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Tigers trounced by Cougars 49-26
Leffler's two goals lift Tigers
Defense keys top-ranked Newberg girls to 12-1
win over No. 4 Timbervolves
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The difference between the top teams in the state? 18 goals |
The top-ranked NHS boys water polo team makes easy
work of No. 2-ranked Tualatin Wednesday with a 21-3 win |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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The Newberg High School boys water
polo team had one simple message to the rest of the boys teams in
the state Wednesday: It is undoubtedly the best team.
Just two days after Newberg fell 7-5 at Lakeridge when the majority
of its varsity players didn’t make the trip to play, the No.
1-ranked Tigers entered Wednesday’s home game against No. 2-ranked
Tualatin with a fierce determination after it saw its perfect season
blemished with Monday’s loss.
Junior
Nate Bush still couldn’t grasp that the Tigers lost Monday.
“We lost?” he said when he found out Monday night. “No way.”
Junior Cray Rogers felt the same way.
“It was pretty ridiculous,” he said. “It shouldn’t have happened,
so we wanted to prove something (against Tualatin).”
And prove the Tigers did. Newberg jumped out to a 3-0 lead, only to
see Tualatin score two consecutive goals to cut the Newberg lead to
one.
From that point on, it was all Newberg.
The Tigers scored 18 of the next 19 goals and drilled Tualatin
21-3. Newberg shut the Timberwolves out in the second half.
The Tigers (18-1 overall) took an 11-3 halftime lead and extended
it to 15-3 to start the fourth quarter. Bush scored three goals in
the final quarter, along with goals by Jon Maxwell, Casey Brown and
Craig Cheney, to put the finishing touches on Tualatin.
Bush and Rogers led Newberg with four goals apiece. Keary Schlactus
and Jordan Anderson added three apiece; Brown, Maxwell and Craig
Cheney added two apiece. Matt Insley also scored a goal for the
Tigers.
Rogers didn’t mince words about how he felt after the game.
“Tualatin is the second-best team in the state and we wanted to
show that we are 18 goals better than them,” he said. “We don’t want
to downplay the competition in Oregon, but it’s just not very good.”
Newberg coach Jim McMaster agreed and all but said winning the
state title is an afterthought.
“It’s kind of anticlimactic for the boys,” he said.
Newberg picked up the win despite not having Schlactus play for half
of the second quarter and all of the second half. He was ejected
from the game for rough play midway through the second quarter.
Still, the loss of last year’s state tournament MVP didn’t hamper
the Tigers.
“It doesn’t matter who’s out there,” McMaster said. “I could take
five guys off the team right now and replace them with any other
five and do just as well. We’ve got a good, quality program and
there’s a lot of high-level players on the team.”
The Tigers also overcame questionable officiating, McMaster said.
“The referees really called a terrible game,” he said. “It would
have been a lot higher than that because there were so many calls
they didn’t make. They had guys jumping on our guys and those would
have been ejections with other referees.”
Newberg returns to action today (Saturday) in the second day of its
two-day 16-team tournament. Games will be played in Newberg and
Forest Grove. One of the top teams in the field is a squad from
Mercer Island, Wash., a team Newberg defeated 9-7 at a tournament in
Federal Way, Wash., earlier this season. |
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From
Oct. 14, 2006, Newberg Graphic
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