North Medford built a 14-6 lead with four minutes to go in the first half but Sherwood responded in a big way to pull out a 36-14 triumph in nonconference football Friday night in Sherwood.

The teams traded touchdowns to open the second quarter and when Nate Anderson stepped in front of a long pass for an interception, the Black Tornado (2-3) were in prime position to build momentum.

Two plays later, Tate Snyder got behind the defense of the Bowmen (3-2) and quarterback Traeger Healy found him for a sprinting 69-yard touchdown that made it 14-6 with four minutes left in the half.

Without flinching, Sherwood methodically moved down the field and ultimately scored a game-tying touchdown when senior running back Wilson Medina plowed into the end zone from 12 yards out to all but close the half.

“Their running back (Medina) is really tough so he posed a little bit of a challenge,” said Black Tornado head coach Nathan Chin. “We did a good job of kinda bottling him up and holding our own in the first half but that last one kind of got him going.”

That TD would prove to be pivotal as it not only built up a bit of a lather in Medina and the running game, the Bowmen also were set to receive the second-half kick and used that to their advantage by marching toward another Medina score to suddenly create a 21-14 edge.

“Those are big when you can have those opportunities to be able to have the ball in almost back-to-back drives like that,” said Chin.

“That kind of changed momentum a little bit and then in the second half we couldn’t get a rhythm going offensively,” he added. “We probably didn’t run more than 10 plays on offense with the two turnovers (we had). We couldn’t sustain anything offensively and when you reach a team that runs the ball like that on the offensive side, it makes it tough.”

Sherwood got the ball back two plays after Medina’s third-quarter score when he leaped into the air near the sideline to pick off Healy, but the Black Tornado defense was able to hold firm and force a punt.

The next North series was a three-and-out, and Medina uncorked a 52-yard run to help set up his own 25-yard TD scamper minutes into the fourth quarter to make it 28-14.

The Bowmen didn’t allow any more big plays to help the Tornado quickly get back into the game, then capped a long drive with a 30-yard TD run by Medina that was followed by a hook-and-lateral two-point conversion that involved lineman Junior Lualaupeaalu.

With just under five minutes to play, North Medford had to take some chances and Healy was intercepted on his team’s next play on a downfield pass toward Easton Curtis by Jack Wilson.

The Bowmen essentially ran out the clock from there, leaving only 13 seconds after a mishandled punt snap allowed North to have two cracks at the end zone at the end.

“We just couldn’t quite get going,” said Chin, noting that falling behind a team with strong runners and a capable short passing game is a bad recipe. “They eat a lot of clock when that happens.”

Cameron Nix pulled in a 4-yard TD pass from Healy with 7:39 to go in the second quarter to answer a short scoring run by Mace Tingey to get each team going.

North Medford 0 14 0 0 — 14

Sherwood 0 14 7 15 — 36

S — Tingey 4 run (kick failed)

NM — Nix 4 pass from Healy (Miller kick)

NM — Snyder 69 pass from Healy (Miller kick)

S — Medina 12 run (Tingey run)

S — Medina 10 run (Zahlmann kick)

S — Medina 25 run (Zahlmann kick)

S — Medina 30 run (Lualaupeaalu run)

NORTH BEND 36, ASHLAND 20: At North Bend, Ashland dropped to 1-4 overall after coming up short in its Big Sky Conference on the road. North Bend improved to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in conference play.

No further information was available as of publication.

CASCADE CHRISTIAN 50, KLAMATH UNION 7: Cascade Christian junior Caleb Scaglione made the most of his three carries, running for touchdowns of 59 and 98 yards to finish with 159 yards on the ground overall in an impressive showing at Wheeler Field.

Scaglione also caught three passes for 39 yards and blocked a field goal attempt at the end of the first half that resulted in an 80-yard return for a score by Taylor Snowden to give the fifth-ranked Challengers a 36-0 lead at intermission.

Deryk Farmer also ran for a pair of short TDs in the Southern Oregon Conference win, and was a perfect 6-for-6 passing for 67 yards and a 15-yard TD connection with Jacob Beamish. Bryson Walker also ran three times for 92 yards and one TD for Cascade Christian (2-3, 1-0 SOC).

Reese Johnson completed 20 of 35 passes for 233 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions for Klamath Union (1-4, 0-1), with Tuko Saluskin serving as his top target after hauling in six receptions for 131 yards.

Klamath Union 0 0 0 7 — 7

Cascade Christian 23 13 7 7 — 50

CC — Scaglione 59 run (Farmer run)

CC — Farmer 3 run (Walker run)

CC — Farmer 1 run (Fiannaca kick)

CC — Walker 86 run (conversion failed)

CC — Snowden 80 blocked field goal return (Fiannaca kick)

CC — Beamish 15 pass from Farmer (Fiannaca kick)

CC — Scaglione 98 run (Fiannaca kick)

KU — Saluskin 47 pass from Johnson (Safford kick)

NORTH VALLEY 28, PHOENIX 0: At Phoenix, Cody Martin ran for 33 of Phoenix’s 82 yards of total offense and No. 7-ranked North Valley broke a scoreless tie with 28 straight points in the second half for the Southern Oregon Conference win.

Payton Turner completed 7 of 12 passes for 48 yards for Phoenix (2-3, 0-1 SOC) but was intercepted twice.

North Valley (4-1, 1-0) ran for 343 of its 459 yards, with Hayden Taylor carrying 19 times for 159 yards and Lyric Anderson rushing 17 times for 125 yards. Roy McGregor ran for a touchdown and passed for another, with John Erkeneff and Kaid Moore also posting rushing TDs for the Knights.

North Valley 0 0 14 14 — 28

Phoenix 0 0 0 0 — 0

NV — McGregor 4 run (Smith kick)

NV — Erkeneff 11 run (Smith kick)

NV — Smith 19 pass from McGregor (Taylor run)

NV — Moore 7 run (kick failed)