PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, OCTOBER 4, 2019
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Celtics falter in second half against Barlow
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
McNary receiver Noah Lelack tries to gain extra yardage after a catch in the Celtics 21-9 loss to Barlow on Friday, Sept. 27.
By MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
The McNary football ap-
peared to be in complete con-
trol of the game in the fi rst
half. The second half, however,
was a different story.
After McNary took a 9-0
lead into the locker room,
Barlow scored 21 unanswered
in the second half to come
away with the 21-9 win on
Friday, Sept. 27, dropping the
Celtics to 0-4 on the season.
“We wore down physically
and mentally and kept stab-
bing ourselves in the foot,”
McNary head coach Jeff Au-
vinen said. “We defi nitely left
some plays out on the fi eld on
both sides of the ball.”
The Celtics had their best
opening drive of the season to
start the game off. On the sec-
ond play of the contest, Mc-
Nary quarterback Erik Barker
connected with Riley Flores
on a deep post for a 47-yard
gain putting the Celtics in the
red zone.
Three plays later, Bark-
er found the end zone on a
quarterback sweep, just reach-
ing the across the pylon before
going out-of-bounds, giving
McNary the early 6-0 lead.
Barlow wouldn’t have near-
ly as much success on their fi rst
drive as they went three-and-
out and were forced to punt
the ball back to the Celtics.
After multiple mistakes
stalled their next two pos-
sessions, the McNary offense
appeared to get back into a
rhythm in the second quarter
when Celtics defensive back
Junior Nunez forced a Barlow
fumble to give his team the
ball back.
Barker started off the pos-
session by picking up a fi rst
down with his legs. Two plays
later, the senior signal-call-
er escaped a heavy pass-rush
and found Zane Aicher for a
15-yard gain to the Bruins 22-
yard line.
Even though the Celtics
couldn’t punch it in the end
zone, Daniel Mood hit a 36-
yard fi eld goal the give Mc-
Nary the 9-0 advantage.
While Barlow drove deep
in to Celtic territory late in
the second quarter, the Bru-
ins were turned away when
Aron Montoya picked off a
pass from Barlow quarterback
Jaren Hunter on the last play
of the half, preserving the Mc-
Nary lead.
However, the
Celtics
couldn’t sustain the momen-
tum once the second half be-
gun.
Early in the third quarter,
Hunter found Nathan Amadio
Please see CELTICS, Page A8
Local ballplayer battles
with chronic illness
Submitted
Kaidon Miller, who has type 1 diabetes, was given a
sportsmanship award by McNary Youth Baseball last season.
By MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
To most people, Kaidon
Miller looks like an average
14-year old kid.
Miller just began his
freshman year at McNary
High School and has a deep
passion for baseball. While
he has excelled as a pitcher,
Miller was also recognized as
a sportsmanship award win-
ner for McNary Youth Base-
ball (MYB) in the spring.
But what many people
don’t know is that Miller’s
ability to maintain a normal
teenage life can be ham-
pered at times due to his
chronic illness.
Miller has been living
with type 1 diabetes for
three years now. Type 1 di-
abetes is an autoimmune
disorder in which the body
does not produce insulin on
its own, which means that
Miller must closely monitor
his blood glucose levels, reg-
ulate his diet and take insulin
whenever necessary.
“It’s such an invisible dis-
ease. You look at a kid like
Kaidon and he looks nor-
mal. You would have no idea
what his day-to-day life is
like,” said Shelby Ivie, Mill-
er’s mother. “He has to think
about this extra stuff all the
time.”
Miller fi rst started experi-
encing symptoms during the
summer of 2016, complain-
ing of frequent urination,
excessive thirst, weight loss
and stomach aches. Gradu-
ally, the symptoms became
more intense. It even got so
bad that Miller was rushed
to Doernbecher’s Children’s
Hospital in Portland, where
it was discovered that he had
diabetic ketoacidosis — a
serious complication of dia-
betes that occurs when your
body produces high levels of
blood acids.
