By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
MILL CITY, Ore. Santiam wants their defense to dictate how the game is going to go. They, the Wolverines, want to make that their calling card this season.
And boy it once again flexed its muscle Monday night against Nestucca as they clamped down in the second quarter defensively, held Nestucca to seven points in the frame and let their offense expand their lead to 21 by the halftime break. Santiam led 42-21 at that time following a 20-14 lead after the opening quarter.
“Defense… we want to make that our identity for us, that press, we want to keep that going. Keep it going from here. We switched it up, we were running a new defense, and we started it last night. It worked really well, I think we’ll keep it up next time,” said Xaiver Vital.
Vital and Owen Rupert combined for 31 of those points to lead the offense, Vital finishing with 25 points to Rupert’s 23 in the Wolverines 77-43 victory on Monday night. The win itself was Santiam’s fourth in their last five games with the squad 4-2 on the year six games going into next Monday’s game at Crosshill Christian to close out the 2024 calendar year.
