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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 2019)
PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, NOVEMBER 8, 2019 2020 FORD EXPLORER Built for life’s adventures. 3555 River Road N, Keizer (503) 463 - 4853 www.skylineforddirect.com *Horsepower and torque ratings based on premium fuel per SAEJ1349 standard. Your results may vary. The all-new 2020 Explorer has been completely redesigned — inside, outside and under the hood. In addition to new capability enhancing features like rear-wheel drive, there are also two new available trims. Ford now off ers a commanding, no-compromise Explorer Limited Hybrid as well as the most powerful Explorer to date, the all-new Explorer ST. With 400 horsepower, 415 lb.-ft. of torque and top speed of 143 mph, an ST brings the adventure to you.* KEIZERTIMES.COM McNary claims second straight league title By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes Most coaches would be pretty distraught with a 0-5 start. But even after the McNary football team dropped their fi fth straight contest against South Medford on Friday, Oct. 4, head coach Jeff Auvinen wasn’t dismayed in the slightest, saying that this season felt “eerily similar to last season” — when the Celtics rallied to win all four league games in route to a Mountain Valley Conference title, despite losing their fi rst fi ve games of the year. When the regular season came to an end on Friday, Nov. 1, Auvinen proved himself to be prophetic. Running back Junior Walling scampered for a season-high 216 yards and four touchdowns on 28 carries as the Celtics danced their way to a second straight MVC title, defeating South Salem 35-15. It is the fi rst time since 1998 that McNary has repeated as league champions. “We have been working for this all year. It’s huge for us seniors because we have been dreaming about this. It’s just such an amazing feeling,” Walling said. The Celtics offense wasted no time getting to work as they went 61 yards in six plays on their opening drive, which was capped off by a 33-yard touchdown by Walling. South Salem, however, re- sponded by marching right Back- Back-2-Back KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings down the fi eld on their fi rst posses- sion of the game — par- tially due to a pair of costly penalties by the McNary defense. On fourth-and-goal from the McNary one-yard line, Saxons quarterback Griffi n Gardner connected with Gabe Johnson in the corner of the end zone, giving South Salem the 7-6 lead. Late into the fi rst quarter, it appeared that the fans were in for a shootout as both offenses were racking up multiple big plays. Walling scored his second touchdown of the game from four yards out with 1:01 left in the opening period. The Celtics took a 14-7 lead after Layton Thurlow caught a pass in the end zone from Erik Barker on the two-point con- version. South Salem got the ball back and wasted no time getting into the red zone early in the second quarter. And similar to their fi rst drive, the Saxons faced fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line. Gardner was one again looking for Johnson on a shallow out rout. But this time, Walling, who was coming on A 23-yard run from Riley a pass-rush from the left side, leapt up and knocked the ball Flores took the ball down to the ground, forcing the to the two, where Walling punched it Saxons to turn in on the the ball over on following downs. “ This team has play to The defensive fought so hard c o m p l e t e stop ended up the 99-yard providing a huge throughout drive. momentum the season. “I think boost for that whole McNary. It’s an honor series was Using a key awfully big. fi rst down run to play with After getting from Barker, these guys.” the goal- a pair of line stand, receptions from — Nathan Young, the ability Noah Lelack McNary center to run it out and a steady of there was dose of hard- fought carries from Walling, big. We could run the football the Celtics slowly broke whenever we wanted to the will of the South Salem tonight,” Auvinen said. McNary ground game was defense. The McNary football team celebrates with the Mountain Valley Conference Champi- onship trophy after beating South Salem 35-15. as good as it’s been all year in this one as the Celtics rushed for a season-high 393 yards. “I have never seen this offensive line play so well. All fi ve of us came out super strong. It was pound and ground all night,” McNary center Nathan Young said. “We were keeping the defense on their heels.” Walling also added: “I just trusted my line. They were getting a push all game, so I got to give them all the credit.” Please see TITLE, Page A10 Claggett Creek falls short in championship game By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes Defense had been one of the strengths of the Claggett Creek varsity football squad all season. But in the Salem-Keizer Middle School Championship game, the Panthers couldn’t stop the potent wing-T offense of Parrish. Parrish rushed for four touchdowns in the fi nal three quarters and won their sec- ond straight championship on Wednesday, Oct. 30, defeating Claggett Creek 28-16. “We switched up our de- fense to a 3-5 to try and con- tain Parrish’s outside speed. But it’s a tough offense to de- fend because there is so much misdirection.We got caught watching the football and not pursuing the ball as much as we should,” Claggett Creek head coach Aaron Carr said. After both teams made their share of mistakes in the fi rst six minutes, Claggett Creek’s Izeyah Contreras put his team on the board late in the open- ing period. On third-and-10 from their own 27-yard line, Contreras took a toss to the outside and sprinted down the sideline for a 56-yard run to give the Pan- thers the ball inside the red zone. The following play, quarter- back Jacob Allen hit Contre- ras on a crossing rout for the 17-yard touchdown. Manny De-Dios ran in the conversion to put the Panthers on top 8-0. Early in the second quarter, Claggett Creek had an oppor- tunity to fl ip the game on its head. The Panthers defense forced Parrish into a third-and-long after a holding penalty. As Par- rish quarterback T.C. Manum- aleuna tried to pick up the fi rst down through the air, he was hit as he threw and the ball was intercepted by Contreras. After picking off the pass, Contreras weaved through sev- eral tacklers and took the ball 55 yards to the house. But on the play, Allen was called for a blindside block that negated the touchdown. The penalty proved proved to alter the game in dramatic fashion. “It really shifted the mo- mentum. These guys are really young and it’s tough for them to get over things like that,” Carr said. “It sucked the wind out of us. I thought it was a beautiful block that sprung Izeyah for a touchdown.” Claggett Creek still re- tained possession of the ball, but couldn’t get past the line- of-scrimmage on four straight plays as they were forced to turn the ball over on downs. Parrish was able to score on their following drive midway through the second quarter to cut the lead to 8-6. Moments later, Parrish forced a Panther turnover, which allowed their offense to get right back on the fi eld. Parrish scored once again with one second left in the half to take a 14-8 lead into the locker room. It appeared that Parrish was on the verge of putting the game away after taking a 22-8 lead early in the fourth quar- ter. However, Claggett Creek proved that they still had some fi ght left in them. On the fi rst play from scrim- mage after the Parrish score, Al- len bought himself time outside the pocket and fi red a strike on a deep post to Contreras, who rumbled 58 yards for the touchdown. But in the end it wasn’t enough as Parrish ran nearly six minutes off the clock and scored on a 32-yard run with 54 seconds remaining in the game. Claggett Creek ends the sea- son with a 5-2 record. “Win or lose, I’m proud of these guys. They fought hard this season,” Carr said. “Consid- ering that we only had 19 guys, it shows the kids character and how hard they worked to get to this spot. We had to have a lot of guys play both ways and it took a lot of stamina and hard work to get them in a position to do that.” KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings Izeyah Contreras tries to escape the grasp of a Parrish defender after catching a pass in the fl at. Conteras had two touchdown catches for the game.
