NORTH BEND — You don’t have to be a football genius to figure out what North Bend football coach said to his team at halftime as the Bulldogs trailed 7-0 to Newport at Vic Adams Field Friday night.

North Bend had ventured inside the red zone three times in the first half and came away with zero points, turning the ball over twice.

“That wasn’t good,” said North Bend coach Rick Taylor after the game. “At that point in the game, they hadn’t stopped us. We’d stopped ourselves.”

But the Bulldogs responded with three touchdowns in the second half, pulling off a 21-20 victory over the visiting Cubs.

The end of the game was tense and prolonged. With North Bend leading 21-14, Newport took possession of the ball with 2:53 remaining at its own 36 yard line. Bulldog lineman Justin Tobey then pushed the Cubs back to their own 26 with a sack. But, using a series of passes and penalties, Newport marched the ball down the field to score on an 11-yard touchdown scramble from quarterback Mark Moore to pull within 21-20.

The Cubs went for two and the win. On the two-point conversion try, Moore found Chris Barth in the end zone for a completion, but Newport was whistled for offensive pass interference. By the rules, that penalty results in loss of down on a two-point conversion attempt, and Newport had to kick off to North Bend still trailing by one point.

The Cubs tried an onside kick, but Bulldog Tanner Laiche gathered up the ball with sure hands.

North Bend then tried to run out the clock, but turned the ball over on downs at the Newport 47-yard line with 3 seconds remaining, leaving the Cubs one last play. Out of the shotgun, Moore decided to scramble, making it to the North Bend 29 before going down.

Finally, the Bulldogs could celebrate their first win of the year and the first victory for their new coach.

“I’m just overwhelmed,” said Dalton Iveans, who played quarterback for North Bend in the second half. “To have come back from a 7-0 deficit and win 21-20 — this was crazy.”

By the numbers, North Bend dominated the game in every way except the final score. The Bulldogs had 19 first downs to the Cubs’ 6. North Bend ran the ball 60 times for 255 yards, compared to 19 carries for 122 yards from Newport, most of which came on a 69-yard touchdown run from Cubs star running back Tristan Metcalf. The only statistic where the two teams were more or less even were penalties: Newport had eight for 79 yards, while North Bend had 10 for 81.

The game was close because of turnovers and two big plays from Metcalf, who was dangerous every time he carried the ball. He opened things up in the second quarter after he intercepted a pass from North Bend quarterback Tyler Goode. On the following drive, Metcalf took a hand-off up the middle, made two North Bend tacklers miss and broke away to go 69 yards for a touchdown with 5:40 remaining in the half.

Metcalf didn’t want to take credit, though.

“I’ve got to give credit to my big five, the offensive line. That’s what it’s all about,” he said of the big run. “We work hard up front.”

Aside from that one play, though, North Bend dominated the first half, three times driving within the 20 without scoring. The Bulldogs turned the ball over on the interception to Metcalf and a fumble in the end zone by fullback Shane Halford. The third time was in the waning seconds of the first half, when Goode was tackled in bounds and time ran out on third down when the Bulldogs were on the Newport 10.

The second half was a whole different story, though.

In particular it was a stark turnaround for fullback Halford, who fumbled the ball three times in the first half. Halford came back to have a solid final two quarters, finishing up with 102 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown.

“It was jitters. I was really nervous before the game,” said Halford, adding that his strong second half was all the sweeter given his shaky first half. “I still just had this good feeling. I’m overjoyed. I couldn’t feel any better.”

North Bend first got on the board with 6:55 remaining in the third quarter. The Bulldogs went 57 yards on 13 plays, mainly behind the running of Halford and Iveans, before Iveans punched the ball into the end zone on a 1-yard quarterback keeper.

After forcing Newport to go three-and-out, North Bend took over and went 60 yards on 6 plays, including a 16-yard pass to tight end Bryce Weidman that got the Bulldogs out of a third-down-and-3 situation. Weidman suited up for the team after sitting out last week’s game, and he was a welcome target in the middle for Goode and Iveans, catching three passes for 44 yards.

“I was pretty excited to come out,” said Weidman. “This felt pretty good. I’m pretty pumped.”

As the drive stretched into the fourth quarter, North Bend moved the ball steadily until Iveans broke out on the left sideline to scramble 25 yards for a touchdown. The Cubs blocked the extra point attempt, however, to keep the score at 13-7.

The ensuing kickoff was disastrous for the Bulldogs, as Metcalf took the return, loped patiently behind three blockers and sliced through  an opening to break down the left sideline for a 78-yard touchdown. Newport made the extra point to take a 14-13 lead.

North Bend came right back, though, manufacturing an eight-play, 55-yard drive that featured a big 13-yard run, a third-down conversion and an 8-yard touchdown run by the Halford. Iveans scored what would be the winning points on the two-point coversion run, stretching to reach the ball across the goal line while he was being tackled.

Halford led all rushers with his 102 yards, and Iveans added 58 on 15 carries.

Both were quick to chalk the running game up to the strength of the offensive line.

“This game goes to the offensive line, not to me,” said Iveans.

Offensive lineman Trae Collins was happy with the effort as well.

“Our line’s really happy with tonight. We feel we have a strong line,” he said.

Iveans completed only one pass to Weidman on three tries, while Goode went 3-for-5 passing for 51 yards — including a sideline completion to Skyler Walton — and also rushed five times for 25 yards in the first half.

Taylor said the decision to use both quarterbacks was made before the game started.

“Both our quarterbacks played great tonight,” said Taylor.

Moore was 5-for-10 passing for 67 yards for the Cubs, and he ran for 23 yards on five carries. Metcalf rushed for 91 yards on eight carries for Newport. He said he was impressed by the game the Bulldogs played.

“Tough game, tough team,” he said. “We were up, never should have let down.”

Meanwhile, Taylor saw signs that his squad is getting the hang of his new triple-option, wing-T hybrid offense.

“Our defense was great, and we saw tonight that the offense is coming along,” he said.