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Black Tornado stuns South Photo by Jim Craven North's Daniel Zimmer flips for joy as Dustin Wallace (15) hugs Johnny Whitaker and Babak Asgharian, right, approaches. Barringer steals show for North in wild shootout By GREG STILES Chris Barringer was the man of the hour as North Medford ended a string of five straight boys soccer losses to South Medford Tuesday. North Medford goalie Chris Barringer (yellow) is hailed by his teammates. The lanky senior goalkeeper blocked all three of South Medford's shootout penalty kicks as the Black Tornado outscored the Panthers 3-0 in the shootout for a 2-1 Southern Oregon Conference victory at Varsity Field. "Three-oh in a shootout," beamed Barringer. "When have you ever heard of that? I wanted to keep going." But after his teammates nailed three straight penalty kicks, North had little to do but celebrate. "The monkey's off my back," said an excited North coach Rich Garcia as his players symbolically scrambled up a fence behind the goal at the far end of the field like a bunch of monkeys. "We've had some hard-luck games this season," Garcia said. "Barringer's been practicing really hard on that part of his game." The victory pulled the Tornado into a fourth-place tie with the Panthers at 2-2 in the SOC standings. For all the trouble North had finding the mouth of the goal during regulation and overtime, it didn't matter when the shootout commenced. Scott Jolly and Daniel Ferris zinged shots into the upper-right corner beyond South goalie Andy Riggs' reach. Then Johnny Whitaker delivered the coup de grace with a bullet to the left side. Meanwhile, South's Craig Tomlins, Gary Andrade and Damian Rasmussen took their best shots without success. "Three-for-three, that's something you can brag about for a long time," South coach Dave Potter said. "Those weren't poorly-placed shots. They were at the angles we wanted. We would have preferred them to be on the ground, but we got them in the air." South's Ethan Wallenberg, left, clashes with Eder Salvador. The teams alternated shots with South taking first crack. Barringer didn't have to move a lot to halt Tomlins' shot. After Jolly's score, Andrade tried to sneak one in on the left side, but Barringer smothered the effort. Ferris duplicated Jolly's placement and result. "When Chris stopped the first two goals, I could picture in my mind the ball going in," said Ferris. "I've practiced over and over and it always goes to the right. I never change and I've never missed one. If feels so good. It means everything to beat South.'' Barringer put the Tornado in commanding position with his third stop. "I've gone against Damian before and knew that he would try to go to the right V," said Barringer, whose quick reach allowed him to cradle the ball before reaching the upper corner. That put Whitaker in position to end it all and without a moment's hesitation he poked the ball into the net. "It's a good way to win and a terrible way to lose," Garcia said. "It worked out for us, because we have a great keeper and guys that can make penalty kicks." South's Wallenberg takes a different approach this time. South had nearly twice as many offensive surges in the first half, while North got the upper hand in the second 40 minutes. Both teams had shots in the second overtime that could've won it. "Once they scored and we settled down in the second half," Potter said, "I had a feeling it would go into overtime." After North controlled the first five minutes of the contest, South dominated the rest of the half. Rasmussen took advantage for the Panthers when Barringer bobbled the ball on the left perimeter of the penalty box and dribbled into an empty goal. North got off to a quick start again in the second half. Aaryn Abbott, whose header floated across the mouth of the goal and just missed the far goalpost, made good at 33:55 on a rebound shot. "Whitaker was taking it in along the baseline and knocked it out to me," Abbott said. "Somebody deflected it, I saw the ball and I knew exactly what to do with it." South had several chances to score on inbound passes, corner kicks and direct kicks, but nothing clicked. "A high percentage of our goals have come on those plays," Potter said. "But we weren't getting players where we wanted or didn't finish off." Garcia felt his team did a good job of thwarting the Panthers' forwards. Ferris usually plays outside halfback, but was moved to stopper, while Dustin Wallace covered Rasmussen. "Ferris is very calm and did a good job of controlling the middle," Garcia said. "Wallace is very fast and we wanted to have him on Rasmussen, because he had a great game against us last year." Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.