Marshfield center Cody Shipp wore a big smile on his face as the Pirate fans celebrated the team’s 55-20 homecoming win over North Eugene Friday night.

It was a lot better feeling than last week’s league-opening loss to Churchill, and Shipp had a simple explanation for the difference.

“We finished better tonight,” Shipp said, referring to plays the Pirates spent hours on in practice this week. He could just as easily have been talking about finishing drives, which the Pirates did with great efficiency early in the game after having six turnovers last week.

Aside from an interception in the end zone by North Eugene’s Jackson Landgreen on Marshfield’s second possession, the Pirates scored on every first-half drive, including five rushing touchdowns by quarterback Kyle Tedder, while building a 41-14 halftime edge.

Shipp anchored an offensive line that helped Tedder and Marshfield’s various running backs rush for 322 yards on the night, and the Pirate defense did a good job bottling up North Eugene’s talented Michael Bibbee, paving the way for the convincing win.

Bibbee did rush for 136 yards on 18 carries, but never broke free for a real big run.

“It’s really important that we were able to neutralize Mike Bibbee,” Marshfield coach Justin Ainsworth said. “We were able to corral him and contain him.”

Bibbee often pulled Marshfield tacklers along for first downs. But he almost never found himself alone with the ball in the open field.

The Pirates had a 26-0 lead before Bibbee scored the first of two touchdowns, and the Pirates responded to each of those scores.

Marshfield led after the first play by the offense.

The Pirates stopped North Eugene’s first drive at their own 33 yard line, and Tedder threw a lateral to Chris Krajcir, who fired the ball downfield to a wide open Joey Morgan for a 67-yard score.

Marshfield’s defense then forced turnovers on three of North Eugene’s next four possessions — a fumble recovery by Callan Cooper after Dylan Boyer jarred the ball loose from Bibbee and interceptions by Gino Harpold and Ryan Scoville.

After Tedder threw his interception, the Pirates moved the ball nearly at will, with Tedder doing much of the work on a trap option, where he waited for holes to open behind his line and then burst down the sideline with his speed.

Tedder had a pair of 1-yard scoring runs, another from 2 yards out and longer sprints of 41 and 19 yards on the trap option. He also had three other lengthy runs that didn’t go for scores.

Scoville, Talo Silver and Jorgen Mulkey each gained at least 40 yards on the ground.

Mulkey and backup quarterback Dallas Milburn had touchdowns in the second half.

Shipp said the line had a strong game.

“We were working hard and giving it our all,” he said, adding that moving the ball on the ground was important to keep the ball away from Bibbee and the Highlanders.

The win was huge to keep the Pirates from starting in an 0-2 hole in league play.

“The bad taste is out,” Tedder said. “We responded to getting punched in the mouth last week. We didn’t like that feeling.

“We’re going to keep rolling on this feeling for the next couple weeks.”

Ainsworth attributed the win to hard work by the coaching staff and the senior class in keeping the team focused after the loss to Churchill.

“We really got after the kids for little things and they responded,” Ainsworth said. “The real thing for us is consistency — to come back and do this two weeks in a row.”

Marshfield visits Willamette next week in another key league game.

The win was a sweet outcome for a celebratory night for the Pirates. Former coach Kent Wigle was recognized for his 21 years at the school with a halftime presentation that included more than 50 of his former coaches and players. Following that presentation, Tori Scott was crowned homecoming queen.