By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.—McKay’s Filiberto Alacron was emotional after the Scots 1-0 victory over Tualatin Saturday night.

His first half goal was the difference in McKay’s win, sending the squad to the second round of the postseason for the first time since 2016 as the senior hugged a good amount of his teammates and coaches following the game.

“It means a lot.  The four years that I’ve played at McKay High School, we haven’t gone past the first round,” Alacron said, choking up.  “It was frustrating.  It was very frustrating because it was 1-0, at any point they could’ve scored and it would’ve been tied.  We wanted to make more goals, we had a lot of chances and we couldn’t finish them.

“But we got the win, that’s all that matters.”

The win was a dream coming true for Alacron and his teammates, but it was a crazy one to the finish.

McKay did bring the aggression to match Tualatin’s push into the second half.

It was a rematch from the opening round of the 2019 6A Playoffs as they jumped out to their 1-0 lead by halftime,

The Scots pushed tempo, looking for a second goal and though their opportunities didn’t fall, but their defense held strong to make sure Alacron’s goal didn’t go to waste with the Timberwolves looking for overtime late.

“This game was really big for us, we lost to Tualatin 2-0 two years ago so this was really big for us,” McKay goalie Diego Garibay said.  “This game was really nice, patching everything up, winning the game.  We tried our best.  Hard work pays off and everything. “

When the emotion subsides and it’s time to return to training on Monday, the Scots will be putting this game behind them as they prepare for the second-seed in Jesuit on Wednesday night.

“The past is the past, we got to focus on Jesuit.  We’ll watch film and form strategies on what they have and we’ll give it 110-percent that day,” Alacron said.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald

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