MEDFORD – Two amazing runs came crashing to an end here Friday night in Bend High’s 52-7 state quarterfinal drubbing at the hands of third-ranked North Medford.

There was the Lava Bears’ 10-game winning streak, which started after a 42-16 nonleague loss at Roseburg and finished with an unexpected Intermountain Conference championship and two postseason wins.

And there was Matt Sieverson’s captivating chase for a state rushing record, a bid that came up 118 yards short when the senior tailback was held to a season-low 85 yards on 22 carries Friday night.

Stop Sieverson, and you can stop the Lava Bears. It was a strategy that teams had been trying for weeks to no avail. But the Black Tornado had the horses to make it work.

”He’s a tough kid and an excellent running back,” said John Beck, the North Medford coach. ”We’ve played against a lot of the top backs in the state this season, and our kids were motivated to play against him tonight. Our defense takes it personally.”

Doesn’t Sieverson know it.

”I don’t know what they were doing,” said Sieverson, ”but they sure did it well. It seemed like there were black shirts everywhere I looked.”

And the Lava Bears were wearing white.

”They were definitely one of the best defenses we’ve played,” said Ben Ewing, Bend’s senior quarterback. ”They were coming from all angles – outside, inside. And when they stopped Matt like that, they made us one-dimensional.”

Just one running back, Jesuit senior Mike Jones, rushed for more than 100 yards against the Black Tornado defense this season.

Sieverson entered the game with 2,641 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns. His Friday night total of 85 yards gave the senior tailback 2,726 for the season. Only Jacobe Krizman, who ran for 2,844 yards in 11 games last season for Hood River Valley, has run for more yards in one season at the Class 4A level.

As ugly as the game got by the end for the Lava Bears (10-2), it was close for most of the first half.

North Medford (11-1) made two early pushes, the first of which ended when junior safety Scott Hammond intercepted Beau Hovland’s pass in the end zone. The second ended with Hovland’s one-yard quarterback sneak that made it 7-0 in the final minute of the first quarter.

Bend got even on its next possession. After Ewing completed passes of 16 and 17 yards to David Hinchman, the quarterback turned a simple rollout play into a stunning 27-yard touchdown run. No one was more surprised than Ewing, who eluded tacklers to the 15-yard line, where he encountered a mob of Black Tornado defenders.

”I looked up, and there were guys coming at me from everywhere,” Ewing recounted. ”I just kind of ducked, trying to avoid a big hit.”

When the would-be tacklers somehow missed, Ewing spun free and bolted for the end zone.

”Wierdest play I think I’ve ever been involved in,” he said.

Morgan Flint’s point-after kick was good, and the scoreboard at Spiegelberg Stadium read 7-7.

The home crowd was a bit restless, perhaps expecting the home boys to dispatch the Bears as they had their two previous foes in these playoffs – 56-28 over Glencoe in the first round, 42-21 over Willamette last week.

Beck said he was settling in for a battle.

”We expected a close game, a 24-10, 21-14 type of game,” said the Tornado coach. ”And the first half was real close.”

But North Medford answered Ewing’s touchdown with a 12-play, 63-yard march culminated by Hovland’s two-yard scoring run on an option play with 4:31 left in the half.

Then came the play that Bend coach Craig Walker felt turned the game. On first down from the Lava Bears’ 35-yard line, Sieverson carried the ball to the right, then pulled up and lofted a pass toward wideout Sean Toomey. Trent Driskell picked the ball off for North Medford near midfield, and on the next play Hovland hooked up with Drew Herrera on a 53-yard pass play to the Bend 1-yard line.

From there, Hovland took it in for a 21-7 Black Tornado lead.

”We felt the situation was right for the halfback pass,” Walker explained. ”But it didn’t work out. I told Matt that was my fault. It was just one of those things.”

Bend needed something good to happen fast at the start of the second half, but no such luck. The Bears were three and out after taking the opening kickoff, and North Medford began turning the game into a rout when Will Brown ran 50 yards to set up yet another short touchdown run by Hovland.

Suddenly, it was 28-7.

”We’re a quick-strike team,” said Beck. ”That’s what we do.”

And what they DON’T do is let up. Bend’s only decent scoring chance the rest of the way was snuffed out when Ewing was sacked for a 17-yard loss on a fourth-and-goal play from the North Medford 7-yard line on the first snap of the fourth period.

It was all Black Tornado the rest of the way, and North Medford – not Bend – will advance to the semifinal round of the Class 4A playoffs.

”They’re a good team,” said Sieverson. ”I don’t know if they’re 40-whatever points better than us, but they’re definitely a good team.”

Walker helped his team keep things in perspective.

”I told them it was not a bad turnaround this season,” said the veteran Bend coach. ”We went from being picked seventh in our league to finishing in the top eight teams in the state. We can be happy about that.”