By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
KEIZER, Ore.– It just wasn’t McNary’s night to open up the 6A State Playoffs on Saturday night.
The effort was there, and so was the competitiveness. But it was just the little things that added up against the Celtics on this particular outing against Willamette that saw the Wolverines taking the game 2-1 in Overtime. Ending an otherwise great season sooner than they had hoped.
“It was painful because we believed that we were the better team, but we knew we didn’t play good,” starts Celtics Head Coach Miguel Camarena. “I’m proud of the boys because it’s been four years with this group and four championships in conference and one Semifinals in State.
“Every year, we’ll regroup, and we’ll improve from our mistakes,”
McNary and the Wolverines were tied at zero going into the second half and were tied at one at the end of regulation. The Wolverines Roman Stafflund (48th minute) and the Celts Alessandro Totti Perez (62nd minute) scored the goals in regulation.
Both teams had their opportunities in regulation to get a result, but couldn’t settle the contest in the first 80 as the next 20 minutes were needed to possibly decent a winner.
Nine minutes into the overtime period, however, heartbreak happened for McNary as Willamette got a shot by their defense that put the Wolverines back ahead, this time at 2-1.
Ashten Pyle had the goal, and that’s all Willamette would need as they held off McNary 2-1 to advance to the Round of 16.
The Celtics closed out the season 8-4-3 and were 5-0-3 in Central Valley Conference play
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
