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South wins SOC crown Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming South Medford's Amber Stevens, left, who scored both goals in Wednesday's game, attempts to steal the ball from North Medford's Denali Tice. A pair of second-half goals spark the Panthers past the Black Tornado and to a perfect conference record By TIM PYLE Down 1-0 at the half and feeling lucky it wasn't worse, Buzz Thielemann made a change Wednesday evening at Fichtner-Mainwaring Park. Forty minutes later, after his South Medford girls soccer team ended the regular season by rallying for a 2-1 victory over North Medford to clinch the Southern Oregon Conference championship, Thielemann recalled his reasoning. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results," said the second-year head coach, his program celebrating its first outright SOC title since 1995 and breaking a string of three consecutive co-championships shared with North. Thielemann's decision to push three forwards up front rather than the standard two paid immediate dividends in the second half. "They were happy to see another plan," Thielemann said of his squad. "And the thing that I've loved about this team is that they're always willing to try something new." Freshman forward Kelsey Corbin, serving as the "post-up" center forward, sprang both plays that ended in Panthers goals inside the first 10 minutes of the second half. Sophomore forward Amber Stevens, streaking up and down the left side, finished both goals, the first on a follow of senior forward Erin Reno's shot, the second a scalding left-footed blast that rattled off Black Tornado freshman goalkeeper Caitlin Seeley and the left post before crossing the goal line. "It was natural, left-footed; it felt good," said Stevens, who is right-footed and began the fall on the JV team, of her game-winner. "I just had power on it." The spoils of victory for the Panthers (11-2-1 overall, 7-0 SOC) include the SOC's No. 1 seed to the Class 4A state tournament. South will play host to the No. 4 team from the Mt. Hood Conference on Nov. 3 at Fichtner-Mainwaring. North (9-3, 6-1) is the SOC's second seed and welcomes the Portland Interscholastic League's No. 3 team to Hoffbuhr Field on Nov. 3. The Tornado was the aggressor in the first half and earned a beautiful goal midway through to show for it. A series of crisp passes concluded when junior defensive midfielder Lisa Munyon found senior right midfielder Lindsey Arkenburg along the right sideline, and Arkenburg crossed to the mouth of South's goal. Never breaking stride on a sprint from her central midfielder spot, senior co-captain McKenzie Weiler pounded a header inside the left post for a 1-0 North edge. From there, Panthers junior defensive midfielder Lindsay Huey did a commendable job containing Weiler, a returning all-SOC first-team performer who ignites the Tornado offense. And South, sparked by Thielemann's maneuvering and a newfound resolve, opened the second half aggressively and on the attack. "During halftime, we talked about how we weren't playing our game and needed to get back into it and step it up a level and have more intensity," said Panthers senior sweeper and co-captain Katie Casebeer. "And we did that." It showed on the scoreboard almost immediately. Just minutes into the half, Corbin threaded a through pass to Reno, and South's leading scorer took a few touches before firing a low shot toward Seeley, who dove to her left to deflect. Hustling behind the play, Stevens pounced upon the rebound as it idled along the goal line and tied the match. "Right place, right time," Stevens said. About five minutes later, Panthers senior central midfielder Colleen Salisbury, another co-captain, passed to Corbin at the top of the North penalty box. The freshman - who said later she "never tired" because of a crowd the size of which she had never played in front of before - laid the ball off to her left for Stevens, who blasted the ball in at the near post despite the narrowest of windows. Another few minutes later, Stevens had what would have been a third goal called back on a delayed offside whistle. In Tornado coach Dick Darcy's mind, the other two South goals were courtesy of blown offside calls. "What determined the game was the officials, and they shouldn't be doing that," said Darcy, whose program for the initial time in his six-year tenure finishes anything but first in the SOC (tied with the Panthers the last three years, outright the other two). "Both goals were offside goals. The calls that were made on the field by the center ref, I mean they were atrocious. "But that wasn't why we lost. They wanted it more. That's basically it." North lost freshman midfielder Christine Tacha to a knee injury early in the first half and sophomore forward Nicole Vilarino to another knee injury midway through the second. But the Tornado, which finished with a 16-13 overall edge in shots, still managed nine shots on goal in the last 20 minutes, striving for the equalizer until the final whistle. And what a sweet whistle it was to the ears of Casebeer and the eight other South seniors. "This has been a dream come true," said the third-year letter-winner. "I have been waiting four years to go out with a championship. We have been co-champions for far too long. This is the best senior year anyone could possibly have." Reach reporter Tim Pyle at 776-4483 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.