Last week saw North Bend as the home team on a warm night but a cold start killed off any chance to win. This week in Florence it was a cool damp night following a rainy day as the Bulldogs were the visitors and this time North Bend had the hot start. With their best player, Jake Lucero, out for the season following a concussion suffered in the game against Sutherlin, the Bulldogs still came out running as usual and spread the ball among the backs well. Seiger got it going with an 18 yard gain. Harris rattled off a 15 yard run. Hardin picked up 10.

After three consecutive 1st downs, the yardage per carry dropped to more normal levels but the foward push continued with Seiger carrying twice and Harris once to put the ball on Siuslaw's 1 yard line. QB Dalton Iveans stuck it in from there but Ryan Johnson missed the XP kick wide right. North Bend had the lead at 6-0 with 9:18 to go in the 1st quarter.

Siuslaw's riposte was lightning quick. Taking over on their 35 after the Bulldog kickoff went out of bounds, the Vikings ran for 4 yards, then their QB, who is also a Johnson, found his wideout Tipler, who had beaten the coverage of NB's DB Hardin, for 61 yards and the TD. Wagner added the XP and with about 8 minutes to go in the 1st quarter the Vikes got the lead back at 7-6.

The defenses then came out of hiding as NB went 3 and out, then Siuslaw ran off an 11 play drive that ended with a fumble on 4th down on the Bulldog 25. North Bend could only hold onto the ball a bit and on their third play, Kai Johnson, who was playing FB in place of Lucero, fumbled, which gave Siuslaw the ball on the NB 47.

The Vikings got three plays in before the 1st quarter ended, then the drive continued for four more plays. A 1 yard run by Sonny Tupua for a TD ended the possession, Wagner's XP was good and the lead went to 14-6 in favor of the Vikes with 10:21 to go in the half.

Once again the defenses settled in. The ensuing Bulldog drive lasted 5 plays and ended with Seiger fumbling after North Bend had driven into Siuslaw territory again. Starting at their 25, the Vikes could only keep the ball for 4 plays and after getting a bit of help on a 5 yard penalty on NB for illegal substitution, they would make it tougher on themselves with a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. That sequence of plays forced a Siuslaw punt. North Bend did little with the ball and was forced into a 3 and out.

Siuslaw got the offense in motion as the 2nd quarter was now well advanced on the clock with an 11 play drive that scored a TD with a 6 yard pass from QB Johnson to his TE Raible with 21 seconds to go in the half. North Bend caught a mild break as Wagner missed the XP. The Viking kickoff went out of bounds to set NB up on the Bulldog 35. Iveans tossed an interception which was returned to the NB 34 with 7 seconds to go in the half. Johnson for Siuslaw burned the 7 seconds up on a pass play that went incomplete.

Down two possessions to start the second half, North Bend needed a break and got a big one when Siuslaw fumbled the kickoff return. A Bulldog coverage player recovered the ball on the Siuslaw 32. A combination of runs and a pass interference penalty on the Vikings resulted in a 7 play scoring drive. Harris did the honors from 3 yards out but another missed XP by Ryan Johnson left the Bulldogs down by a full possession at 20-12.

The cold start to the second half continued for Siuslaw as they went 3 and out. A penalty-filled possession by North Bend turned into 5 plays and a punt. Siuslaw got the ball on their 25 and began the drive that for all intents and purposes put the game into the win column for the Vikings. Nine plays ate up the rest of the 3rd quarter and now there was just 12 minutes left in the game. Four more running plays ate up almost 2 more minutes and Tupua took the ball in from 5 yards out. Wagner made up for his prior missed XP and drilled the kick in to make the score 27-12 with 10:12 to go in the game.

The first play by North Bend was promising as Kai Johnson went 22 yards but after that the Bulldog Bulldozer went into reverse with two losses on running plays and on 4th down, the pass from Iveans got away from WR Travis Perez. Siuslaw got the ball on their 43 and made a strong drive, getting down all the way to the Bulldog 2 but a combination of penalties and tough defense by North Bend held the score at 27-12. However there was now only around 3 minutes to go in the game.

Dalton Iveans had not completed a pass up to this point in the game but he put together a sequence of 4 completions in 9 attempts to move North Bend down the field in very little time, with each completion gettng a first down. In the end a sack of Iveans and a run by Iveans on 4th down came up short of the 1st down on the Siuslaw 35. The Vikings ran 3 plays and ran out the clock as well to close out the game.

The key player for Siuslaw was Sonny Tupua, who had the vast bulk of the carries and over 200 yards rushing to go with 2 TD rnns. North Bend got burned badly on the first TD for 61 yards on a pass play but after that they did force the Viking offense to grind it out and earn the yards as well as the scores.

Facing a decent Siuslaw defense meant NB only had the one long drive for a TD in the game on the opening possession and it took a Viking fumble to set NB up on a short field drive that was still well-contested by Siuslaw for the other Bulldog score. The combination of that defense, three turnovers, a 4-14-1 passing performance by Iveans, the two missed XP's by Johnson and 5 penalties kept the Bulldogs from doing any more damage to Siuslaw. Vike QB Johnson went 10-18-0 and 1 TD to mix in an effective passing game that was the perfect complement to the consistent run game provided by Tupua. Siuslaw's down notes were 10 flags and two fumbles. Siuslaw had a small edge in 1st downs 19-15 but a large edge in long drives that ate up clock and usually scored TD's.

The Bulldog loss dropped their record to 2-6 and guaranteed a losing regular season record for the first time since 2001 as well as making for only minimal hopes for getting to the playoffs. Siuslaw, who has only lost one league game at home since joining the FWL in 2006, has a solid lock on 2nd place with this win. North Bend heads home for only the third time to face South Umpqua, a team that had the biggest upset of the 2008 FWL season when they beat North Bend in the Umpqua Valley 47-34. Siuslaw will visit an improved Brookings Bruins team that played a reasonably competitive game with #3-ranked Douglas in a 40-28 Trojan win.

With a friend of mine from out of town coming up to watch the remaining two home games at North Bend, I will not be keeping the stats and game flow charts that let me write my articles, so this will be the last of the kind for the season. Thanks to all of you who have read my articles and I look forward to resuming them in the 2010 football season.

DB