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Fossen saves best for last Photo by Jim Craven South Medford players led by Erin Reno, second from right, mob goalie Heather Fossen after her game-winning goal in Wednesday's shootout. Panther goalie caps SOC tilt with goal in shootout By DON HUNT It seemed only fitting that South Medford's Heather Fossen would determine the outcome of Wednesday's Southern Oregon Conference girls soccer match against archrival North Medford. Eighty minutes of regulation play, two 10-minute overtime periods and one shootout round failed to resolve the epic battle at Fichtner-Mainwaring Park. North goalie Hawley Puett, right, is consoled after Fossen's goal. With the match tied 3-3, it went to a sudden-death shootout, where each school alternates sending out one player to go one-on-one with the goalie at the top of the box. Three Black Tornado girls connected and three South girls did likewise before North's Heather Johnson slammed her shot off the crossbar. And so up stepped Fossen, the gritty South Medford goalie who had turned back 22 North shots on the day. The match was hers to win and she came through, thumping the ball just past the outstretched arms of Tornado goalie Hawley Puett. "I felt like I had been mentally tough the whole match and I just needed to be that way one more time," said Fossen, whose uniform was caked with mud after she spent much of the day making diving saves. "I really didn't know which way I was going to kick the ball until I approached it. "It was so sweet to win this match." North Medford had the early edge in the regular shootout when South's Marissa Gillingham misfired on her one-on-one session with Puett. But the Tornado's fourth kicker in the regular shootout, McKenzie Weiler, sent her shot sailing over the crossbar and South's Erin Reno connected, tying the match once again. North's Bethanie Bryant and South's Tiffany Mason each scored on the final kicks of the regular shootout, sending the match into the sudden-death format. "I think we had the mental edge today," said South Medford coach Leslie Lang, whose team improved to 4-0 in the SOC and 7-3 overall. "We were missing a couple of our best players but the girls out on the field just willed themselves to victory." North Medford coach Dick Darcy agreed. "They had more heart today than we did," Darcy said. South Medford played without standout sweeper Emily Perttu, who is sidelined for the season with a knee injury, and starting forward Colleen Salisbury, who is out with a sprained ankle. They also lost Gillingham, their center midfielder, with a leg injury for the last 15 minutes of regulation play and the first overtime period. But with Fossen keeping everyone in check except Tennille Bennett, who scored all three of North Medford's goals, and with stopper Kathleen Narus breaking up numerous Tornado forays, the Panthers hung tough despite being outshot 25-9. North Medford (6-4, 3-1) also had an 8-4 edge in corner kicks. "This was the most intense game I've ever played in," Narus said. "It seems like every time we play them it comes down to something like this, but today was just crazy." South Medford took an early 1-0 lead when Gillingham sent a perfectly placed crossing pass to Tiffany Mason, who connected from 15 yards out at the 11th minute. North Medford then dominated the rest of the half, but its only goal in the opening 40 minutes came from Bennett. Bennett and South's Reno each scored in the opening three minutes of the second half, but when Bennett completed her hat trick in the 63rd minute to give the Tornado a 3-2 lead, it looked as though it would stand up. However, the speedy Mason got into a one-on-one situation with Puett at the 70th minute and blasted home a left-footed goal, tying the match for the third time. "Going one-v-one with the keeper is my strength," said Mason, South Medford's leading scorer on the season. "I knew when I got into that situation that I was going to score." Johnson, the North Medford striker opposite Bennett, had a golden opportunity to win the game in regulation but her shot from 20 yards out in the 71st minute slammed off the crossbar. "We dodged a few bullets and just kept hanging in there," Lang said. "And then Heather (Fossen) won it at the end. "She's the kid you like up there in that situation because nothing is going to faze her." Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.