Head coach Rick Taylor speaks with players during a football team practice Monday morning at North Bend High School. World Photo by Alex Powers.

North Bend and Marshfield’s football squads started rigorous practice schedules Monday, with the same expressed goal — to beat the tar out of each other in their opening-season matchup Aug. 29.

They may have had the same plan, but the look and feel of the two team’s practices were decidedly different.

Brand new North Bend coach Rick Taylor took time to joke around with his players, showing an easy-going side even if it was clear his expectations were high. In contrast, Marshfield coach Kent Wigle ran his practice with military precision — no funny stuff there.

Otherwise, the practices looked like what they were; the first ones of the fall. There were plenty of dropped balls, busted hand-offs and players leaning on their knees for support.

“Everyone’s a little rusty,” said returning Marshfield starter Kyle Brown. “We’re getting back into the mode of football season again.”

Marshfield is hoping to improve on a season last year that saw the Pirates go 2-3 in Midwestern league play and 3-6 overall, and Wigle said the team’s 23 seniors at practice Monday, with perhaps a dozen starters, was a plus.

“We’ve had a great turnout at the upper end,” said Wigle, noting that of the nearly 80 players on the field, perhaps 20 were juniors. “We’d like to see more sophomores though.”

It’s easy to be optimistic with a healthy crop of upperclassmen. But first things first.

“We’re just dealing with fundamentals right now,” said Wigle.

The team ran through conditioning and quickness drills, with some receivers running routes for catches and linemen working on their stances and blocking.

Across the border, North Bend was working through similar drills, although Taylor had started his backs early on working through the option, long his preferred offense in his past coaching life at Douglas High School.

“Option teams do this 355 times a day,” he shouted at his players as they worked on fakes and tosses. “We have 346 more to go.”

The Bulldogs had tried to practice early in the morning, but had to push the schedule back by an hour due to lightning.

The players seemed to be taking to their new coach just fine — Taylor came from Douglas after the departure of Bulldog coach Bill Masei to take the helm of Dallas High School outside Salem.

“I like his personality,” said two-year varsity lineman and incoming senior Justin Tobey. “And he knows what he’s talking about.”

Neither Marshfield nor North Bend were coming at the practice completely cold. A lot of the guys had been lifting weights and working out together all summer, as well as attending camps.

“I got to know quite of few of them over the summer,” said Taylor, who’d taken 58 kids to a camp during the warmer months, although he was missing 15 Monday because they hadn’t completed their paperwork yet.

Wigle had the advantage of coming to a team he mostly knew, and he let his coaching staff run various position stations Monday as the team began working out around 4 p.m.

“I’m more in an administrative mode today,” he said.

The Pirates looked to be pretty fit considering the players were just coming off of summer break.

“I feel pretty good, a little tight,” said Pirates returning strong safety Levi Meline. “I know we’ve all been lifting weights and staying in shape.”

It was obviously early for both teams, but players and coaches from both sides were already thinking of Aug. 29 in North Bend, and the cross-town rivalry of the Civil War.

North Bend is coming off a 7-3 season, with key returners suiting up — including an imposing line — and a trip to the Class 4A state quarterfinals. But that’s not the important number here: All that will matter come Aug. 29 is the 18-game winning streak Marshfield has amassed in this Civil War.

Last year was a close one for a half of football anyway, as the 4A Bulldogs stuck with the 5A Pirates early before Marshfield ran away with the thing in the final 17 minutes en route to a 26-12 win and another year of bragging rights.

“There’s a lot of trying to get ready for Marshfield,” said another of North Bend’s returning linemen, Trae Collins. “Biggest game of the year.”

But the Pirates were having none of that. Nobody in a purple uniform wants to be on the team that let the Marshfield dominance end, even for one year.

“That’s a huge game, but we’re confident,” said Meline. “We can’t let our winning streak die.”