Brooke High quarterback Cotey Wallace entered Saturday's Class AAA state championship game looking to put the icing on a Kennedy Award-caliber season.

Perry Henry's defense helped win a championship. His offense was more than worth the price of admission.

The season's over, but South Charleston's coaches and players are ready. Ready for the rampant expectations that await them next August when the new season begins. That's what happens when you polish off back-to-back Class AAA state championships like the Black Eagles did Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium.

After years of coming close, Weirton Madonna can finally call itself champions again.

Two teams, one goal, two sets of tears for totally different reasons. Brooke and Weirton Madonna entered Saturday's Super Six at Wheeling Island Stadium hoping to keep a pair of titles in the Northern Panhandle. In the end, we'll have to live with one.

It took South Charleston's Perry Henry less than 5 minutes to emerge as the West Virginia Class AAA state championship game's Most Valuable Player on Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium.

The Madonna football team turned the ball over a season-high four times Saturday night at Wheeling Island Stadium, but its defense overwhelmed Man's running game and the Blue Dons capped a 14-0 season with the West Virginia Class A state championship, 27-7.

The 2009 season for the Brooke football team will be remembed as one of great triumph.

Madonna won the 2009 West Virginia Class A state championship Saturday night scoring the first 27 points to roll over second-seeded Man, 27-7, at Wheeling Island Stadium.

"We found an old yearbook this week and there were 17 freshman football players in this (senior) class and we finished with seven," said first-year Brooke football coach Tom Bruney. "Those are the seven who were gritty enough to ride it out and go through some bad seasons, still stuck it out, went through a coaching..

Perry Henry and the South Charleston defense stuck it to Brooke early, and the impression lasted long enough to take home another championship.

Before Madonna had even run a play from scrimmage Saturday night, it had a 7-0 lead. With the way the Blue Dons play defense, it was almost enough to ice the win.

There's no substitute for having been there, and done that. That was the message South Charleston's players heard this week, and it paid off handsomely with Saturday's 28-7 victory over mistake-prone Brooke in the No. 1 vs. 2 showdown for the Class AAA championship game.

Tyler Harris threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score and South Charleston claimed its second straight Class AAA championship with a 28-7 win over Brooke on Saturday.

South Charleston's Ray Coleman wanted to play football as a sophomore last year, but there was something holding him up.

A single look at the scoreboard did not tell the story. A single look at the final stat sheet definitely did not tell the story. Both helped, but to truly understand the event that was Friday night’s West Virginia Class AA State championship game, one needs to ask a select group of people the players and coaches who were part of it.

The biggest fan in the stands tonight at Wheeling Island Stadium for the Class A championship knows a little bit about what it's like to coach in the big game.

If anyone would have told Bluefield coach Fred Simon prior to Friday night's West Virginia Class AA championship game that his team would only run 10 plays for 13 yards in the second half against undefeated Wayne and still win the title, he might have said they were crazy.

Generally when coaches start talking about there being three phases to the game of football, it's met with a round of eye rolling by reporters who are longing for a juicy quote, not the run-of-the-mill answers these guys seem to have tucked in their back pockets in situations where there's really not much to say. But not only does Bluefield's Fred Simon believe it, he lives it.

When Tom Bruney stepped in front of the Brooke football team on May 21 after being named the new head coach, he didn't exactly have visions of sugar plums dancing in his head, but also knew the settling down for a long winter's nap wasn't exactly in the cards at the time.

Week 15 and 48 minutes left in the season. No. 1 Madonna meets No. 2 Man tonight at 7:30 p.m. for the West Virginia Class A state football championship at Wheeling Island Stadium.

There has been no whispering. People have questioned whether the top-ranked Madonna football team realizes that the West Virginia Class A state championship game is tonight at 7 on Wheeling Island Stadium against No. 2 Man and was not held last week at Jimmy Carey Stadium, when the Blue Dons smacked Wheeling Central, 18-7.

As his team is poised for a second straight Class AAA state championship, something that's only been done six times in 51 years in West Virginia, South Charleston coach John Messinger openly worries about conditioning.

The red zone was the dead zone for Wayne. The top-ranked Pioneers spent much of Friday night's Class AA championship game running plays inside Bluefield's 20-yard line, but frittered nearly all of those chances, some in spectacular fashion.

