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South gives North the boot photo by Steve Johnson By Greg Stiles By South Medford boys soccer coach Dave Potter�s account, Daniel Potter has never missed a penalty kick going back to his U-10 playing days. Chances are none of them had so much riding on them as the one he took in the growing twilight Wednesday at Fichtner-Mainwaring Park. If the sophomore midfielder, playing in his first Southern Oregon Conference match, converted, South Medford clinched a victory over cross-town rival North Medford. A miss met going to a round of sudden-death penalty kicks. "I just cleared my mind and kicked," said Potter. Potter managed to freeze North goalkeeper Jon Cotta in his tracks as the ball settled into the net, giving South Medford a 4-3 advantage in shootout penalty kicks and a 3-2 victory. The win, before 400 fans, boosted South�s record to 4-0 in the SOC and 7-3-1 overall, while North dropped to 3-1 in conference and 6-3-1 overall. "We�ve come full circle," South�s senior sweeper Craig Tomlinson, harking back to last October�s shootout loss at North Medford when the Black Tornado put a dent in the Panthers� title hopes. "We read all the great things about North and that kind of fired us up. We thought we had them a couple times, but couldn�t put them away. Still, for the four seniors this is nice to have revenge." North led 1-0 at the half on Scott Jolly�s header five minutes before intermission. The Tornado appeared to take 2-0 advantage 15 minutes into the second half on a breakaway goal by Justin Bilodeau, but it was waved off because of offsides. That appeared to be just the break South needed. Moments later, Tomlins� corner kick bounced off Jolly�s head, off a second North defender, Josh Grace, rattled around the goal mouth and eventually glanced off the crossbar into the goal with 22 minutes to play. "It bounced around for a long time, there must have been three or fours guys touching it," said South�s Josh Neville. "I think it went in when one of their people tried to hit it out." Never again was North in a position to take command. "If we could�ve got up 2-0, I think we could�ve held them," Jolly said. "But that�s not what happened." Less than two minutes later, Jon McCollum centered the ball from the left side and Potter chested it in for his first SOC goal. "Scoring a goal in that situation helps my confidence level, but it was all Jon, getting that cross to me." Then it was South�s turn to see a lead slip away. After failing to convert on four successive corner kicks, the Tornado tied it when Jolly�s shot from the right side rebounded to the farside and Babak Asgharian stuffed it in the left side of the net with seven minutes left in regulation. Both sides had their chances to score afterwards but came up empty. In the first overtime period, North�s Wallace nearly scored on a corner that skipped around the far post, while McCollum�s shot for South was high. Then with four minutes remaining in the second overtime, South had a goal rubbed out by offsides. "It was a tough battle the whole way," Jolly said. "Both teams showed up today and it took penalty kicks to decide it." And it was time for Hadley to shine. Wallace took the first kick and Hadley smothered it. After Neville converted for South, Hadley deflected Jolly�s try, sprawling to his left. "The first one, (Wallace) was standing in front of the opposite post the entire time before the kick," Hadley said. "That�s usually a good sign that he�s going to go the other way. "On the second, I could tell by way he set up that he was not going to go to the right. I dove and I got lucky on that one. At that point, I pretty much knew our team would put our shots in." McColum gave South a two- kick edge when he feigned right and tapped the ball left. Grace was the first North kicker to convert, but South�s Daniel Hathaway responded to make it 3-1. Asgharian caught Hadley diving the wrong way to make it 3-2. With a chance to ice the win, Chris Miller twice deposited the ball in the goal. But both efforts were wiped out because he kicked before the official�s whistle. His third shot was wide left and North�s Aaryn Abbott tied it 3-3. That left things up to young Potter. "He was ready to be put on varsity," said his dad. "We wanted him to develop more and be able to get maximum playing time on JV. When he stepped up, he demonstrated the necessary skills. He was our number five shooter and not a lot of players jump at that opportunity." Daniel Potter was very aware what the win meant to his teammates. "This was huge," he said. "The players were saying before the game that if we were going to win the conference, we�d have to win this game." Three games stand between South and the title, starting with a 4 p.m. Friday contest at Roseburg. North travels to Eagle Point on Saturday. "It was one of those North/South games," North coach Rich Garcia said. "We both could�ve been 0-3 and it would�ve been like this. Since we were both 3-0, there was much more at stake. But this doesn�t make or break the season." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.