North emerges in battle of heavyweights

By Don Hunt

Roughly 8,000 spectators jammed into Spiegelberg Stadium Friday night to watch the most meaningful matchup in the 15-year history of the Black and Blue Game.

It was high school football at its best. Two very good teams slugging it out for four quarters on a relatively comfortable November night.

With a state playoff berth on the line.

Fans were stacked three and four deep along the track on both sides of the packed stadium. In 26 years of covering local high school football, I can't recall a bigger crowd.

When the dust settled, North Medford had earned a 31-28 victory over South Medford to thrust itself into the playoffs and eliminate the Panthers.

Earlier in the day, a coin flip was held in White City in the event of a three-way tie for second place in the Southern Oregon Conference between the two Medford schools and Grants Pass. Grants Pass won the flip, meaning if the Cavemen defeated Eagle Point, which they did, then the winner of the Black and Blue Game was in the playoffs and the loser was out.

The South Medford locker room was like a morgue after the game. Players sat motionless on benches. Many wept. Quarterback Boomer Marshall could barely put any weight on his right leg after spraining his knee in the fourth quarter.

This was a Panthers team that went into the day with a 7-1 record and the state's No. 7 ranking in the Class 4A state poll. And a team that went home empty-handed.

Not far away, the Black Tornado was boarding a bus for its trip back to North Medford High. Coach John Beck genuinely felt bad for his cross-town rival.

"I feel sick about them not getting in," he said before stepping into the bus. "Their kids worked hard over the summer just like ours. It's not fair."

It isn't, but in life, quite a few other things aren't, either. It's now up to North Medford to carry the football torch for the city.

And don't be surprised if the Tornado, which travels to Beaverton next Friday for a first-round matchup against Sunset, goes on a run similar to last season, when it marched all the way to the state championship game.

Ever since it lost back-to-back games to Roseburg and Grants Pass in late September, the Tornado has been in a must-win situation. Friday marked its fifth straight victory.

"We didn't know we were going to get into the playoffs by winning this game - no one told us until afterwards - but we wanted to make sure we left everything on the field tonight," said North Medford quarterback Travis Poulton, who played efficiently if not spectacularly. "This was 48 minutes for the rest of our lives."

Poulton, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound senior who is one of the top defensive backs in the state, has been the starting quarterback during the win streak. A bad ankle relegated him to mostly defense over the first month of the season, but now that he's healthy, the Tornado is a different team.

Specifically, it is a more physical team and a much better running team. Tailback Manny Alegria, who also entered the starting lineup when the win streak began, rushed for a career-best 229 yards and two touchdowns Friday, including a 48-yard scoring burst late in the third period that gave North Medford a 24-14 lead.

Poulton completed only 5-of-10 passes for 73 yards and a touchdown - a beautiful 29-yard strike to Brian Weeks for the game's opening score. But Poulton threw just enough to keep the Panthers off balance, and some of Alegria's long runs came after Poulton had pitched him the ball on the option.

"I'm really feeling comfortable now (at quarterback)," said Poulton, who meets every day with Tornado offensive coordinator Brent Barry to go over the offense. "I've put a lot of time into this and it's paying off."

Although the Tornado has operated out of a three- and four-wide receiver sets for much of the season, they did some different things Friday. They went with an unbalanced line, putting tackles Josh Whitaker and Alan Borelli on the same side. They went with a tight end. They bunched up their wide receivers.

"I think all those changes helped Alegria have the big night that he had," Poulton said. "He had some pretty good running lanes."

North Medford's defense has been solid throughout the streak, although it gave up a couple of long scoring plays to Andres Reed Friday that helped keep the Panthers in the game.

But the first three times South Medford closed within three points, Poulton guided North Medford to a touchdown to give the Tornado a little breathing room.

The Panthers again inched within three with 19 seconds to play when Reed scored his fourth touchdown of the night, but North recovered the ensuing onside kick to clinch the win.

"This was like two heavyweights going at it for 15 rounds," Beck said. "And we just happened to be the one standing at the end."

Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail dhunt@mailtribune.com 

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