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PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, OCTOBER 18, 2019 KEIZERTIMES.COM Walling’s four TD’s lead McNary to rout a 3rd-and-19 bubble screen By MATT RAWLINGS to Carson Vankempen, who Of the Keizertimes In desperate need of a vic- scored from 22 yards out to tory after an 0-5 start, Mc- give the Olympians the early Nary’s Junior Walling put advantage. But thanks to a 48-yard together an all-around dom- inant performance to lead kick return from Alex Tavera the Celtics to victory in their to the Olympians 37-yard line, Mountain Valley Conference the Celtics were able to take advantage moments later. opener. Facing a 3rd-and-12, Mc- The senior running back rushed for 101 yards and three Nary quarterback Erik Barker touchdowns on just eight eluded the rush to fi nd Wall- ing in the fl at carries, and on a broken added a re- play. Walling ceiving score broke a tack- as well, leading le and then the Celtics to cruised to end their fi rst win, zone for a 29- a 51-18 rout yard score, put- of Sprague on ting McNary Thursday, Oct. on top 7-6. 10. The Celt- Walling also ics offense led the Celt- got great fi eld ics on defense position once with 11 tack- again on their les. opening pos- “This was session of the huge. We knew second quar- we needed — Junior Walling ter thanks this one and McNary running back to a partially I couldn’t be blocked punt more happy by the Mc- for this team. Nary special Our O-line was a huge factor. They balled teams. On the second play of the out and had an amazing day,” Walling said. “Those fi rst few drive, running back Nico San- games made us tougher. We doval took a shovel pass 14 had to form an identity and yards down to the goal line. learn who we were as a team. Barker punctuated the drive But that’s what has happened with an easy score from a yard out on a quarterback draw. and we’re ready to go now.” Things were not going in “We have been waiting for a McNary’s favor to begin the performance like this all sea- contest. After the Celtics went son. And our hard work has three-and-out on their fi rst fi nally paid off. This is the possession, Sprague converted best feeling in the world right “This was huge. We knew we needed this one and I couldn’t be more happy for this team.” KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings McNary running back Junior Walling scampers down the sideline for his fi rst of four touchdowns in the Celtics 51-18 win over Sprague on Friday, Oct. 11. now,” Barker said. McNary got the chance to have their third straight posses- sion start in Sprague territory when the Celtics recovered a fumble on the Olympians 42-yard line. And for the third straight drive, the Celtics cap- italized as Walling scored from 20 yards out to put his team up 21-6. “It was good to see the execution and it was good to see the offense clicking and the defense playing hard and keeping things under control,” McNary head coach Jeff Au- vinen said. Sprague responded to start the third quarter with a 20- yard touchdown pass from Elias Polanski to Zach Dod- son-Greene, but the Olympi- ans couldn’t convert the two- point try, which still made it a two-score game at 21-12. But on the ensuing Mc- Nary drive, Sandoval found the end zone from 36 yards out, dragging multiple de- fenders with across the goal line, which gave the McNary sideline a huge boost of ener- gy. After Sprague went three- and-out, Walling put the game on ice on his following touch. Facing 3rd-and-seven at midfi eld, Walling took the handoff and looked like he was stacked up at the line of scrimmage. But his 6-foot- 2, 230-pound frame was too much for Sprague to bring down as Walling broke through the pile and strolled Please see CELTS Page A10 Celts dominate McKay for fi rst conference win KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings LEFT: McNary Isabella Walker fi res a shot that fi nds the back of the net. Walker scored two of the Celtics eight goals on the afternoon. RIGHT: Ashlyn Lyda prepares to throw the ball in play. By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes The McNary girls soccer team only scored one goal in their fi rst three Mountain Valley Conference games. But on Thursday, Oct. 10, the Celtics erupted for their best offensive performance of the season. Sydney Alfano and Isabel- la Walker scored two goals apiece and Haley Hughes added a goal and an assist as McNary demolished McKay for their fi rst league win of the season, defeating the Roy- al Scots 8-0. While he was happy with the win, one of the biggest takeaways for McNary head coach A.J. Nash was that he got to give some of the team’s more inexperienced players some signifi cant playing time. “Any win is good, but I was glad that we were able to play some girls who don’t see the fi eld that much and get them some good experience at the varsity level,” Nash said. “Those girls have worked re- ally hard and have earned it. And there were times that the goal-scoring came from those players.” The second unit missed out on some opportunities in the fi rst 25 minutes of the fi rst half, but Hughes, a senior for- ward, fi nally broke the seal in the 26th minute with a nifty goal that just snuck below the crossbar. “Haley scoring that goal near the end of the fi rst half took a lot of the pressure off. She stepped up and showed a lot of leadership,” Nash said. The score remained 1-0 at halftime, but the Celtics went on an goal-scoring onslaught to start the second half, scor- ing six times in a 22-minute stretch. McNary’s fi rst goal of the half came three minutes in when Hughes set up Walker with a high cross-fi eld pass over the goalie’s head. Walk- er easily put away the point- blank goal with a header. “Haley really put me in good position for that goal. I was just there at the right time,” Walker said. Less than 90 seconds later, Walker put away her second goal after stealing the ball away on a McKay goal kick and hitting a rocket into the back of the net from 30 yards out. Emma Stephen got in on the action in the 55th min- ute. The junior defender hit Ashlyn Lyda with a pass off a corner kick. Lyda, got the ball back to Stephen, who took advantage of the space she was given and put a shot into the top corner of the post to make the score 4-0. Alfano would wind up scoring a back-to-back goals moments later to extend Mc- Nary’s lead to 6-0. Samantha Alfano and Re- gann Donahue each added goals down the stretch to round out the scoring for McNary. The Celtics were also stel- lar defensively in this one, get- ting their second shutout of the season, allowing just three shots-on-goal. “We made sure we had good spacing and we were playing to feet really well, which helped us keep posses- sion of the ball,” Hughes said. With three games remain- ing, McNary still is in a posi- tion to fi nish in fourth place in the MVC, which would give them a berth in the play- offs, but the Celtics will likely have to win out to keep their postseason dreams alive. “We are now in a jockey for fourth place. Every game we have is winnable, but we have to show up for the next three games. If we remain fo- cused, it’s defi nitely within our grasp,” Nash said. McNary’s next game will be at home against Sprague on Friday, Oct. 18 at 4 p.m.