Kyle Denn at South Medford varsity soccer practice Wednesday.

Neither team truly got what it wanted out of Tuesday’s soccer match but, given the play between the boys from South Medford and North Medford, it was hard to feel disheartened with a 2-2 draw on the Panthers’ home field.

“They’re No. 6 in the state (power rankings) and we’re No. 20,” said Black Tornado head coach Marco Cortez, “and we proved that we could’ve won, and they could’ve won as well. It was just one of those games, just back and forth. It is what it is. Everybody wants to play in one of those games.”

It was the second tie this season between the crosstown rivals after South Medford had won three of the previous four matchups.

The Panthers, ranked No. 7 in the Class 6A coaches poll, were able to maintain hopes for a potential SWC title, although they will need a little help from the Black Tornado on Saturday to make that happen.

South Medford (9-1-3, 7-1-3 SWC) wraps up the regular season with a home date against South Eugene (8-3-2, 6-2-2), while North Medford (7-3-3, 6-2-3) will entertain league-leading and No. 3-ranked Willamette (10-1-2, 8-1-2).

A win Saturday by the Panthers and at least a tie by the Black Tornado would allow South Medford to share the conference crown.

“At the beginning of the season we set out some goals,” said Panthers head coach Matt Soper of his team. “No. 1 was to battle for a conference championship, No. 2 get into the playoffs and No. 3 get some home playoff games, and we’re doing that on all three so I’m quite pleased all around with how they’re doing this year.”

Should North Medford win on Saturday and the Panthers lose, the teams would share second place in the SWC behind the Wolverines.

South Medford gained the upper hand Tuesday night when senior Kyle Denn accepted a leading pass up the left side, settled it momentarily for a flow of teammates to catch up and then shifted a pass to Omar Serrano toward the middle of the field. Serrano made one touch to settle the pass, shifted it in the next moment to his right and then ripped a crisp 30-yard shot to the upper right corner of the goal in the 23rd minute.

The effort was a welcomed sight for Soper, whose team wasn’t quite clicking early on.

“There’s about six players on both teams that play on the same club team, so they’re like buddies,” said the South coach, “and for whatever reason, we are so timid when we play them. Both games this year have been like that for us.”

“I felt like after that first goal for us we would’ve settled into the match,” he added, “but we didn’t. It built a little fire for North and we had to defend and sustain our lead, and it’s not surprising that North scored that first goal.”

A takeaway with about 3½ minutes remaining in the first half set up North’s first goal, with Matthew Donovan sending the ball out wide right to Jacob Casale, who crossed the ball back toward the box that teammate Koby Ibarra ran onto for a one-touch volley past goalkeeper Silvano Pineda in a crashing effort.

The teams went level into the break but the Panthers seemed to bring a better start to the final 40 minutes with a pair of quality shots on goal against North goalkeeper Fernando Ortiz in the first six minutes.

In a flash, however, it was the Black Tornado finding themselves in the lead when Casale again found space on the right side and lofted a cross that was deposited into the net on a nice header by Alec Winters in the 47th minute.

“We’ve been really good at the beginning of games and the beginning of the second half where we’ve scored some goals really quick,” said Soper. “When North came down and I saw it, I was like, ‘Uh-oh.’ I knew that was trouble for us because we were pressing pretty hard and they caught us on a great counter. Don’t take any credit away from them, they did awesome. That was perfect.”

The same could be said about South’s equalizer with about 17½ minutes to play, when Denn tucked a 25-yard free kick just under the near-post crossbar to elude Ortiz.

“We have two guys, James (Montailler) and Kyle, who practice those all the time,” Soper said of the free kick. “I’m not going to say that I knew that it was probably going in, but I was quite comfortable with either of them taking that and it was going to be tough for the goalkeeper to get because they’re pretty money right there.”

For the rest of the match, each team had scoring opportunities go by the wayside, with the last coming from North Medford on a free kick with just over one minute to play.

“It was pretty even, back and forth, but we were unlucky once again tonight,” said Cortez. “We had a couple more dangerous shots that we could have capitalized on but we couldn’t finish, but it’s part of the game.They had two really good shots on us and two really good goals.”

“You can’t really do too much on those shots,” he added. “It’s two really good shots that it’s hard for the goalie to stop. I felt like we really worked more for the goals, and they had those two good shots.”

However it played out, both coaches felt as if Tuesday’s atmosphere will be helpful come state playoff time.

“It was an intense game and it’s kind of preparing us like a playoff game,” said Cortez. “Overall, we had a really good game and defensively we were great and we were playing as a team. I’m really proud of the team, it was a really good game.”

Soper had similar pride in his team’s performance.

“I’m glad that when we’ve been getting down, we’re not holding our heads and not quitting, we’re battling back,” he said. “We did it against Willamette and we had to do it against North. I’m glad that we’re battling in those situations come time for the playoffs.”