By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
KEIZER, Ore.– It was a tough way to end the season for the McNary Girls Soccer team on Saturday afternoon.
Entering the second half of their 6A opening round game with Westview the Celtics had their chances. They, McNary, were looking to get their first Playoff victory since 1989 when they defeated Gladstone in PKs in the old AAA Classification with the game tied at zero.
“We went into this game knowing our stakes, we just won our conference so we came into this game really wanting it,” said Sophia Schlag. “Sometimes we went too hard and we all wanted it. We all wanted to play as a team. We all did great, we played really well. Just finishing our chances.”
In the second half, the game got tighter. Westview clutched up on defense and those offensive opportunities slowed down for the Celtics and it became an evenly balanced game.
The Wildcats got the game’s lone goal during the opening 20 minutes of the second half to put them ahead 1-0. McNary kept pushing, but no luck as the time drew near to zero. Then, in the closing seconds of the game, the Celtics got one more chance to even the game up at one.
Mayela Victoria came screaming down the grandstand side of the field. With six seconds left in regulation, she shot.
It was blocked by a Westview defender and went out of bounds as time expired.
Wildcats 1, McNary 0. Final.
It was a bittersweet moment for a squad who were coming off their first league title since 1992, but still the standard has been set for the Celtics moving into next year.
“I’m really grateful that we only have a few seniors leaving, so I’m excited to get back to it next year. We got a lot of our core returning. It’s only up from here,” said McNary Head Coach Bianca Andrade-Torres.
The Celtics finished the year 9-5-1 and went 9-0-1 in Central Valley Conference play.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