Man will become the first team outside of Madonna, Wheeling Central, Williamstown and Moorefield to compete for a Class A football state championship since Fayetteville in 1999 when it takes on the Blue Dons at 7 p.m. today at Wheeling Island Stadium.

Make no mistake about it, John Messinger is a superstitious guy. So it's little surprise that his South Charleston High School football team is going to follow - as closely as possible - its 2008 regimen when the Black Eagles descend upon Wheeling today. After all, a year ago those steps led to the school's first state title in 14 years.

Back in May 2006, when John Messinger was named the football coach at South Charleston High, the school system knew what it was getting. The Black Eagles' players probably didn't.

The longer a season lasts, the better Tyler Harris gets. The junior quarterback at South Charleston High School rose to prominence a year ago during a playoff run that ended with the Black Eagles winning their first Class AAA state football championship since 1994.

His given name is William Cordery. Most people know him as "Sarge." For the past 15 years, Cordery has worked behind the scenes to make the West Virginia Super Six high school football participants feel like champions during their time at Wheeling Island Stadium.

Wayne High School Assistant Principal Joe Brumfield said he felt a sense of calmness when he discovered who the Pioneers would be playing tonight for the West Virginia Class AA state championship.

The game of football may be played on a 100-yard field, but Brooke coach Tom Bruney says his team needs to shrink that number for Saturday's West Virginia Class AAA championship game at Wheeling Island Stadium. At noon, the top-ranked Bruins and defending state champion South Charleston will decide things.

Wrestling coach Mike Nogay has left quite a legacy on the Weirton Madonna athletics program. While successful in his own right, his biggest contribution to the school has been his children.

Brooke is back. That's the thinking of most people in Brooke County as their Brooke High School football team heads to the West Virginia Class AAA championship game Saturday in Wheeling, where it will take on South Charleston at noon for the West Virginia Class AAA state championship.

The Madonna football team has made it to the state championship game three times prior to this unbeaten season, two of them in this decade.

There's a buzz going around Weirton and Brooke County that you hear just once a year and then only if one of the local football teams goes deep into the state playoffs.

South Charleston coach John Messinger does not expect the road in the Class AAA state championship game at noon Saturday against undefeated and No. 1 Brooke to be as easy as last year's 39-8 win over rival George Washington..

Some roads to the state championship game are tougher than others. Just ask Bluefield. For the third straight week, the Beavers face a long trip to meet an unbeaten team in the playoffs. Tonight, it's the ultimate test as No. 6 Bluefield (11-2) tackles No. 1 Wayne (13-0) in the Class AA finals at Wheeling Island Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30.

If anyone is affected by John Messinger's proclamation at the outset of the Class AAA playoffs, well, they haven't shown it. Yet. South Charleston's coach, after looking at the pairings at the start of this year's playoffs, felt like the survivor of the lower half of the bracket - his bracket - would become the state champion, and said as much four weeks ago.

Like offense? Watch the Saints. Like defense, special teams, strong running attacks and hard-hitting football? Then don’t miss tonight’s Class AA state championship game.

Every team needs unlikely heroes, players who exceed expectations to come through for their team when they are needed.

More than 30 years ago, a friend told Bob Kramer that he was taking a head coaching job at a parochial school in Steubenville weeks before the season started and demanded Kramer be one of his assistants for the simple reason that he used to play football.

Whether it be business or athletics, it takes teamwork, dedication and commitment for any venture to enjoy a long and successful run.

Hard to believe it's been 8 years and 3 weeks since Paul ''Bud'' Billiard yielded his post as the architect of what he called the Brooke Pride Football Program.

South Charleston High School's second consecutive Class AAA football state championship won't come easily, if Coach John Messinger is to be believed.

Sometimes when teams meet in the state finals, there is little or no history between their football programs. Like this year's title games in Class AAA (Brooke vs. South Charleston) and Class A (Madonna vs. Man).

Usually, when a team enters a state championship game, it's trying to create or solidify a reputation. When Man enters Saturday's Class A football championship game, it will be trying to get rid of one.

