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For goals, South bets on Reno By TED BURNHAM CENTRAL POINT - Eight goals for some girls soccer players is a season. For South Medford's Erin Reno, it's merely two games. Reno scored four goals for the second straight game and the Panther defense held Crater's Sarah LaFontaine to one as South Medford rolled to a 4-2 victory Tuesday at Central Point Elementary School. Reno scored following a corner kick just two minutes into the match. By halftime, she had a hat trick and added one more in the second half to secure the win. "I just feel really lucky," said Reno, who also scored four goals Saturday in a 6-1 win over Klamath Union. "I surprised myself. But we are working really well as a team and it's all about being in the right pace at the right time." Crater's Megan Confer made a goal midway through the first half and LaFontaine scored on a penalty kick late in the second, but it was too little too late. "I'm happy with a victory, but I think it was a sloppy victory," Panther head coach Buzz Thielemann said after the match. "The defense was key." South Medford defenders Heather Frigaard, Katie Casebeer, Lindsay Huey, Krista Lane and a handful of substitutes kept the ball away from the Panther goal as the South Medford offense shot 40 times on the Crater goal. "We were a little shaky at first," Casebeer admitted. "But we moved Lindsay Huey in and marked Sarah LaFontaine. She (Huey) really kept her (LaFontaine) contained. She was her shadow," "We knew we had to control her," Thielemann said of LaFontaine. "Lindsay Huey did a great job on her." Crater coach Terry Fretz said the Comets are struggling mentally. "We are still struggling with the fact that we are playing against South," Fretz said. "I don't know if we have ever beaten South. ... The biggest thing is for the team to start to believe they can beat the teams that have beaten Crater for years." Confer's long shot tied the game, 1-1, at 27 minutes. But the Panthers (8-2-1, 4-0 Southern Oregon Conference) answered seven minutes later when Reno headed in a Colleen Salisbury assist. Four minutes later, Reno added another goal when she pounced on a ball repelled by Comet goalie Chelsea Louie. Reno scored her final goal 17 minutes into the second half, assisted again by Salisbury. "Colleen's left-footed cross to Erin was the prettiest goal of the game," Thielemann said. "Erin has really been on, so we have been working on it a lot," Salisbury said. "I am the distributor. My goal is to keep distributing the ball so we can get as many goals as possible." LaFontaine's goal came on a penalty kick at 72 minutes. The loss left Crater at 6-5 and 1-3 in the conference. Despite the defeat, Fretz said he was pleased with the match. "It was a very clean game," he said. "Both teams played clean. Sarah LaFontaine is doing the job everywhere. She is starting to dominate the way she should. It's starting to come together. And it was nice to see a game where the whistle wasn't blown." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.