NorthBend linemen Justin Tobey, right, and Pete Chaney lead the way blocking on a running play against Siuslaw in October. The Bulldogs have soared behind their powerful offensive line. World Photo by Lou Sennick.

Every good rushing football team has one. For that matter, most good passing teams do, too.

It’s not a speedy tailback or a quarterback with a catapult for an arm, although those things help. 

No, it’s a dominant offensive line, and the North Bend Bulldogs have one of the best around.

Toiling away on the line is often a thankless job; the yards a running back gets by bursting through a hole show up on a stat sheet, but you won’t find the guard’s block that made those yards possible in a linescore anywhere.

It’s tough to tell how many blocks this took: This season North Bend running back Jake Lucero rushed for 954 yards with an average of 8.4 yards per carry; Cameron Seiger ran for 900 yards with an average of 7.6; Cody Harden chipped in 501 yards with 6.9 yards per carry; and quarterback Dalton Iveans added 475 yards on the ground at 5.5 yards per carry (all figures minus the game versus Sweet Home).

The North Bend coaching staff knows exactly how that happened — it was behind the blocking of a veteran senior line led by tackles Trae Collins and Brandon Huber, guards Justin Tobey, Pete Cheney and Phillip Boateng, who played center earlier in the season, and current center Kyle Rose.

“It’s one of those rare lines you get where all the kids are the same age and have similar mental and physical capabilities,” said Bulldogs line coach Brad Horning, who honed the team’s line this season along with coaches Walt Retzlaff, Jerad Jaehnig and Brandon O’Neil. “They’re a physical group of kids, and I think they know what they’re doing.”

North Bend head coach Rick Taylor’s been impressed with the group of linemen since he first encountered most of them last summer.

“They’ve got a very unselfish attitude about the game of football — they know their role,” said Taylor. “And they hit hard.”

The Bulldogs aren’t too shabby on the defensive line’s end either, and Collins leads the way on both sides of the ball; he earned first team honors in the Far West League this season at guard and tackle, and he was named the league’s defensive MVP.

Not a bad season for a guy who didn’t even play much in 2007.

“It’s been a big turnaround from last year,” said Collins. “It feels great.”

Collins towers over the line, standing 6-feet-7-inches tall and weighing in somewhere around 250 pounds, but he’s quick to point out the importance of a prolific mind-game. He exudes quiet confidence, the kind gained from 11 weeks of dominating opponents physically and mentally at one of the most brutal positions in sports.

“Everything you do is mental,” said Collins. “It’s about wanting to be better than the guy across from you. It’s about wanting to consistently pound them into the ground.”

Collins has had some help. Tobey, a 6-foot-3-inch, 240-pounder with devastating pull-blocking ability, earned a first-team selection at guard (he was a first-team defensive lineman as well), the 6-foot, 220-pound Rose was the league’s first-team center and Huber, at 6-foot-4-inches and 280 pounds, was a second-team tackle.

As good as they may be individually, the Bulldog linemen insist they’re better than the sum of their parts, having played with each other since childhood, together developing a love for football’s least glamorous job.

“You get a lot of linemen in the league that don’t want to be there, but we do,” said Tobey. “I’ve been playing line since second grade — there’s no other position I want to play. I’m not fast, and I don’t have a good arm. What other position is there for me?”

The Bulldog linemen’s self-deprecation isn’t a sign of lacking confidence; it’s just the straightforward honesty of guys who’ve accepted their place on a team.

“I love it. I love the trench,” said Huber. “It’s the hitting. You’ve got to love doing all the work and not getting all the glory, right?”

Some guys might be sore about not being recognized for their efforts like, say, a quarterback might be, but not the North Bend linemen.

“The wins are enough credit,” said Cheney with a shrug.

In fact, the Bulldog linemen seem happy enough just getting to beat each other up and play together every week.

“We connect, we know each other. This senior class, we’ve known each other since we were kids,” said Rose, adding with a laugh, “We’re just a bunch of fat kids running around on the field.”

Actually, they’re anything but fat. Taylor said this is one of the fittest lines he’s encountered, due in no small part to the line’s own twice-a-week workout program, done on top of team conditioning.

“They’re in great shape,” said Taylor. “At the end of the game, they’re strong. I think that’s why we’re so good in the second half. For their size, I think they’re in as good of shape as anybody I’ve seen.”

In the final game of the regular season against Douglas, the North Bend front line took a hit with the loss of Boateng to a season-ending hip injury. Boateng, a natural lineman in his fourth year as a starter for the Bulldogs, has had to sit out the playoffs.

Even though he can’t play, Boateng’s remained a part of the close-knit squad.

“It’s a bummer, but I’m here for the team. I try to do my part,” said Boateng. “This team’s a family.”

“And we’re like the cousins who are good friends in the family,” added Rose, finishing Boateng’s thought for him.

Clearly, the guys on the North Bend offensive line are close, after playing together for so many years and participating in a part of the game that rarely garners the same accolades as other parts of the offense. Most practices, these guys hardly even touch a football.

“There’s a special bond that takes place with the linemen,” said Taylor. “When other groups are doing fun-looking plays at practice... They’re over there beating up on each other. It draws them closer together.”

It doesn’t hurt that they’ve been playing together as long as they can remember, either.

“You can get up on the line, look around and say ‘OK, he’s going to pick him up, and he’s going to pick him up.’” said Collins. “We’ve just always played together and always had that chemistry.”

Today, the Bulldog line’s chemistry, among other things, will face a tough challenge in No. 2 Astoria on the road in a Class 4A quarterfinal game. Collins said from the line’s perspective, it’s business as usual.

“We’re just going to play smash-mouth football like we always do,” he said.

Win or lose today, the North Bend front line will be there, giving everything to the game and asking nothing in return except the right to play football together. The linemen’s importance to the team may not be obvious to spectators, but you can be sure their teammates know.

“I think the rest of the team gives them enough credit — I don’t think they care for it,” said Horning. “I think they’d play football whether they had numbers on or not.”