North Bend’s Cody Harden runs past Jacob Neilson of Douglas during the first half Friday night at North Bend. World Photo by Madeline Steege.

As North Bend fell behind 10-0 midway through the first quarter in a home game against Douglas with the Far West League title on the line Friday night, it looked like the Bulldogs might be caught in a Halloween nightmare.

By the end of the game it was North Bend that looked scary, though, bouncing back from the early deficit en route to a 41-27 win, a 4-1 league record, Far West co-champion honors with Douglas and the league’s No. 1 seed in the state playoffs. That means North Bend now has a first-round bye in the Class 4A playoffs and then hosts the winner of a matchup between La Salle and Philomath.

“This feels awesome,” said North Bend sophomore running back Jake Lucero of the championship season, after rushing for 247 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries and having a monster game defensively, as well. “I’d just like to thank the senior guys for being such great leaders this year.”

The win came as Bulldog coach Rick Taylor, in his first year with the team, matched up against his old squad in the Trojans. Taylor is still close with many of the Douglas coaches and players, and he had hugging double-duty after the game.

“I have deep feelings for a lot of the kids (at Douglas), just like I have deep feelings for the kids here,” said an emotional Taylor. “But obviously, there was no doubt what I wanted the end result to be.”

With 7 minutes, 31 seconds remaining in the first quarter, the result looked like it might be ugly for North Bend. Trojan running back Sky Woods had torched the Bulldogs for a 51-yard TD run on the third snap of the game, and Douglas then marched down the field for a field goal on a drive that looked awfully easy.

The Trojans looked freakishly fast, and in the waning moments of the first quarter Douglas quarterback Paul Polamalu broke through the North Bend line and was well on his way to another 50-plus yard TD run.

Then, the Bulldogs had a big play that might very well have saved the game.

Skyler Walton caught Polamalu inside the Bulldog 5-yard line, tackled him from behind and forced a fumble. Dalton Iveans scooped up the ball and returned it to the North Bend 10 and the Bulldogs avoided an even bigger deficit early.

“Skyler caught up with him and punched it out of his hands. It was a great play by Skyler,” said Iveans, who also had two interceptions in the game, making it 11 picks on the year.

The first of those came after North Bend punted on the ensuing possession and the Trojans drove to the Bulldog 33. Then North Bend’s Justin Tobey hit Polamalu as he threw toward the end zone, and Iveans picked off the wobbling pass inside the 1-yard line.

“Sometimes it just falls into my hands,” said Iveans. “Our defense, we started a little flat, then came back. We wanted it more.”

As the teams entered the second quarter, North Bend adjusted to the speed of Douglas and got its own running game going — an attack that earned the Bulldogs a total of 474 yards on the ground.

After the Iveans interception, the Trojans forced the Bulldogs into a third-and-3 situation at their own 8. But then Lucero busted through the middle and charged down the field for a 75-yard scramble to the Douglas 16, setting up his own 4-yard TD run. So instead of being down three touchdowns, as could have easily happened, the Bulldogs trailed 10-7.

North Bend forced the third of four crucial turnovers in the second quarter, when Toby Ridenour intercepted Polamalu in the flat and rushed 26 yards to paydirt with nobody in front of him. Ridenour’s first touchdown as a Bulldog put the team up 14-10.

Ridenour saw the Trojans line up with three receivers on his side and expected a pitch or bubble screen.

“I saw the receiver step back and I followed my keys. I stepped back and he threw it right in my hands,” said Ridenour.

After Tim Urista kicked another field goal for the Trojans, North Bend went into halftime up 14-13.

In the second half, Douglas faced a situation the Trojans weren’t used to: playing from behind, as Douglas came into the game 4-0 in league play with four lopsided scores under its belt.

The Bulldogs added to the lead on the opening drive of the third quarter, manufacturing a 10-play, 87-yard scoring drive that almost stalled at the North Bend 23. On a third-and-10, Iveans connected with Travis Perez for the only Bulldog passing completion of the night, a 13-yard toss up the middle to keep the drive alive.

From there, North Bend rolled, scoring on a 20-yard TD run from Lucero to go up 20-13.

Then the Bulldogs went to work, stuffing a Douglas drive and scoring on a 42-yard TD run from Cameron Seiger, who broke two tackles to get to the left sideline and find the end zone with the help of a punishing block from Walton.

“Credit to them,” said Douglas coach Joe Polamalu of the Bulldogs. “They stopped us when they had to, executed when they had to and ran the ball when they had to.”

With the score 27-13 with 4:17 remaining in the third, the Trojans had a few answers left, though.

Douglas got the ball at their own 35 after the kick — a regular occurrence Friday night, as four out of seven of North Bend’s kickoffs went out of bounds, and the Trojans had great field position all night.

As the third quarter wound down, Douglas took advantage, driving down to score on a 3-yard TD run from Michael Ruppert to make the score 27-20.

That got a pretty sizable Douglas traveling crowd fired up with 35 seconds remaining in the third, and North Bend needed to respond. That answer came once again from Lucero, after Cody Harden kept a Bulldog drive going with a huge 6-yard run to convert a third-and-5. Then Lucero broke through the middle and found the left sideline for a 54-yard touchdown run with 9:48 left in the game.

“I give all the credit to our line,” said Lucero. “Those guys are studs.”

North Bend’s offensive line was a big factor in the game, as Lucero and Seiger — who had 165 yards on 10 carries — blew through huge holes all night.

“Toward the end, we wore them down like we normally do and took it to them,” said North Bend lineman Trae Collins.

The Bulldogs forced another Trojans punt and took possession up 34-20 with 7:49 remaining. Two minutes later, Seiger took a hand-off and busted to the right of the line, hurdling defenders Mathew Williams and Jered Stoffal to find a lot of open green en route to a 75-yard TD run that all but sealed the deal at 41-20 with 6:06 remaining.

“That one just came lucky to me,” said Seiger. “Our line did an awesome job blocking tonight.”

The Trojans tried to make things interesting with a last-gasp effort late, recovering a Lucero fumble at the North Bend 6 and scoring on a 5-yard TD run from Ruppert.

Then, with the score at 41-27 with 2:41 remaining, Harden took a bad punt snap and his knee hit the ground on fourth down, giving Douglas the ball at the North Bend 37. A big Lucero tackle for a stop on a fourth-and-8 ended the drive, though.

The Bulldogs fumbled the ball away, but Iveans had his second interception in the waning moments.

Despite his 247 yards rushing, Lucero may have had a better game defensively, getting big tackles and breaking up plays throughout the night.

“It’s about visualizing it, and just wanting to hit guys as hard as you can, for whatever reason you can find,” said Lucero of his defensive tenacity.

“Jake’s just what you call a ‘player,’” said Taylor of the standout sophomore. “He wants to be around the ball.”

The victory moved Taylor nearly to tears, as he beat out an old friend in Joe Polamalu for the Far West title. He was quick to give everybody else the credit.

“I’ve got the greatest job in the world. These are great kids,” said Taylor. “And the greatest thing I’ve got going here is the best coaching staff a guy could have.”

Joe Polamalu struggled with the loss, but was happy for his old friend.

“Rick and I are before, after and forever friends,” he said.

Notes: Douglas had 334 yards rushing on 47 carries, but struggled in the air, with Polamalu going 2-for-14 with three interceptions... North Bend won the turnover battle, forcing four turnovers to two for the Bulldogs... Paul Polamalu had 93 yards rushing on eight carries for the Trojans... Friday’s loss means Douglas has a first-round bye and then travels to Estacada.