Tornado tears through Reynolds

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North Medford quarterback Jordan Ellis dives into the end zone to complete a 26-yard touchdown run as time expired in the first half of Friday night’s nonconference game with Reynolds at Spiegelberg Stadium.Jamie Lusch

September 06, 2008

By Kris Henry

Mail Tribune

If there was a concern over how or why North Medford planned to rotate in two quarterbacks, it surely was alleviated Friday night at Spiegelberg Stadium.

The Black Tornado tandem of Jordan Ellis and Matt Maurer had Reynolds on its heels all night en route to a season-opening, 42-14 triumph.

North Medford also had its defense turn in a sensational night in denying the Raiders until two late scores during the final 10 minutes of the game.

"We wanted to get off to a good start and prove that North Medford's going to be back in football again," said Ellis.

Ellis and Maurer rotated at quarterback every two series until the game was well in hand, and the Black Tornado didn't seem to miss a beat.

Ellis, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound senior, guided a 78-yard scoring drive on the first possession of the game, culminating with an 11-yard strike to Brock Heaton. He completed 9 of 14 passes for 78 yards with the one touchdown and one interception, and also carried the ball 11 times for 109 yards and two scores. For good measure, Ellis also had 12 yards receiving.

Maurer, a 6-2, 205-pound junior, led North to touchdowns on all three of his drives. On his first series, he missed out on a touchdown pass to Isaac Silafau by inches as the football came loose at the 1-yard line and lineman C.J. Mitchell alertly pounced on the fumble in the end zone for a TD.

Maurer later came back to connect with Heaton on a 15-yard scoring strike to make it 21-0 and added a 20-yard run to pay dirt in the third quarter thanks to a great downfield block by Jacob Altamirano. He finished with 90 yards through the air on 6 of 10 passing, 76 yards on the ground on six carries and 8 yards receiving.

"I thought it worked really good," Ellis said of the rotation at quarterback. "I thought the defense didn't know exactly what was going on the whole time, so it mixed it up a lot."

Colin Sowers also added 58 yards rushing on nine carries and hauled in two passes for 31 yards. Silafau was the leading receiver with 70 yards on six catches as North seemed to attack Reynolds (0-2) from all angles.

"They're kind of a wide-open offense, and once they find a seam they've got enough speed to be able to capitalize on it," said Reynolds coach Terry Schloth. "We're a pretty young team and we had a hard time trying to contain them. They got loose on us a couple times."

"Having two quarterbacks in the backfield that can run the ball, that's tough," added the coach. "They did a good job, my hat's off to them."

Ellis turned in the play of the game with time winding down in the first half on a third-and-10 from the Reynolds 26. With 4.9 seconds to play until halftime, Ellis dropped back for a pass but thought the better of it. From that point on, it was pure athletic ability as Ellis eluded the pass rush by dancing right, turning back left and then finally cutting through the middle for a TD with no time left on the clock.

"It was supposed to be a screen, but their linebacker read it pretty well," said Ellis. "I was just dropping back, and he read it so I had nothing to do but run, so that's what I did. My receivers made great blocks downfield, and it just led me to the end zone."

Suddenly it was 28-0 and the Raiders had little wind left in their sails.

"Ellis is definitely a kid that can break loose on you," said Schloth. "He's a threat. He's the kid we really worried about. The other kid's got a great arm and good pocket presence, but the Ellis kid we knew was going to be a handful. We tried to contain him — that was kind of our game plan to keep him from having good plays — but he's a good football player."

Reynolds' hopes for a rally took a hit prior to Ellis' TD scamper, when starting tailback/linebacker Devon DeCamp was leveled by a downfield block from David Formolo to help spring a 6-yard run by Ellis 25 seconds before halftime. DeCamp laid on the FieldTurf for a few minutes before finally being escorted off the field. He was on the Reynolds sideline for the second half but did not return to field.

DeCamp's backfield mate, Matt Finn, used an increased workload to run for 88 yards on 15 carries, with a 5-yard TD at the 9:50 mark putting Reynolds on the board for the first time. Backup quarterback Colin Walsh scrambled for a 7-yard score with 9.2 seconds to play.

Despite being forced to defend a short field for most of the night, North's defense held firm until the final two series.

"We gave them great field position, especially in the first half, and they didn't take advantage of it because of our defense," said North coach Jeff Olson. "Overall for a first night, it was a pretty good start."

Reach reporter Kris Henry at 776-4488, or e-mail khenry@mailtribune.com

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