By Jerry Ulmer
OSAAtoday

When the Marshfield-North Bend game was canceled last week due to COVID issues in the North Bend program, it appeared that the Civil War rivalry – uninterrupted since 1917 – would be forced to take a pause.

But due to some schedule shuffling, the teams were able to meet Saturday afternoon at Marshfield, where the Pirates, ranked No. 1 in the OSAAtoday 4A coaches poll, beat the visiting Bulldogs 55-6. Dom Montiel passed for four touchdowns -- two each to Mattux Mateski and DJ Daugherty -- and ran for two scores.

"It's not natural to not play the Pirates during football season," said North Bend athletic director Mike Forrester, a Marshfield graduate. "It's good for us to be able to play each other."

The game came about when Newport, scheduled to play Marshfield on Friday, asked out of the game early in the week. Marshfield athletic director Greg Mulkey agreed, provided he could find a replacement game.

Mulkey contacted Forrester to inquire about North Bend's availability. The Bulldogs were set to play host to Roosevelt of Portland on Friday, but due to lingering COVID issues, they were unsure if they would be able to keep the date.

Understanding that North Bend's availability was in jeopardy, Roosevelt was able to forgo the nine-hour round trip and schedule a Friday game at Milwaukie, about 25 minutes away.

With Newport scheduling a game against Baker, North Bend and Marshfield were free to meet. The Bulldogs thought they would be missing as many as 15 players for a game this week, but as it turned out, they were down only six. By waiting an extra day to play, they got two more players back.

Alas, the great rivalry resumed.

"I wouldn't want to be the seniors that didn't get to play in the Civil War game against the crosstown rivals," Mulkey said. "I mean, we played them in the spring in a bad situation. I just felt it was really important for us to do whatever we could as athletic directors to maintain something that has been pretty special."

Forrester said it meant a lot to the community, which has been starved to attend events this season.

"Last week, there were a lot of people disappointed that we weren't playing," Forrester said. "Playing Marshfield is a big deal in our community, but I think more than anything, our kids really want to play football. And our parents and fans want to go watch our kids play."