“It was really scary,” he
said.
After offi cially being di-
agnosed with type 1 dia-
betes, Miller came to terms
with the card he was dealt.
“I have always been really
scared of shots. But I had to
just face the fact that I have
to do this every day for the
rest of my life,” he said.
In the coming months af-
ter the diagnosis, however, it
was hard for Miller to keep
up a positive attitude. But
his world changed for the
better when he returned to
the baseball diamond in the
spring of 2017.
“It was awesome. It felt
like I wasn’t alone. I was real-
ly struggling with depression
and was wondering why this
was happening to me. But I
felt joy in coming back and
playing baseball,” Miller said.
Miller’s MYB team was
inspired by his courage,
which is why they each
wore blue diabetes ribbons
on their helmets in support
of him.
“Kaidon was having a
hard time coming to terms
with the new life that he
didn’t ask for. He was real-
ly sad. But when he started
baseball, it was like I got my
son back,” Ivie said. “The
baseball team lifted him up
and supported him. I feel
like they made him whole
again. Having the support
of his teammates was amaz-
ing. That season in particular
will always be special to us.”
Over the last couple of
seasons, Miller has taken the
time to educate inquiring
teammates about his condi-
tion.
“My teammates are often
curious when they see me
giving myself shots. When-
ever they ask questions, I
will educate them about
what it is like to be a type 1
diabetic,” he said.
While Miller has been
able to play baseball for the
Please see MILLER, Page A9
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
McNary defender Nic Heath searches for a teammate in the Celtics 2-1 loss to West Salem.
McNary can’t catch up with
West Salem in league opener
McNary forward Edgar Sala-
By MATT RAWLINGS
zar hit Eli Petilo with a cross-
Of the Keizertimes
Despite outshooting West fi eld pass in the box. Petilo was
Salem by a large margin, the able to put the shot away, but
a late offsides
McNary boys
call
wiped
soccer
team
away the goal
couldn’t over-
for McNary.
come the Ti-
Salazar, as
tans two sec-
well as Luis
ond half goals
Lopez, both
as the Celtics
had free kick
dropped their
opportuni-
conference
ties from close
opener 2-1 on
range
mo-
Tuesday, Oct 1.
ments later, but
“ T h a t
each attempt
wasn’t
good
enough for us.
— Edgar Salazar banged off the
crossbar.
We had op-
“We
had
portunities to McNary forward
plenty of shots,
put the game
but the goals
away and we
didn’t. We were not sharp in didn’t want to come tonight,”
the fi nal third,” McNary head Salazar said.
West Salem had a couple
coach Miguel Camarena said.
The Celtics came out as chances to break the scoreless
the aggressor in the fi rst half, tie before halftime, but the
outshooting West Salem 7-1 fantastic goalkeeping of Ale-
in the fi rst 12 minutes of the jandro Villarreal kept the game
at 0-0 going into the break.
contest.
In the 40th minute, West
Midway through the half,
“We had
plenty of
shots, but the
goals didn’t
want to come
tonight.”
Salem’s Andres Labate got
loose with a great spin move
to give himself space and fi red
a shot for the corner of the
net. But with a full-extended
dive, Villarreal knocked the
ball away. Kaden Young had
a chance to score on the re-
bound, but his shot went wide
right as McNary dodged a
bullet going into the break.
However, on the second
half kickoff, the Titans caught
the McNary defense back on
their heels.
Labate took the ball and
dribbled through the entire
Celtics back line to put away
a score in the fi rst 30 seconds
of the half to give West Salem
the 1-0 lead.
“We made a mistake in
the back and (Labate) went
through three or four of our
guys. That can’t happen,” Ca-
marena said. “Defensively,
I thought we looked weak
at times. We have to get that
fi xed. We allowed them too
Please see MCNARY, Page A9