By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The McNary Girls Soccer team find themselves in a three-way tie for first in the Central Valley Conference halfway through the league season.
Their three league wins are the most the program has had since the 2022 season, and their five wins are the most that they’ve had since the 2023 season. It’s just the next step that the program is on in Bianca Andrade-Torres’ second season as Head Coach of the program.
“It feels incredible. Last year, we didn’t do the best, and we didn’t make playoffs. But this year, starting (league) undefeated and earning our wins this year, it feels amazing. Not words can describe it,” said Celtic sophomore Bella Garcia.
Friday evening was a bittersweet ending to their first half of CVC league play when they fell to South Salem 1-0. The Celtics had their chances to break the shutout in the second half with some nice offensive runs, but couldn’t finish those opportunities and the Saxons took advantage of one of their opportunities to get a decision late in the game to hand McNary their first league defeat of the season.
Going into the second hald of league, the Celtics are tied with South Salem and West Salem at 3-1 in CVC play with a chance still to compete for the league title with four games left in the regular season.
“It’s been great, a complete turnaround for us. We found a lot of positive in our preseason games even though the outcomes weren’t always what we were expecting, but we kept rolling with the positivity, and we took that into league,” said Andrade-Torres “I think compare to last year, it’s a complete turnaround. “
“It’s an incredible learning experience. It shows us that we can’t get cocky with it. We don’t get our wins. We have to earn them, and I can’t wait to play them again,” adds Garcia.
The Celtics head to Sprague on Tuesday before hosting North Salem on Friday night.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
