North Medford had every reason to be distracted and possibly have a letdown game Friday night at Spiegelberg Stadium.

Homecoming week is rarely one football coaches look forward to given all the outside influences, and visiting McNary entered the night winless after averaging just 4.6 points per game thus far.

The Black Tornado had also lost three of their last four games, and sometimes minds can start to wander.

With all that in mind, however, North Medford wasted little time setting a positive tone with a 16-point first quarter and carried that over throughout to earn a 37-0 victory under a running clock throughout most of the second half.

“I think our kids did a good job with that,” Black Tornado head coach Nathan Chin said of Friday’s scenario. “It can be one of those tough ones, but I thought our kids did a good job of coming out and really just playing the game. They were playing hard and trying to make sure that we played to the identity that we want to play to, regardless of who we play.”

Senior running back Jacob Owings got the scoring started with a 1-yard touchdown and everything seemed to steamroll from there, with North Medford’s Teagan Neron recording a safety after tackling McNary quarterback Aris Vasseur in the end zone soon after.

Junior quarterback Traeger Healy then called his own number for a 3-yard TD run to build a 16-0 lead that was never threatened in the South/Central Football Conference affair.

North Medford improved to 3-3 overall and 3-2 in SCFC play, while McNary dropped to 0-6 in entirely conference contests.

“The big thing was being able to turn the page at the midseason point,” said Chin. “We have opportunities that are in front of us that we have to take advantage of, and this was the start of it. I think our kids responded well in a homecoming week, which can be challenging in itself because of everything going on. They did a good job of making sure that they had their focus on the game.”

Healy connected with Nate Anderson for an 8-yard touchdown in the second quarter and Joe Castillo capped the first-half scoring with a 24-yard TD scamper that created a 30-0 lead with six minutes to play.

Cameron Nix collected the only touchdown in the second half with a 12-yard run in the third quarter.

“I’m proud of the kids and I’m happy for them, we needed this one,” said Chin.

With the mercy rule in place, there were limited possessions in the second half but Healy was still able to complete 11 of 17 passes for 117 yards with one TD and one interception. Neron had three receptions for 22 yards, while Nix ran five times for 51 yards and Owings totaled 55 yards on 11 carries as North rolled up 145 yards rushing on 28 attempts.

The most prolific number put forth by the Black Tornado against the Celtics came on defense, where North Medford limited McNary to minus-30 yards rushing on 13 carries. Combined with only 7 yards passing on a 2-for-12 effort — Conner Roush had a fourth-quarter interception — the Tornado limited the Celtics to minus-23 yards of total offense.

“It was pretty impressive defensively to do what they did,” said Chin. “It’s nice to have that.”

“When you hold someone to negative yards rushing, that’s always your front seven with your backers and your D-line taking control,” he added. “It seemed like there was a different guy at different times involved to make that happen.”

North Medford will look for more of the same as it extends to the rest of the regular season, with reasonably the most challenging SCFC opponents — beyond rival South Medford (3-3, 3-2 SCFC) — in the Tornado’s rearview mirror.

North Medford wraps up the regular season against North Salem, South Salem and the Panthers, with the Salem teams carrying a combined 1-11 record.

“We definitely have played the top of the conference if you look at the wins and losses,” said Chin, “but now we’ve got to take care of business in the second half and then just see where the chips fall after that. If we take care of business then you just let everything else fall where it’s gonna fall, the rest is out of our control.”

McNary 0 0 0 0 — 0

North Medford 16 14 7 0 — 37

NM — Owings 1 run (Miller kick)

NM — Safety, Vasseur tackled in end zone

NM — Healy 3 run (Miller kick)

NM — Anderson 8 pass from Healy (Miller kick)

NM — Castillo 24 run (Miller kick)

NM — Nix 12 run (Miller kick)