
Meithof said. “We want to be
jumping around everywhere.
That’s what causes our steals.”
Meithof had a pair of take-
aways in the opening quarter,
including one that led to a fast-
break, tomahawk jam for the
sophomore guard.
It was the fi rst time that
Meithof ever threw one down
in a high school game.
“I saw that I was wide open
for this so I knew I was going to
bang it,” Meithof said.
The Celtics continued to
dictate things on the defensive
side for the remainder of the
quarter, leading to easy baskets
on the other end.
A transition 3-pointer from
Oliveira and back-to-back
layups by Meithof and Noah
Hudkins put McNary on top
21-0 at the end of the fi rst pe-
riod.
The Celtics increased their
lead to 27-0 in the second
quarter and kept McKay off the
scoreboard for the fi rst 13 min-
utes of the contest.
“One of the strengths we
have as a team is our length.
We’re pretty athletic,” Kirch
said. “It’s really hard for guys
to get around Nate up top and
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
Devyn Schurr (#4) gets into a defensive stance at the top of
the Celtics 2-1-2 zone.