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Tornado showed its true colors By Don Hunt EUGENE � A lot of things went wrong for the North Medford football team Saturday in its Class 4A state semifinals matchup against Churchill. The Black Tornado fumbled the ball away on its first possession, leading to a quick Lancer score. It gave up a touchdown on the second-half kickoff when Churchill�s Niles Mittasch sped 90 yards to paydirt. And perhaps worst of all, it couldn�t run the ball to keep it away from the Lancers� double-wing offense and the dangerous Mittasch. But this is a resilient Tornado bunch and, despite trailing 28-15 with less than six minutes to play, it rallied for a 29-28 victory that lifted North Medford into the state championship game for the first time since 1993. I�m guessing you could have counted on one hand the number of fans at Autzen Stadium who truly believed North Medford had any more chance than a snowball in you-know-where when quarterback Kevin Foreman led the Tornado offense onto the field with 5:25 to play, the ball on its own 37 and trailing by 13 points. At that juncture, Churchill had dominated play in the second half and, frankly, for much of the game. And on a day when North Medford managed just 33 yards rushing, Foreman was having his own struggles. He led the Tornado on a 72-yard touchdown drive to close the first half when North Medford went into its two-minute offense, but had fumbled twice and completed just three of nine passes for 18 yards in the second half when he entered the huddle in those waning minutes. "I was struggling to get the ball to my receivers, but the best thing that happened for me was going into our two-minute offense," Foreman said. "When that happens you�re just thinking about the task at hand and you forget about all the negative things. "That�s what I needed." The 6-foot-3, 180-pound Foreman isn�t considered among the top three or four quarterbacks in a state rich with fabulous signal callers this season. But maybe he should be. More than anything else, Foreman has a knack for making plays in the clutch. In those final 5� frantic minutes Saturday, he completed 7 of 9 passes for 121 yards and one touchdown, and ran seven yards for the winning score. He engineered touchdown drives of 63 and 68 yards. "The man is clutch," nodded Tornado receiver Mike Olson, who latched onto seven of Foreman�s throws for 135 yards. Foreman, who finished with 200 yards passing and a pair of TDs, joked after the game that he hopes coach Rod Rumrey will go to a hurry-up offense in the first period of next Saturday�s state championship game against Jesuit. "We might as well go to the shotgun and really air it out," Foreman said. One wonders if North Medford left all of its energy on the Autzen Stadium turf Saturday, if it will have anything left for Jesuit. "Give us a day or two and we�ll be ready," Foreman said. "We�ve still got one more goal we want to achieve." Along with Foreman and Olson, the Tornado�s other main hero was linebacker Alan Borelli. He shot through to block Adrian Poggi�s extra-point attempt after Churchill had gone ahead 28-15 with 1:56 remaining in the third period. It didn�t seem like such a big play at the time, but in retrospect it was as big as any. Borelli also made a crucial tackle on Mittasch that forced the Lancers to punt after North had cut its deficit to 28-22, giving the Tornado one final chance to win the game. "We�ve worked so hard to get to this point, one step from a state championship," Borelli said. "It feels great." There were other heroes, too. Brown, who made all three of his PAT kicks, including the game-winner, and hammered a couple of long, towering punts. Defensive tackle Dan Crawford, who had to be startled to see the ball coming his way on a poorly-thrown pass by Churchill quarterback Jeff Rhode in the first period but knew what to do with it: Run it in for a touchdown. Linebacker Matt Havniear, who recovered a fourth-period fumble that launched the comeback. "I�ve been coaching for 30 years and I�ve never seen a game like this one," Rumrey said. Rumrey looked as drained as a man who had just run back-to-back marathons in 90-degree heat, but he wore a big smile as he headed out of Autzen Stadium. His troops had done it again, the hard way. 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 � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.