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Photo by Drew Fleming North Medford running back Ken Halpin breaks into the clear for one of his five touchdowns Friday against North Bend at Spiegelberg Stadium. Black Tornado glides past North Bend Halpin carries North Medford to 56-12 romp By DON HUNT It was the Ken Halpin show at Spiegelberg Stadium on Friday night. The senior fullback rushed for 190 yards and four touchdowns in the first half alone and added a receiving touchdown in the third period to lead North Medford to a 56-12 victory over North Bend in the first round of the Class 4A state football playoffs. Black Tornado defender Tate Mellbye tears down North Bend's Mike Moe in Friday's Class 4A state playoff tilt. The win earned the Black Tornado (8-2) a second-round matchup against Valley League champion Sprague in Salem next Friday. The Olympians moved on with a 41-8 victory over Marshall. "Everything clicked tonight -- the holes I ran through were unbelievable," said Halpin, who scored on touchdown runs of 37, 1, 35 and 76 yards as North Medford took a 28-6 halftime lead. "Almost every time I touched the ball I found myself with open field in front of me. It was just a matter of beating their defensive backs to the end zone." The 6-foot-1, 196-pound Halpin finished the game with 197 yards rushing on only 10 carries and had two receptions for 40 yards. Most of Halpin's big gainers came on trap plays up the middle. "They trapped the hell out of us," North Bend coach Jerry Wolfram said. "We were trying to take their outside running game away because that's what they've been successful on, and that left us vulnerable inside. "But that No. 24 (Halpin) is a load, and once he gets up a head of steam there was no catching him." North Medford racked up a season-high 486 yards rushing and quarterback Nate Mayben completed 7 of 10 passes for 112 more yards. The 598 yards of total offense was also a season high. "We came out and set the tone early," North Medford coach Rod Rumrey said. "And it all started with our offensive line. Those guys really got off the ball hard." With center Dan Crawford, guards Justin Baehmann and Sean Preston and tackles Mark Fenton and Scott Myers leading interference, North Medford needed just five plays to move 65 yards for a score on its opening drive. Halpin burst through a gaping hole for the touchdown from 37 yards out. Later in the first period, Halpin rumbled 35 yards to the North Bend 1 before getting knocked out of bounds, and then scored on the next play. Two minutes later, following a North Bend punt, Halpin was at it again, bolting up the middle 35 yards to paydirt. There was still 2:27 left in the first period, the Tornado had a 21-0 lead and the Bulldogs had no points, no first downs and a minus-8 yards of offense. "We just didn't have the studs to keep up with them," said Wolfram, whose Bulldogs finished their season with a 6-4 record. Behind the passing of Kyle Johnson, the Bulldogs did put together a well-executed 84-yard, eight-play march late in the first half that culminated in Mike Moe's 3-yard touchdown run. The big play of the drive was a 61-yard run by Dustin Stovall up the left sideline that advanced the ball to the North Medford 1. But all that did was put a Band-Aid on a mortal wound. With the Bulldogs finally getting wise to the trap and dive plays, North Medford went to the option to start the second half. Mayben scooted 19 yards and tailback Phil Ouellette went 10 yards on back-to-back options plays as the Tornado drove 70 yards with the second half kickoff. The exclamation point, though, came on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Mayben to old reliable. "It was a flood pass in the flat and I got a great block from (Mike) Olson near the goal line," said Halpin of his fifth touchdown of the night. The Tornado registered its sixth score on a 33-yard pass from Mayben to Tate Mellbye, who outfought North Bend's Moe for the ball at the 2-yard line and then drug him across the goal line. That score gave North a 42-12 lead with 9:37 to play and Rumrey began to liberally substitute players at that point. The decisive win came just one week after North Medford lost to Ashland, but it must have seemed like ancient history to the Tornado players. "We were so mad at ourselves last week that we weren't going to let that happen again," said North Medford defensive tackle Adam Barr, who helped limit North Bend to 77 yards rushing. "We stepped it up and got after it. Added Halpin: "That loss to Ashland helped us tonight. We had a good week of practice and when we hit the field tonight you could feel the intensity on our sideline. We were ready to go." Wolfram, meanwhile, met with his team in the north end zone after the game. Friday marked the first time in 10 years that the Bulldogs had been in a playoff game, and while they got steamrolled, their future looks bright. Many of North Bend's best players are juniors, including Johnson, who completed 16 of 32 passes for 193 yards and one touchdown. "We brought the playoffs back to North Bend," Wolfram said, "and we can be proud of that. Next year, we'll set the bar a little higher." Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.