By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

MCMINNVILLE, Ore.– They know each other like their back of their hands.

North Salem and McKay Wrestling found themselves on the mats against one another at The Furance at McMinnville High School Thursday night in a three-team dual that featured host McMinnville as well.

Down 30-6 early entering David Rubio’s match, the Royal Scots turn up the heat against their rival starting with the freshman’s second round pin in a very tough match.

Miranda led in the match entering the third period en route to the victory to continue the Scots winning ways.

The match was very intense between Miranda and Perez, and Miranda credits his North Salem counterpart for a great match.

“That match was a very tough match, he gave great effort,” said Miranda about Perez.  “It just shows that all of the hard work that our coaches making us do really pays off.

“North has been really tough the past couple of years, coach even told us.  It doesn’t matter how good a team is, each match we have to wrestle like it was any other match.”

Andy Rubio, Adam Dryden continued the streak before Julyen Uruo lost a heartbreaker and McKay had to forfeit 195.

But Salvador Camargo and Isaiah Garcia would snapped the Scots into their winning ways with back-to-back hard fought wins.

For Camargo, the 220-pound wrestler described his win where he had to do a takedown to seal the 6-3 win in the closing seconds of the match to seal the win.

“It was nerve racking because we were down,” described Carmago.  “I was only up one point and if I made one little mistake then the whole entire match would’ve turned into a different way.”

Head Coach Troy Thomas described the match with the North Salem Vikings as ‘The North Salem Bowl’ talking about the dual match.

“A lot of our kids know there kids,” he said.  “It becomes ‘The North Salem Bowl’ sort of speak.  No one wants to lose ‘The North Salem Bowl’.

“So everyone competes well with one another.  It’s a great friendly rivialry that we have.  It’s very intense, everyone gives it 100-percent.

MCMINNVILLE OVER MCKAY —The Scots had trouble with getting their mojo going against the Grizzlies in the nightcap dual at McMinnville.

Through the 152 match, McKay were down 36-6 as the match saw nothing but pins entering the 160 match.

Of the seven consecutive pins, the lone pin by Shane Tennis at 126.

“It was more of a confidence than over training,” said Tennis on the dual.  “Because I know we’re good enough to beat these guys, but our confidence weren’t up there as well.”

The streak continued with Andy Rubio’s pin at 160 before Dryden broke the streak at 170 with a 12-4 decision as the Scots cut the McMinnville lead to 36-16.

But McKay couldn’t duplicate the same success as they did versus rival North as they mustered a Garcia pin to end the match.

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81!