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PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 3, 2020 THE RESULTS ARE IN! 2014 2015 2019 OREGON’S FORD 2016 2017 2018 6 DEALER OF THE YEAR YEARS IN A ROW DONOFRIO’S SKYLINE FORD 3555 River Road N, Keizer (503) 463- 4853 www.skylineforddirect.com KEIZERTIMES.COM Top sports stories of 2019 McNary claims second straight league title 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 File The McNary football team celebrates with the Mountain Valley Conference Championship trophy. touchdown by Walling. Walling scored his second touchdown of the game from four yards out with 1:01 left in the opening period. The Celtics held a 14-7 lead after Layton Thurlow caught a pass in the end zone from Erik Barker on the two-point conversion. 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. But a defensive stop from McNary forced the Saxons to turn the ball over on downs. The defensive stop ended up providing a huge momentum boost for McNary. Using a key fi rst down run from Barker, a pair of receptions from Noah Lelack and a steady dose of hard- fought carries from Walling, the Celtics slowly broke the will of the South Salem defense. A 23-yard run from Riley Flores took the ball down to the two, where Walling punched it in on the following play to complete the 99-yard drive. “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 offensive lineman Nathan Young said. Walling also added: “I just trusted my line. They were getting a push all game, so I got to give them all the credit.” Despite having a lot of success with their vertical passing game in their fi rst two drives, the South Salem defense struggled to get anything going against the Celtics defense for the remainder of the contest. After the Saxons could barely get past the line of scrimmage on their next two drives, the Celtics increased their lead to three scores midway through the third quarter when Barker found the goal line from four yards out. “Our defense kept getting tougher and tougher throughout the game. We got a few three-and-outs and I think that was huge for us,” Walling said. Even though the South Salem offense drove into Celtic territory in each of their next two possessions, the McNary defense forced turnovers both times, including a interception from Celtics linebacker Quinn Bach that was returned to the Saxons 24-yard line — which eventually set up Walling’s fourth touchdown of the game. “It’s unbelievable. It’s the same exact story as last season. This team has fought so hard through the season. It’s an honor to play with these guys,” Young said. Volcanoes clinch fi rst half division crown For the fi rst time since 2015, the Sa- lem-Keizer Volcanoes were in the North- west League playoffs. Yorlis Rodriguez hit an RBI-double in the top of the 12th, then came into score on a base hit by Simon Whiteman, helping give the Volcanoes the 4-3 victory over the Boise Hawks on Sunday, July 21. The win allowed Sa- lem-Keizer to clinch the fi rst half crown in the NWL South divi- sion and earn a spot in the postseason. “It feels good to give this back to the community, because they have waited a long time for this,” said Mitche Graf, the Volca- noes president of business opera- tions. “Now we have to fi nish the job.” The Volcanoes fi nish the fi rst half with a 26-12 record, two games better than the second place Hillsboro Hops. “It’s a great feeling. I’m really proud of everyone on this staff and the hard work that we have put in so far,” Volcanoes manager Mark Hallberg said. “We have a talented group of guys that we’re developing.” Salem-Keizer grabbed the early advan- tage in the top of the fi rst to go up 1-0. Whiteman led off the contest with a double. But after a free pass was issued to Hunter Bishop, Franklin Labour lined into a dou- ble play. Logan Wyatt, however, was able to drive in Whiteman with an RBI-single to left fi eld. The Volcanoes struck again in the top of the second thanks to a solo bomb from Ar- mani Smith to put his team up 2-0. It was Smith’s second home run of the season. On the mound, Volcanoes starter Kervin Castro was phenomenal in his fi rst four in- nings of work as the young right-hander from Venezuela gave up just one hit to the Hawks. But in the bottom of the fi fth, Boise got on the board with an RBI-double by Daniel Cope to cut the lead to one. Castro left the game after fi ve innings, giving up just three hits and one run. He gave up no walks and struck out four. Boise came back to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth thanks to anoth- er RBI-double, this time courtesy of Aaron Schunk, which forced the game to go into extra innings. A new rule implement- ed in the minor leagues last season is that when a game goes into extra innings, the player that was the last out of the previous inning starts the frame at second base — this rule was en- acted to speed up the pace of play when a game goes past the ninth inning. Neither team was able to take advantage of the runner in scoring position in the 10th or 11th innings, but the Volcanoes fi nally capitalized in the top of the 12th. Rodriguez’s double to left fi eld scored Alexander Canario to give the Volcanoes the 3-2 lead. Two batters later, Whiteman came through with a key RBI-single that allowed Salem-Keizer to get a much-need- ed insurance run. In the bottom of the frame, Hallberg brought in reliever Deiyerbert Bol ivar to try and get his fi rst save of the season. A pair of wild pitches allowed a run to score from second, but Bolivar struck out the side to seal the deal. File On Wednesday, Dec. 13, Junior Walling signed his letter of intent with the Oregon State Beavers. Walling was the Mountain Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year for McNary in 2019. Walling signs with OSU McNary linebacker Junior Walling, had received nearly a dozen offers from Division I schools. And on Thursday, June 13, Walling made the decision on where he wants to continue his career as a student-athlete. In a two-minute video posted on his Twitter account, Walling reveled that he has committed to Oregon State University to play college foot- ball. Walling has been an Oregon State fan for his entire life — in large-part due to the fact that his father, Jason, was a tight end and defensive end for the Beavers from 1990-92. So be- ing able to play in Corvallis is a dream come true . “It feels amazing to know that I will be a Beaver. I grew up dreaming that one day I would be able to play at Reser Stadium,” Walling said. Walling is the number two in-state recruit and the 14th-ranked inside linebacker in the country according to 247Sports.com He had offers from Army, Air Force, Princeton, Yale, Georgetown, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Eastern Washington and Utah in addition to his of- fer from Oregon State. In his approach to the re- cruiting process, Walling broke down his decision into three categories. He wanted to have a solid connection with the coaching staff, he wanted to attend a place that met his aca- demic needs — Walling is a 4.0 student — and he wanted to be at a place that was a good fi t socially. “I wanted to make sure I felt like I connected with the coaches and had the ability to be successful in the program. I also wanted to make sure that the school had an engineer- ing program, as that is what I will be focusing my education around. Then, of course, it was important to me to be com- fortable with where I would be living for the next four to fi ve years of my life,” Walling said. “After my family and I visited more than 15 campuses, it was very clear to me that OSU was where I belonged.” Walling made it offi cial with the Beavers on Wednesday, Dec. 13 by signing his letter of in- tent if front of friends, family and local media. FOR MORE, see Pages A7-A9