Fans won't have to wait long to see fireworks when South Charleston and Brooke tangle at noon Saturday in the Class AAA championship game in Wheeling. It all starts with the guys taking the snaps from center.

Levi Beckett has a state championship ring, but he didn’t actually get to play in the 2007 title game for the Bluefield Beavers.

There are many players on the Bluefield Beavers’ roster for whom Friday’s Class AA state championship game against Wayne is especially meaningful. Marcus Patterson is one of them.

Receiver Joey DiNardo is the personification of what Brooke football is all about. Complaining is one of the few things not in this guy's repertoire, even when the game plan for one reason or another doesn't call for the Bruins to throw much.

One team is the defending champion, while the other has a bandwagon full of supporters.

Weirton Madonna's Lou Comis doesn't plan on playing football in college. His goal is to attend West Virginia University next fall and major in pharmacy or medicine.

Three years ago, the Madonna football team defeated Bishop Donahue at John Marshall High School to finish the season at 5-5.

It didn't look good for Wayne. Trailing 21-0 at the break, the Pioneers were searching for answers last Saturday against Frankfort. They found them in the second half, recovering consecutive onside kicks, scoring 27 points and advancing to the Class AA state championship game with a 27-21 win.

The Bluefield Beavers are flying high. No one on the Bluefield sidelines knows more about flying better than John Gibson, who isn’t just a senior captain for the Beavers’ football team, but he’s also working toward acquiring his pilot’s license.

A year after Class AA's southern factions were given a year off from the Super Six, the two pre-eminent powers of the decade will square off Friday night to put the past 10 years to bed.

If there's one thing Brooke coach Tom Bruney has learned this season, it's don't mess with success. So while most coaches would be tempted to change things up in unusual circumstances, it's status quo for No. 1-ranked Brooke (13-0) as it prepares for the noon Saturday state championship game at Wheeling Island Stadium against No. 2, and defending state champion, South Charleston (12-1).

South Charleston's players, finally, have ventured out into the open. They're no longer lingering in the shadows. Sure, SC came into the season riding a 16-game winning streak and fresh off the school's first Class AAA football championship since 1994.

Representatives from the six schools that will participate in the WVSSAC's Super Six state high school football championships next weekend at Wheeling Island Stadium met Sunday in Parkersburg.

When Weirton Madonna tailback A.J. Klein went down in Week 6 against Clarksburg Notre Dame with a broken collarbone, the thought around those familiar with the program was ''here we go again.''.

The Brooke team that closed out the 2008 season with a 54-15 loss at Hurricane bears no resemblance to the Bruins squad that lines up against South Charleston Saturday in the Class AAA championship game.

Jake Lilly caught the ball and fell to the ground. He wasn’t about to let this pigskin get away. “I was nervous before, but when I saw that thing coming into my hands I was like, ‘Thank goodness I caught it’,” Lilly said.

As I sat in the office on Saturday trying to find words to describe Wayne's 27-21 win over Frankfort in the Class AA semifinals, one lasting image kept popping into my mind.

Throw the theory of "It's not how you start, but how you finish" out the window. Defending Class AAA football state champion and No. 2 seed South Charleston (12-1) beat third-seeded Bridgeport High (12-1) 28-25 in a playoff semifinal last Saturday on the strength of its defensive play on first down, SC Coach John Messinger and Indians Coach Bruce Carey said.

he Madonna and Brooke football teams are 13-0 and are playing on Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium in their respective West Virginia state championship games.

A solemn Bruce Carey emerged from the Bridgeport High locker room for the final time as a high school football coach Saturday afternoon at University of Charleston Stadium.

The Super Six nearly hit the jackpot over the weekend, but two out of three surely ain't bad for the folks who run the games in Wheeling. This week's state high school football championships almost wound up with an Ohio Valley team in every game, but No. 2 seed Magnolia was knocked off by Bluefield 13-10 in the Class AA semifinals, leaving two Wheeling-area teams in the finals - Brooke (AAA) and Madonna (A).

Last May, Brooke coach Tom Bruney removed a photo of Wheeling Island Stadium from the Bruins' weight room and placed it in the team's locker room.

