By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
KEIZER, Ore.– Thursday’s game against Barlow was a redemption kind of game for the McNary Girls Soccer team.
Coming off of their 5-0 defeat to McMinnville last Thursday, the Celtics wanted to prove to themselves that they were better than that performance they put on in that road game. So they upped the intensity and physicality of their play, especially in a game where the Bruins brought their own kind of physicality to the pitch.
Head Coach Bianca Andrade-Torres challenged her team entering the game to put into practice what they’ve been working on entering the game. And outside of an early Barlow goal in the opening 20 minutes, they played clean soccer. A promising sign for the Celts with one more non-league game left before Central Valley Conference play begins on September 17.
“We’re getting into season here soon, so this is an opportunity to show up and take leadership and speak volumes for yourself. And when I told them this was the time to do that, they were willing to do that…we saw that from multiple kids,” said Andrade-Torres.
Intensity remained high throughout the whole game. McNary’s defense matched Barlow’s physicality. They interrupted the tempo that Barlow had, pushing them out and giving Sierrah Schwartz time to make saves whenever she needed to make those crucial stops. Those stops helped McNary stay in the game after that early goal.
Eventually, the offense had created a few opportunities for themselves. They slowly built up towards it starting in the first half and came close to tying this thing up at one twice in the second half, once towards the beginning of the half and the other with 37 seconds remaining in the game.
And despite the 1-0 defeat, McNary saw what they were capable of doing. And with one more non-league game ahead of them, against South Eugene on the road on Tuesday, they got another opportunity to try to duplicate that intensity and physicality before starting CVC league play next Thursday at North Salem.
“We came in knowing they were going to be very physical and coming from a 0-5 loss, we wanted to show who McNary Girls Soccer are. I think it brought all of us motivation, even if we don’t win this game, we’re going to give it our all and be really intense with it,” said Bella Garcia. “We never gave up, we stayed disciplined and it was great to see. Our whole team has to know, if we want to win games, we have to stay discplined. Knowing the result today, we have the potential to be something. So we all have to come together as a team.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
