By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.– The North Salem – McKay dynamic is an interesting one.  Do you call it a rivalry or not?

It’s said that North and South are rivals on paper, but with three miles separating the North and McKay High Schools along Market Street Northeast, it is hard not to call the Vikings and the Royal Scots a rivalry.

Sydnee Rupp describe the rivilary as more competitive with McKay than with South Salem High School.

“Our rivialry with McKay is worse than us with South (Salem),” said Rupp.  “South we don’t have that competition, (but with) McKay we have competition.  We can compete back and forth at them and we have a closer match with them.”

“If we put up our full fight and we are smart with our passes and everything, then we can get to victory.”

Tuesday’s game was a emotional rollercoaster for the Vikings (0-3).  After making halftime adjustments, North Salem rallied and pushed Parkrose to the brink and almost pulled off the win.

“Tuesday’s game was really difficult for us,” said Rupp.  “We struggled a lot.  We fouled a lot and we got down on ourselves and lost all of our confidence and we knew we were capable of beating that team.  But we didn’t pull off the win.”

Head Coach Brent Turner was impressed how his young team listened to and made the adjustments from their halftime talk.

“That’s what they did, they made the adjustments,” he said on his team.  “We went man in the fourth-quarter a little bit and we actually played great for not having practice it in live situations during a game.”

Turner mentioned how emotional the environment was following the game.  But they know what they need to do to get over the hump to win it.

“A lot of girls were emotional after the game,” said Turner.  “Some girls were crying, because they knew we were in it to win it and it was our fault that we didn’t win.

“With that, we’re a little more battle-tested.  We were in a close game and we know what it takes and we should be able to get over the hump.”

To get over the hump for their first victory of 2015, they need to continue to improve by correcting their mistakes.

“We’re getting better little by little,” said Turner.  “They’ve made great strides the last week.  It’s been a week since we played our first game, already we’re getting blown out by 40 points, now it’s down to four points.”

Tip off for the North Salem Supremacy is slated for 5:45pm at North Salem High School.