McKenzie Sports Report

McKenzie Varsity Sports Schedule This Week

The McKenzie Varsity Volleyball team travels to Alsea on Tuesday, September 27, to participate in a three-way match with Alsea and Siletz Valley. The first match is scheduled for a 5:00 pm start versus Alsea and the second match will start at 7:30 pm against Siletz Valley.

The Eagle Volleyball team will host Crow on Thursday, September 29, and the match is scheduled for a 6:00 pm start. The McKenzie Volleyball team is scheduled for a doubleheader at Mapleton on Monday, October 3. The first match will begin at 4:30 pm followed by the second match starting at 6:00 pm.

The McKenzie Cross Country teams will travel to Santiam Christian High School at Adair Village to participate in the SC High School Invitational. The Girls 5,000 meter race starts at 5:00 pm and the Boys 5,000 meter race begins at 5:30 pm.

The McKenzie Varsity Six-Man Football team hosts Jewell on Friday, September 30 with the opening kickoff scheduled for 7:00 pm.

Eddyville and Mohawk Defeat McKenzie In Mt. West Battles

Both Eddyville Charter and Mohawk notched Mt. West League wins over McKenzie this past week. The McKenzie Eagle team remains winless on the season thus far.

Traveling to Eddyville Charter last Tuesday, September 20, the young McKenzie team was confronted with an experienced and deep roster of Eddyville Volleyball players. Eddyville is currently in second place in Mt. West League standings with a 6-1, 7-4 record. That is a game behind Mohawk, which is still undefeated in MWL play, 7-0, 9-6. With a potential MWL Championship title at stake, Eddyville played focused to the end, defeating the Finn Rock visitors in three sets, 25-10, 25-14, and 25-8.

Out of the fire and into the frying pan, the next day McKenzie hosted the Mohawk Mustangs. The Eagles gave the Mustangs a good battle the first set, losing 25-18, but the Mohawk team took control the rest of the match, posting 25-8 and 25-11 wins over their McKenzie hosts. No match stats were available at press time.

Eagle Cross Country At Cheadle Lake Park

The McKenzie Varsity Cross Country teams traveled to Lebanon on Friday, September 23, to participate in the Champs Invite, a meet featuring 45 Cross Country teams from around the State of Oregon. The Girls Varsity 5,000 meter race featured 131 runners and the Boys Varsity 5K featured 183 athletes.

Eagle freshman Myra Dion scored the highest finish on the day for the McKenzie teams, traveling the 5K course, located just outside Lebanon, in a time of 25:05.17 minutes. Dion's time was good for 58th place. Will Meister, a fellow Eagle freshman, toured his course race in 25:17.81 minutes, which earned him a 164th place finish.

Winning the Girls 5K was Daisy Lalonde, a sophomore athlete out of East Linn Christian and her time was 19:07.58 minutes.

Santiam Christian senior Benjamin Bourne with a finish time of 16:09.15 minutes won the Boys 5K race.

Cougars Claw Out Season First Win Over Eagles

It was a perfect September night for football in Finn Rock. Sunshine gave way to a peaceful, no-wind evening up the McKenzie as the Finn Rock version of Friday Night lights highlighted two football teams, twelve players combined, going at it with purpose. That purpose was to notch a season-first victory in the Special District 2 North Six-man football league.

Both teams approached the opening kickoff with an enthusiastic attitude (and hope) that their specific game plan and management would prevail. Fans from both schools, the Eagles and the Cougars of Crow, sat up their lounge chairs on the side of Wade Thomas Field that isn't under construction and the kids gathered behind on the baseball field to set up the all important nerf ball game. Someone brought a nerf ball that lit up when thrown and was an automatic hit on a field that hasn't seen a hit for some time now!

Back on the field that counts, the Eagles and the Cougars squared off for the official Scratch and Claw main event. McKenzie tilted the scoreboard first with a touchdown and a missed PAT. Crow answered with a TD four minutes later and failed on the kick PAT. The Eagles gave up another touchdown with less than a minute left in the first quarter. Crow's confidence growing, the Cougars scored again with 7:03 remaining in the first half, and this time they tacked on a successful PAT. McKenzie rallied soon after with their second touchdown of the evening and added a PAT, pushing the score to 19-13 in favor of the visitors.

That would wrap up the first half scoring. And the third quarter scoring, as both team's defense held tight.

The fourth quarter changed that and opened with a quick Cougar touchdown giving the Valley Boys some breathing room, 25-13. McKenzie, realizing their backs were up against the wall, responded the next series with a hometown touchdown and now the lounge chair crowd could be seen leaning forward with renewed interest. Game on! The nerf ball game never missed a beat however.

With the score 25-20 in favor of the Cats, McKenzie's defense finally wore down and found it increasingly difficult to hold the Crow running game. The Cougars tacked on a couple more Tds to lengthen out their lead.

Final from Finn Rock - Crow 37 and the home Eagles 20. With the win, Crow improved to 1-2 and McKenzie fell to 0-3.