FEBRUARY 7, 2020, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A11
CELTS,
continued from Page A14
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
McNary’s Gilbert Parra won a 5-4 decision in the 138-pound bout, but South Salem won the dual meet 41-30 on Wedneday, Jan. 29.
Celts drop dual against South Salem
By MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
McNary went back and
forth with South Salem for
the majority of the night, but
eventually, the Celtics wres-
tling squad fell to the Sax-
ons 41-30 in a dual meet on
Wednesday, Jan. 29.
It was a tough couple days
for the program as head coach
Jason Ebbs was placed on ad-
ministrative leave the day
before the match. But with
the Mountain Valley Con-
ference District Tournament
approaching, interim head
coach Sam Martin liked what
he saw from several of his
wrestlers.
“I’m proud of the way they
came out and battled while
dealing with adversity. Some
of the matches just didn’t go
our way. I’m proud of them
though. It was a good effort,”
Martin said.
After falling behind 10-0,
McNary’s Gilbert Parra got
the Celtics fi rst win of the
night with a 5-4 tiebreak-
er victory in the 138-pound
bout.
Parra trailed 4-3 with less
than a minute remaining
in the third round, but the
McNary senior was able to
get a one-point escape with
30 seconds let to force the
match into overtime. Neither
wrestler scored in the extra
session, but Parra earned an-
other one-point escape in the
tie-breaker round to secure
the win.
McNary freshman Hunt-
er Ruberto was placed in
the 145-bout with South
Salem’s Mario Garcia. Even
though Garcia appeared to
be the bigger, stronger wres-
tler, Ruberto found a way to
attack his opponent’s legs and
grabbed a 5-0 fi rst round lead
thanks to a takedown along
with a near-fall.
“Because of how long he
was, I wanted to get to his
legs. I tried to get a couple
ankle picks and I was able
to capitalize of his lengthi-
ness and just get points off
his mistakes. I felt like all the
conditioning we do at prac-
tice really got me the edge,”
Ruberto said.
Garcia came back to tie the
score in the third round, but
Ruberto took over the match
late, scoring on a two-point
reversal, and then got the pin
with 11 seconds left on the
clock.
“I like how Hunter wres-
tles. He always hangs in
matches. He’s never really out
of a match. He’s technique
has gotten so much better
and he’s able to work through
tough situations to stay in
matches,” Martin said.
Gio Cervantes was in
position to win McNary’s
third straight match in the
152-pound bout. But with
an 8-7 lead, Cervantes lost his
footing late in the third round
and wound up getting out of
position — Cervantes lost the
match 12-8.
Matthew Mehlhoff got the
Celts back on track with an
easy 35-second pin at 160
pounds. Isaac Evarts, who was
coming off an injury, followed
that up with a pin of his own
in the 170-pound match.
“I was super proud of Isaac.
He has been a big contributor
and he’s gotten a lot of pins
for us in our varsity lineup.
He has been shining pretty
M emorial C enters ◆ C remation & B urial
Simplicity - Convenience - Low Cost
simple
cremation
simple direct
burial
traditional
funeral
◆
$695
◆
$995
◆
$2965
Salem
Portland
Eastside
275 Lancaster Dr. SE
Salem, OR 97317
832 NE Broadway
Portland, OR 97232
1433 SE 122nd Ave.
Portland, OR 97233
(503) 581-6265
(503) 783-3393
(503) 783-6865
Tualatin
Tigard
Milwaukie
8970 SW Tualatin
Sherwood Rd.
Tualatin, OR 97062
12995 SW Pacifi c Hwy
Tigard, OR 97223
16475 SE McLoughlin Blvd.
Milwaukie, OR 97267
(503) 783-6869
(503) 653-7076
(503) 885 -7800
“Easy Online Arrangements”
CrownMemorialBurial.com
Privately Owned Cremation Facility
Family Owned – Family Focused
puzzle answers
lightly,” Martin said.
The Celtics however, lost
their next four matches as
South Salem took a com-
manding 34-21 lead.
Damian Hernandez (106)
got the Celtics back into it
with a 10-0 major decision
win over Michael Boss, but
the Saxons offi cially claimed
the dual victory in the
113-pound match as Mat-
thew AcClair scored a pin
against Kyler Donahue.
Grady Burrows won the
fi nal bout of the night at 120
pounds, earning a pin in un-
der a minute.
McNary will be head-
ing to Mountain View High
School in Bend next week to
compete in the MVC District
Tournament Feb. 14-15.
While Martin knows that
his team needs to make im-
provements in several areas,
he believes that they will be
prepared.
“We got to cleanup our
conditioning a little bit and
get our lungs back. We also
need to work a little bit on
our pinning combinations,
but I think these guys will
be peaking at the right time,”
Martin said.
good to see her log some
game minutes,” McNary
head coach Elizabeth Doran
said.
Besa followed with four
straight points and Bekah
Grimmer got in on the ac-
tion with a slick turnaround
jumper on the block.
On the defensive side,
McNary hounded Sprague
for most of the game, hold-
ing the Olympians to under
10 points for the half.
“It was all about playing
with high defensive energy,”
Besa said.
McNary took a 21-9 lead
into halftime, but Sprague
started to creep their way
back into the game during
the third quarter, cutting the
defi cit down to eight at 29-
21.
The Olympians contin-
ued to chomp away at the
McNary lead and even had
the defi cit down to 31-27
with just over three minutes
left in the contest.
But down the stretch,
McNary dominated on both
ends of the fl oor.
Doutt scored a big bucket
to get the Celtics lead back
up to six. On McNary’s next
possession, Besa hit a clutch
jumper with less than two
minutes to go.
“We did a good job of
taking care of the ball on of-
fense and making sure that
we got a good shot,” Doutt
said about her team’s offen-
sive performance late in the
game.
The McNary defense,
on the other hand, held the
Olympians scoreless for the
fi nal 4:27 of the contest —
and the 27 points scored by
Sprague was the least amount
McNary had surrendered to
an opponent this season.
“We stayed composed and
we fi xed our help-side de-
fense and kept them out of
the paint,” Doran said. “The
win was defi nitely a good
morale boost. We showed a
lot of heart late in the game.”
McNary will host Sum-
mit at 6:30 p.m. on Friday,
Feb. 7.
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
McNary point guard Leah Doutt had 12 points in her fi rst game
back after missing four games due to illness.