PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, NOVEMBER 8, 2019
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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.