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PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, SEPTEMBER 20, 2019 KEIZERTIMES.COM McNary earns clean sheet between two defenders, but By MATT RAWLINGS Carella ended up missing Of the Keizertimes After losing their previous from point blank range. Just moments later, Carella contest in heartbreaking fashion, the McNary boys got by his defender and set soccer team put together a up teammate Eli Petilo in the dominating performance box, but Petilo had the ball go off the side of his foot and against Canby. The Celtics possessed went wide of the post. “One of the things we the ball for the majority of the game, minimizing any really have been focusing on is fi nishing opportunity the goal. We Canby had for create so many a score, and opportunities, ran away with but we are a 3-0 victory still missing on Thursday, some easy Sept. 12. ones and that “ W h e n can change you have the the game ball, it’s going so quickly,” to give the Camarena said. other team But in the less chances 19th minute, to score. That’s McNary mid- what we work Luis on all the time. — Sebastain Brunk fi elder Lopez gave his We did a good McNary midfi elder team all the job of holding momentum our positions,” with an im- McNary head pressive goal. coach Miguel A f t e r Camarena said. “I’m excited to see the guys dribbling past a defender to give himself space, Lopez bounce back to get a win.” Even though it was a fi red a rocket into the top convincing victory, Camarena shelf of the goal from 35 yards noted that he still wants his out to give the Celtics a 1-0 team to improve on taking lead. “That was a beautiful goal advantage of more chances throughout the course of a from Luis. It changed the game, especially as the Celtics game because it forced them start to gear up for league to open up more,” Camarena said. play. Canby’s best chances to McNary outshot Canby 7-1 in the fi rst 18 minutes of get on the board came in the fi rst half and failed to cash the latter part of the fi rst in on multiple opportunities half. Francisco Cabello got loose on the right side and in the early going. In the 10th minute, Eddie had a one-on-one chance Martinez connected with with McNary goalkeeper Elio Carella with a pass Alejandro Villarreal. Cabello “Our defense is amazing this year. This whole team has a lot of potential.” McNary ‘s Luis Lopez moves the ball upfi eld in the Celtics 3-0 victory over Canby on Thursday, Sept. 12. Lopez scored the fi rst goal of the contest in the victory. KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings aimed for the left corner of the net, but Villarreal was able to dive and knock the ball away. In the fi nal minute of the fi rst half, there was a mad scramble for a loose ball near the McNary net. Even though the ball hit off the post on multiple occasions, the ball was eventually cleared out of harm’s way and the Celtics went to the locker room with the one-goal advantage. But when the second half began, the McNary defense made sure the Cougars never got close to scoring again as they turned away every Canby threat in the fi nal 40 minutes. “Our defense is amazing this year. This whole team has a lot of potential,” McNary midfi elder Sebastian Brunk said. In the 43rd minute, Martinez sent a well-placed through-ball to Petilo, who sped past the Canby back line and put one in the back of the net to put McNary up 2-0. “Eddie gave me a perfect ball and I was able to speed past the guy and kick it through,” Petilo said. Petilo would score his second goal of the game in the 60th minute when he was able to get a quality touch from a beautiful cross from Edgar Salazar. McNary returns to the fi eld on Monday Sept. 23 when they travel to Gresham to take on the Gophers at 6 p.m. Celtics drop hard-fought battle with West Salem KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings LEFT: Maddox Snider positions herself to receive the ball in McNary’s four-set loss to West Salem on Monday, Sept. 16. RIGHT: Taylor Ebbs prepares to serve. By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes The McNary volleyball team had plenty of chances to pick up their fi rst win in Mountain Valley Conference on Monday Sept. 14. But in the end, West Salem was the more gritty team down the stretch. After splitting each of the fi rst two games, McNary couldn’t hold onto their lead in the third and fourth sets as West Salem defeated the Celtics 25-18, 22-25, 25-22, 26-24. “Playing under pressure is a learned skill. We need to be better at communicating and making sure we’re tak- ing care of the ball,” McNary head coach Crystal DeMello said. “But that’s the best part about competing. You have to learn how to dig in and have a little grit.” An ace by Alexis Eldridge and kills by Zoie Warner and Chloe Martindale gave Mc- Nary the upper hand early in the fi rst set. But West Salem came back to tie the score at 9-9, and then won a rally that took nearly two minutes, which seemed to take the wind out of the McNary’s sails. The Titans ended up win- ning six of the next seven points to take control of the opening set. A block by Mar- tindale stopped the bleeding briefl y, but West Salem was still able to grab the early 1-0 lead in the match. The Celtics, however, were able to regroup in the following game. Both teams went back and forth for much of the second set, but a big spike from Taylor Ebbs gave McNary the 21-19 ad- vantage. The Titans tried to rally back with a kill from West Salem’s Emmi Marks, but Warner and Martindale put away the fi nal two points for the Celtics to even up the match. “We knew that we just needed to step up our energy. Energy is everything for this team,” Warner said. DeMello added: “These girls are well aware of what they can do. They know what each other’s strengths are and they play off them.” It initially appeared that McNary was in complete control of the third set. The Celtics won eight of the fi rst 10 points and even took a 16-6 lead after a huge stuff block by Martindale. However, West Salem was able to take advantage of some great serving and sev- eral unforced errors by Mc- Nary to go on a 17-4 run, which put the Titans on top 23-20. West Salem eventually won the set by three points, giving them all the momen- tum. “The hardest lessons to learn are when you need to turn it up. We need to im- prove on making good deci- sion when we distribute the ball,” DeMello said. Despite missing their chance to take the lead in the third set, McNary bat- tled blow-for-blow with the Titans in the fourth and fi nal game. A stuff-block by Mar- tindale gave her team a 24-23 lead, putting the Celtics one pint away from forcing a fi fth set. But West Salem would not be denied as they rallied to score the fi nal three points to take the match victory. Even with the tough loss, Warner takes comfort in the fact that her team gave it their all. “There might have been some unforced errors that we could have controlled, but at the end of the day, we played our hardest and never gave up on each other,” Warner said. McNary travels to South Salem for their next MVC contest on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 6:30 p.m.
