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North romps past Comets By Kris Henry North Medford and Crater both play in the Southern Oregon Conference but the Black Tornado was clearly in another league Friday night at Dutch Meyer Field. The bigger, stronger, faster Black Tornado dominated the inexperienced Comets (0-3) in all facets of the game for a 49-6 romp and 2-0 start to the SOC season. North quarterback Kevin Foreman pass-ed for two touchdowns and rushed for two others in the first half as the Black Tornado shook off a 6-all tie to take a 26-6 edge at intermission. Seven minutes into the second half the scoreboard tilt-ed in North�s favor at 40-6, further frustrating an already discouraged Crater crew. "We came out wanting to take the hit to them and not let them take the hit to us, and we went on from there," said North tailback Phil Ouellette, who rushed 14 times for 125 yards and scored two touchdowns. As shifty as Ouellette was for the 10th-ranked Black Tornado, Foreman provided the most activity for North as he danced through the Comet defense with ease en route to 92 yards rushing on eight carries. Foreman also completed 3 of 6 passes for 46 yards. "Kevin�s a great athlete and great competitor and just gets the job done," said Ouellette. "He�s a good passer too but we just didn�t have to pass much in this game." North�s outstanding offensive line deserved most of the credit for the team�s gluttony of yards. The core group of Scott Myers, Mark Schmor, Shawn Blue, Dan Johnson, Justin Baehmann and Dan Crawford enabled the Tornado to churn out 405 yards rushing on 47 carries. "Our line just dominated the whole game," said Ouellette. "They opened up holes you could drive a truck through they were so huge." Many of those same faces turned in truck-like performances on the defensive side, blasting through Crater�s offensive line to pressure quarterback P.J. Price and keep the Comets from gaining any true momentum after their first-quarter success. Price completed 12 of 24 passes for 173 yards and one interception, gaining 90 of those yards on a pass each to Nolan Kell and David Sills. "They�re a very talented team and we�re struggling right now in confidence more than anything else," said Crater coach Randy Heath. "We�re not a very physical team right now like we�d like to be so we�re getting manhandled a little bit. We got whipped in the weight room by those guys." Crater stirred things up early with a stellar kickoff return by David Sills to put the Comets in scoring position on the opening possession. Crater moved the ball down to the North 6-yard-line only to be thwarted as Travis Poulton intercepted a fourth-and-goal pass from Price. Three rushes for 44 yards by Ouellette, an offsides penalty on Crater and three rushes for 43 yards by Foreman put North on the board first. The Comets were stymied on their next drive but received a good break when Price�s punt touched Dustin Brooks and was recovered by Levi Wisdom at North�s 37. Brooks appeared to be pushed into the ball but no call resulted in Crater�s big opportunity, which the Comets took advantage of immediately with a 29-yard run by Dan Casey and a 1-yard plunge by Price to tie the score. "We felt like we could move the ball," said Heath. "We had to mix things up a little bit and had to move around to get away from their pressure but we moved the ball until things got out of hand." The biggest back-breaker for Crater came in the second quarter after Foreman�s 18-yard TD pass to Ouellette gave the Tornado an 18-6 advantage. Sills was blasted on the ensuing kickoff by a swarming group of North special teams players and coughed up the ball. Foreman slipped through the defense on the next play to make it 26-6 and the Tornado never looked back. Next up for the North Medford juggernaut will be the Black-and-Blue Bowl with South Medford, which will look to be the first team to hold North under 48 points this season. "That should be a very good game," said North coach Rod Rumrey. "You have the two Medford teams 2-0 so there could be some playoff implications in that game." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA