Document text
Ashland grabs SOC title against South ASHLAND -- Ashland wrapped up the Southern Oregon Conference title and kept its record perfect Friday night at Walter A. Phillips Field. But fourth-ranked Grizzlies' coach Jim Nagel said his team's play was anything but perfect. "At least we accomplished a couple of objectives," said Nagel, reflecting on a 33-20 victory over South Medford. "We won the championship and we did a few things well in the kicking game," said Nagel. "Other than that, I can't think of much. "We have work to do to get ready for the playoffs. We need to get to work next week on all parts of our game." The Grizzlies opened up a 33-0 lead with 9:49 left in the game before the determined Panthers rallied to put up 20 points in the final 5:42, primarily against Ashland reserves, to make things interesting. Ashland moved its Southern Oregon Conference record to 6-0 and its overall mark to 8-0, while South Medford finished its SOC season at 1-6. The Panthers play at Mountain View in Bend next Friday, while Ashland travels to Crater. "It feels real good to prove a lot of people wrong who said we weren't going to be that good," said Ashland junior running back Kris Pavilionis, who rushed for 43 yards on nine carries, including a 7-yard touchdown run to give the Grizzlies a 6-0 lead in the first quarter. Pavilionis also caught three passes for 53 yards and returned a free kick following an Ashland safety for 60 yards to the South Medford 5-yard line. Ashland quarterback Jimmy Werbin completed 12 of 16 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns. He hit wide receiver Jay Kuester with a 65-yard touchdown pass, as the Grizzlies built a 14-0 lead with 3:39 left in the first quarter. The Grizzlies then swooped in to put this game out of reach with a safety, a 1-yard run by Werbin after Pavilionis return, and a 35-yard field goal by Sean Schorovsky. Suddenly, Ashland was in front 26-0 at halftime. The Grizzlies seemed bored for much of the third quarter. They fumbled the ball away to South Medford defensive end Paul Kralic on the opening play of the second half. "It was a bad exchange between the quarterback (Werbin) and the running back (Pavilionis)," said Kralic. "The ball was on the ground and I got on it. "That play kind of got us going a little, even though we didn't score off it." Ashland finally buckled down and scored its only touchdown of the second half early in the fourth period. The Grizzlies drove 67 yards to score on a 5-yard pass from Werbin to wide receiver Gabe Stephens. The conversion kick by Schorovsky gave Ashland its insurmountable 33-0 lead. But the Panthers didn't fathom the meaning of the word insurmountable. They stormed back to score three unanswered touchdowns. Two of them were set up on onside kick recoveries by Lewis Friend and Kralic. "They (the Grizzlies) seemed embarrassed that we recovered two onside kicks in a row," said Kralic. "We just wanted the ball more than they did. We refused to give up." Nagel had a differing viewpoint: "We didn't even put our hands team out there at that point," he said. "There was no reason at that point." The Panthers scored their first touchdown on Chris McQuillan's 29-yard reception from sophomore quarterback John McKay. After South's first onside recovery, halfback Jeremy Boyd scored on a 5-yard touchdown run. South Medford senior Luke Schoneberger might have been a SOC player of the year candidate had his team registered a few more wins, because of his bullish running, strong play in the middle as a linebacker, and his consistent placekicking and punting. He finished the scoring with a 2-yard touchdown run with 13 seconds left in the game. "We did pretty well in the end," said Schoneberger. "We played our hearts out the entire second half and we took it to them. This team will not give up. "I wish we had about five games left," said Schoneberger. "We're playing better and better and we'd win three or four of them, I think." Ashland outgained the Panthers 319 yards to 215. Schoneberger rushed for 54 yards on nine carries and McKay completed 12 passes for 142 yards. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� interRogue & The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford,