By Jeremy McDonald

Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.–  Western Christian played more of a complete game against Colton coming off of their recent defeat to Salem Academy back on Monday. 

The Pioneers set the tone with a 41-16 halftime lead in their 74-43 victory as they improved to 13-2 overall and 5-2 in the Tri-River Conference. Finding their groove once more as they close out the first loop through league play. 

“Consistency with our starts and finishes against those really good teams like Salem Academy.  Salem Academy and Kennedy are really talented.  They start games with a lot of energy and we didn’t do that with them because they’ve had some really good starts and finishes against us,” Chaz Storm said.  “We had a lot of fun in this game.  Everyone got the ball, we had a lot of people come in and a lot of JV people coming in and get some good experience.  A lot of our seniors saw a lot of time, which is good for them.  We moved the ball really well together.”

Storm finished with 18 points, Owen Stalnaker added 14 and Jaaron Janzen contributed ten in the victory.  And with Culver canceling and forfeiting Monday’s game, it gives the Pioneers an extra day before going into back-to-back games with Santiam and East Linn Christain Academy Tuesday and Wednesday as Western Christian hopes they are turning the corner with the end goal of Pendleton in their sites.  

“It was great to run multiple offenses today to get a feel for them so when we play them we’re stronger in every faucet of the game.  It was good to get all the edges sharp,” Stalnaker said.  “It’s good to go through the struggles of the first half of the season, the goal is to get to Pendleton and you play three games all back-to-back-to-back nights, you’ll be so conditioned it’ll be nice.  It’ll be easy.”  

Michael Irving scored a team-high 13 points and Travers Rodgers scored another 11 for the Vikings in the game. 

Photos By Jeremy McDonald