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Black Tornado storms past Eagles By Greg Stiles North Medford often lived and died on its ability to produce the big play a year ago. The Black Tornado�s mission as it began a new season Friday night at Spiegelberg Stadium was to demonstrate it could sustain drives and keep its opponent�s offense on the sideline. Save for first-game sloppiness here and there, North followed coach Rod Rumrey�s game plan to a T as the Tornado smothered Eagle Point, 48-0, in the Southern Oregon Conference season opener for both squads. "We wanted to show we could control the ball and from the opening drive we did that ," said Tornado senior tailback Phil Ouellette, who rushed 24 times for 147 yards a touchdown in the first three quarters. "We relied on the big play a lot last year and it was really important for us to establish ball control tonight." North rushed the ball 51 times for 239 yards and senior Kevin Foreman, making his first start at quarterback, threw for 132 more as the Tornado outgained the Eagles, 371-97. Even with a new quarterback at the controls for the first time in three years, the Tornado clicked from the get-go, retaining a bit of the big-play pizzazz as Foreman found wideout Travis Poulton all by himself on the right sideline for a 47-yard scoring strike on the sixth play of the game and found Mike Olson just in front of the right pylon for a 23-yard TD just before the half that boosted North�s advantage to 21-0. Foreman finished 7-of-13 without an interception. "Kevin Foreman can get the job done," Rumrey said. "He�s going to do nothing but get better." North�s defensive front made it all the easier by bottling up the Eagle offense until the matter was settled. The Eagles had one first down and 26 yards of total offense in the first half, with minus-1 on the ground. When they recovered a North fumble at the Tornado 34 they failed to gain a yard. The Tornado defense didn�t allow a rushing first down until 8:19 remained in the game, nor did they allow the Eagles to cross the midfield stripe until Victor Shelton broke lose for 43 yards with three minutes to play. "The key was that our defense constantly put our offense in good position," Rumrey said. "We went into the game with nine or 10 new faces on defense. But we knew we had some very good athletes. Some of those guys, even though they were not starters last year, saw a lot of playing time and we knew we had the makings of a pretty good defense." North followed up a good first quarter with a mistake-riddled second quarter but righted the ship on its first possession of the second half, driving 47 yards in eight plays. Ouellette packed the ball the first seven times, before Foreman faked to the 5-7, 160-pound tailback and ducked up the middle for a 5-yard score. "It was nice to run behind our line," Ouellette said. "I�ve been working with those guys since seventh grade and the holes they opened were tremendous." Eagle Point�s line, led by state heavyweight wrestling champion Blake Cam, was supposed to be its strength. But the Tornado proved quicker to the point of attack on both sides of the ball. "Cam is really strong, but we were faster," said North defensive tackle Norris Bier. "I�m glad I didn�t have to wrestle him out there, I would�ve been in trouble. Our goal was to keep them under 80 yards and the varsity (unit) did that." "There�s been a lot written about our offense, but we wanted to establish that we can play pretty good defense, too, and set the tone for the season," said Shad Thomas, who set up North�s final touchdown with an interception late in the third quarter. Rumrey singled out Bier, defensive end Curt Stout and linebackers Matt Havniear and Tyler Graham as North recorded its first shutout since a 21-0 victory over Crater the second week of last season. Kelly Brown converted on six of seven PAT kicks and boomed several kicks into the end zone. His best kick of the night, however, was into the wind and came down on the EP 2. "Kelly did a good job of keeping them pinned deep all night," said Rumrey, whose team travels to Crater next week. Eagle Point returns to Spiegelberg Stadium to play South Medford. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA