Document text
North blows away Bend Black Tornado strikes early, while defense stifles Lava Bears By DON HUNT It wasn't an impeccable performance, but for 21/2 quarters, the North Medford High football team did nearly everything right in a non-conference game against Bend Friday night at Spiegelberg Stadium. The No. 4-ranked Black Tornado scored on all six of its first-half possessions and then added a touchdown the first time it had the ball in the third quarter on the way to a 44-12 win over the outmanned Lava Bears. The impressive effort comes one week before North Medford travels to No. 7 Roseburg in the Southern Oregon Conference opener for both teams. Roseburg edged No. 3 Sheldon, 22-21, on Friday in a game suspended in the fourth quarter because of lightning. "We'll be ready," said Tornado linebacker Alan Borelli, who had two sacks and a half-dozen tackles against Bend. "Our defense is back to its ornery ways. We're flying around the way we did last year." North Medford coach John Beck wasn't happy with his defense in the Tornado's 42-7 season-opening victory over Mountain View. He challenged the defensive players all week in practice to be more aggressive, and they responded with reckless abandon against Bend, holding the Lava Bears to minus 2 yards rushing and 30 yards in total offense in the first half. By then it was 37-0 and North Medford was on its way to a 2-0 record to start the season. "We tackled better and our angles to the ball were better - we were much better fundamentally on defense tonight," said Beck, who cleared his bench midway through the third period. "Plus, we ratcheted up our intensity level a couple notches. "This was a good effort heading into next week." Offensively, efficiency was the watchword for the Tornado. North had to settle for Shawn Hale's 29-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead the first time it had the ball, but then it scored five straight touchdowns to close out the first half. Quarterback Brett Timmerman ran for two scores and connected on touchdown passes of 23 yards to Beau Hovland and 14 yards to Travis Poulton before the first half was in the books. Timmerman completed nine of his final 10 passes after starting the night 0-for-2, and finished with 126 yards in the air. "I had the jitters at the start but then settled down and just ran our offense," Timmerman said. "I had a lot of guys wide-open." One of them was Hovland, who ran a streak pattern up the middle and snagged a pass from the left-handed Timmerman for North Medford's first touchdown. "He's a secondary receiver on that play but when I looked up there wasn't anyone around him," Timmerman said. "I'm sure they had broken coverage because Beau was all by himself." A 50-yard punt return by Rob Folsom set up North Medford's next score, a 2-yard run by Timmerman that made it 17-0 with 5:10 remaining in the first period. Timmerman hit Poulton on a 14-yard post pattern for the Tornado's next touchdown and closed out the half with an 11-yard run up the middle on a quarterback sneak. In between, Justin MacLauchlan ran 3 yards for a touchdown. He led all rushers with 94 yards on 11 carries and drew big praise from Bend coach Craig Walker. "He's the best back we've seen," said Walker, whose team fell to 0-3. "He runs low. He's like a slalom skier out there - his upper body is straight but his lower body is moving. You don't coach that." Walker was also impressed with North Medford's defense. "We had some good moments on offense, but then they'd sack us and it would be second-and-20," Walker said. "It's difficult to get any rhythm against them. They're very quick." A case in point came on Bend's first possession of the second half. Quarterback Brian Cappy completed two passes that moved the ball from the Lava Bear 20 to the 36, but on the following play Borelli sacked Cappy for a 13-yard loss. On the play after that, Novie Bier recovered a Cappy fumble on the Bend 22. MacLauchlan then went the distance for North Medford's final touchdown. "We've still got some work to do," MacLauchlan said, "but we played a lot better tonight than we did last week." Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.