Andrew Hale ran for 105 yards and two touchdowns Saturday night to lift host Man to a 27-20 victory over previously unbeaten Richwood in the Class A semifinals. The No. 2 Hillbillies (12-1) earned their first championship game berth since 1984. Man plays Madonna at 7 p.m. Saturday in the state finals at Wheeling Island Stadium.

The Brooke football team has ridden three weeks of home cooking and a daily routine to The Island. The Bruins knocked off visiting University, 32-15, Saturday night at Brooke Memorial Stadium in the West Virginia Class AAA semifinals to earn the right to take on defending champion South Charleston at noon Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium for the state championship.

They'll never admit it, but the Brooke Bruins had grown tired of hearing about the past. Time and time again they've been told the stories about what Brooke football was back in the day, and to an extent, what they weren't.

The West Virginia Class AAA state championship game is a match made in heaven. Top-seeded unbeaten upstart Brooke, which finished 3-7 last year while South Charleston was winning the 2008 state title, will face the defending champion Black Eagles at noon Saturday in the state championship game.

Because it can litter the field with game-breaking skill position players, there's a tendency to think all South Charleston needs to do is overwhelm opponents with offense. But not on Saturday. The Black Eagles needed a couple late defensive stops to reserve their spot in Wheeling.

With a 3-0 lead and just less than 19 minutes standing between it and a return trip to the Super Six on Wheeling Island, a special teams mistake followed by Bluefield's only real drive of the game was enough to burst Magnolia's unbeaten bubble Friday night.

As Wayne's Austin Mills fell on the onside kick in front of the Pioneer bench, every player on the 63-man roster, it seemed, leaped skyward in simultaneous jubilation. It led to a quick touchdown and prompted Wayne coach Tom Harmon to roll the dice again and try another onside kick.

It came down to one play. For all the big plays the Madonna football team made through the first 12 weeks of games, the chance of playing in the 14th contest came down to a simple fourth-and-1 from Wheeling Central's 17-yard line.

Two late defensive plays by South Charleston safety Pierria Henry didn't save the day for the Black Eagles. But, they sure came close. Henry knocked down a Bridgeport pass with 1:44 left and intercepted a pass one play later as the No. 2-seeded Black Eagles survived at University of Charleston Stadium with a 28-25 Class AAA state semifinal victory over the third-seeded Indians (12-1).

Having won 37 games during a three-season period with one game to go this time, the undefeated Weirton Madonna football team shouldn't have had to answer any questions about its legitimacy as a West Virginia Class A power.

From time to time we hear stories in the sporting world questioning the heart of certain coaches. That will never be the case with Magnolia's Mark Batton.

Every season in every sport, some player or coach always utters the phrase "Defense wins championships." It's a hard saying to dispute and if you need any further evidence, take in next Saturday's Class A title game at Wheeling Island Stadium and pay close attention to the Weirton Madonna Blue Dons.

A pair of stalwart defensive efforts came forth on Friday night in two state high school football semifinal games as Class A No. 1-seeded Madonna (13-0) defeated Wheeling Central (9-4) by an 18-7 score and in Class AA, No. 6 Bluefield (11-2) took the 232-mile trip to New Martinsville and earned a 13-10 upset of No. 2 Magnolia (12-1).

One team doesn't mind plowing ahead in 4- or 5-yard increments, as long as it hogs the ball and keeps the clocking running. The other team seems intent on scoring every time it lines up and snaps the ball.

Even with a berth in a state championship game on the line, it's always good to keep the big picture in mind. "There's nothing like seeing a bunch of high school kids on both sides playing their hearts out,'' said Wayne coach Tom Harmon.

A week ago, South Charleston High football Coach John Messinger implored his team to focus on running the football better than it had in the first round of the Class AAA playoffs.

In more than 100 years of football, you would think that a school would have faced every other team in its classification. No so when it comes to the Class AA semifinal playoff game between No. 2 Magnolia (12-0) and No. 6 Bluefield (10-2), set for 7:30 pm Friday at New Martinsville.

Class AAA No. 3 seed Bridgeporthas used teh stick-I offense as its football calling card for more than two generations. In Saturday's 31-0 drubbing of sixth-seeded George Washington (9-3) in the playoff quarterfinals, the Indians (12-0) had more than the effective use of the ground-oriented attack working in their favor.

