NORTH BEND — Marshfield soccer coach Tony Preston must be feeling like he got a gift in the mail postmarked Florida right about now.

Junior forward Brian Melgar, who moved to Coos Bay from the Sunshine State during the past school year, scored a hat trick as the Pirates beat out cross-town rivals North Bend 4-2 on Tuesday.

Melgar was dangerous every time he touched the ball, although he was frustrated early as North Bend coach Blaine Deming used his best marking defender, senior Andy Langenstein, to shadow Melgar throughout the game.

It worked for one half, as Melgar couldn’t find much room to breathe under the stifling defense of Langenstein.

“I just tried to focus on the team, remember that I have a team to play with,” Melgar said of his first-half frustration. “It took a lot of hard work, but we made it happen. This feels very good. This feels great.”

By the second half, as the Pirates trailed 2-1, Melgar’s teammates were able to give him some great balls down the field, and he broke it wide open.

At the 56-minute mark, senior defender Tyler Leach lofted a long ball over the middle and Melgar used his breakaway speed to run on to it, taking two dribbles and sliding the ball past Bulldog keeper Keith Connor to tie the game at two apiece.

Leach again assisted to Melgar in the 74th minute, placing a free kick at the far post, where Melgar was flying backward through the air, heading the ball the opposite direction for his second goal. The spectacular goal earned Melgar a long ovation from the crowd.

“I didn’t even see it. I was already on the ground. I heard yelling, and I thought ‘goal,’” said Melgar.

Then, with less than four minutes left in the game, Pirate defender Daniel Chavez found Melgar on a throw-in, and he split two defenders and scored his final goal.

The game wasn’t all Pirates, though, as North Bend dominated the first half with solid defense and went into halftime leading 2-1.

And Marshfield had its own opposing star to deal with, in the form of Bulldog center midfielder Sean Jany, who scored a goal in the first half to tie the game at one. The senior controlled the ball in the middle of the field and found his teammates when they were open, and he was deadly when he moved forward toward the goal. But North Bend struggled to finish.

“We’ve got to get people more adapted to taking shots,” said Jany, the clear on-field leader for the Bulldogs. “We played really well defensively, though. We’ve got to be happy about that.”

And although he was scored on four times, Connor had a great game. He came off his line aggresively to break up several fast breaks throughout the night, and he had one spectacular save where he was lying on the ground and still able to deflect a shot from Melgar.

Regardless, Marshfield struck first, as Leach was tripped from behind in the penalty box and took the penalty shot himself. He chose the right side of the goal and put it out of the reach of Connor.

“It’s just about focus,” said Leach of the penalty kick. “I picked the right side. I didn’t get all the way to the corner, but close enough I was happy.”

Moments later, though, North Bend’s Jeremy Dubisar pushed a through ball to Jany who buried it in the back of the net past Pirate keeper Gage Pallo.

Then, with eight minutes left in the half, a short cross bounced around in the penalty box and a Marshfield player mishandled it for an own goal to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead going into half time.

In the second half, though, North Bend seemed to run out of gas and Marshfield kept going.

“It was a complete momentum shift,” said Jany.

As the Bulldogs slumped, Melgar’s teammates started finding him in stride, and the results were spectacular.

“Brian’s our point man, our front man, but this was a team effort,” said Preston. “He’s one of those guys, you make him work and he’s going to produce. He needs a challenge.”

Preston also liked the look of his defense, and he was happy with the way middlefielders Adam Alexander and Brian Gonzales were able to control the ball, particularly in the second half.

“In the second half they outplayed us. They just beat us to the ball,” said Deming of the Pirates, but added that he was proud of his team. “I definitely don’t have to work on heart with these guys. Both teams showed that.”

North Bend did have its chances. With less than 10 minutes remaining in the game, Bulldog Kyle Deming nearly broke through Marshfield’s defensive line for a breakaway look at the goal. Jany also had a shot late where he couldn’t get a good foot on the ball and it dribbled wide left.

But North Bend couldn’t put shots on goal and Marshfield could, and the Pirates outshot the Bulldogs 12-7.

The win means the Pirates have now taken the rivalry two years running, after the Bulldogs dominated for years.

“It’s two in a row. They’re proud of that,” said Preston of his Pirates team. “They worked their butts off for this.”