South Charleston's players learned a lesson at Laidley Field Friday night, one they'll take with them as they advance to the Class AAA playoff semifinals. The defending state champion Black Eagles (11-1) looked to have their quarterfinal game against Martinsburg under control, leading 28-0 at halftime.

For most teams that score nine points in a football game, that usually spells a long afternoon. For the Magnolia Blue Eagles, it's a nine-point cushion.

Tom Bruney may not remember everything he says, but his players seem to. Not long after Saturday's West Virginia Class AAA quarterfinal against Ripley, defensive back Zachar Teaff asked Bruney if he remembered saying, "if you're practicing on Thanksgiving, you're having a good season."

Richwood's 1-2 punch delivered a knockout blow Saturday night. In fact, quarterback Sam Tindal and running back Dustin Brown seem to enjoy rewriting history.

Playing catch-up against Bridgeport is kind of like swimming in quicksand. The harder you try to get out of your predicament, the more you sink.

South Charleston crammed a whole game's worth of offense into one half. The Black Eagles sqeezed just enough out of the fourth quarter to continue on in quest of their second straight state Class AAA championship.

The Bluefield Beavers stemmed the Tide Friday night to reach the semifinals of the Class AA football playoffs, by running over the previously-undefeated Sherman Tide 25-18 on a chilly night in Boone County.

For all the comparisons being made between George Washington's 29-14 win over Bridgeport in the 2008 Class AAA high school football quarterfinals, Patriots Coach Steve Edwards Jr. said there has been a significant upgrade in one element of the Indians' game.

Losses lead to lots of head-hanging. So painful was last season's 28-21 loss in the state playoffs to eventual state champion South Charleston for Martinsburg's Derek Walker that he hung his head - in more ways than one.

Don't be fooled, it only looks like Ravenswood High School football players are reading one another's minds. The truth is that the Red Devils (9-2) have played all of their football careers together.

A pair of 2008 playoff rematches, a second engagement between teams that played a double-overtime game in the regular season and a game pitting teams that have become strangers to the second round fill the Class AAA high school football playoff slate this weekend.

Kirk Hairston is a soft-spoken, polite young man with a demeanor that matches any other honor-roll student when you meet him - unless you happen to meet him on the gridiron.

Magnolia's road to the Super Six last season went through Keyser. And If the Blue Eagles are to get back to Wheeling Island Stadium in a couple of weeks it will have to withstand the Golden Tornadoes again.

No one needs to remind South Charleston coach John Messinger that things get a little tighter this weekn when his squad meets Martinsburg in the Class AAA playoffs. Messinger remembers last year quite well. And two years before that, too.

Rematches: Any time a team loses a close game during the regular season, it starts wishing and hoping it can meet the winner again in the playoffs. After both Parkersburg High and Parkersbug South lost early in the year to Brooke, both head coaches expressed their desire for another shot at the Bruins.

One of two rare visitors to the high school football playoff semifinals will punch their ticket Saturday night when Wirt County (9-2) visits unbeaten Richwood (11-0).

The showdown in Williamstown between No. 5 Yellowjackets and No. 4 Wheeling Central will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. That's when Wheelign Central athletics director and head football coach Mike Young elected to play Williamstown during Sunday's football playoff meeting at the WVSSAC.

Since 1999, the only teams to play in the Class A state championship game have been Wheeling Central, Williamstown, Moorefield and Madonna. That's about to change.

Committee members began Super Six 2009 talk Monday with a media luncheon at WesBanco Arena. Around here, that means only three things: The kids, the kids, the kids.

The playoffs are in its second week in Ohio and begin this week in West Virginia as four local teams continue to watch film and put on the pads.

Seven of the 10 Mid-Ohio Valley high school football teams who made the state playoffs - including all four Wood County teams - will play their opening -round games on Friday night.

The regular season is finished and the one thing that sticks out as West Virginia begins its playoffs this Friday - the Ohio Valley fared pretty well.

An undefeated regular season, the Mason-Dixon Conference championship and the possibility of home field advantage through the first three rounds of the West Virginia Class A playoffs are among the rewards for the winner of Friday nigh's Weirton Madonna vs. Clay-Batelle matchup on the home field of the Bees in Blacksville.