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.
Tyler Harris threw for three touchdowns, two of them to Tevin Spurlock, and No. 2 SC shut down the final three Bridgeport possessions to secure a 28-25 victory in a Class AAA semifinal in front of an estimated crowd of 3,000 at Laidley Field.
The victory sends defending champion South Charleston (12-1) back to the Super Six, where it faces No. 1 Brooke (13-0) in the title game at noon Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium. It also marked the first loss of the season for the No. 3 Indians (12-1).
"This was kind of an afterthought for us all year long,'' SC coach John Messinger said of a return to trip to the finals. "We refused to think that this was possible, but in the back of our minds we knew it could be. We refused to let this become part of our season. The kids knew that, and they never talked about it much.
"The only time we talked about going to Wheeling was halftime, when we told our seniors, 'You've got 24 minutes of football. You can either leave here and never play this game again, or you've got one more good one left in you.' And knock on wood, we hope we've got one more good one left in us.''
Harris fired TD strikes of 40 and 61 yards to Spurlock and 53 yards to Moe Makhene as SC led by as many as 11 points and held a 28-18 advantage early in the fourth quarter. But Bridgeport was never out of it.
The Indians' pulverizing stick-I offense, which ground out 292 yards on 61 carries, was still in good position to win the game when Alex Sutton scored on a 2-yard run with 7:04 left to make it 28-25.
At that point, the Indians had pieced together back-to-back TD drives of 10 plays and showed no signs of slowing down. All Bridgeport needed was another possession to crank up its ground game and regain the lead.
It got that chance when SC admittedly got a little greedy and had Harris loft a third long sideline pass into double coverage for Spurlock. The first two had resulted in TDs; this one was intercepted by Michael Johnson at his own 22 with 6:22 left to play.
"Coach [Donnie] Mays [the offensive coordinator] apologized,'' Messinger said, "and I said, 'Hey, Tyler's shoulder's a little banged up, and we went to the well once too often.' It's just what we did.''
However, SC's defense was having none of it.
Harris stuck his shoulder into Sutton on first down, holding him to a gain of 2 yards. Quarterback Jeff Hill then ran a bootleg to the right, but Perry Henry sniffed it out and limited the play to 2 yards. On third-and-6, the Indians tried a reverse to end Jake Stafford, and safety George Streater blew up the play in the backfield for an 8-yard loss, forcing a punt and just the second three-and-out for Bridgeport all day.
"We knew they were a great offensive team,'' Harris said, "and they wanted to come out and power us and run it right down our throats, and they did exactly what they were supposed to do. They executed everything they ran, but our defense was strong enough, and had to dig deep and had a lot of heart at the end. That's a big thing on us. It gives us a lot of brownie points.''
But SC's defense still had a couple more miles to go before it slept well.
Bridgeport began again at its own 33 with 2:37 left, and was in good shape after Sutton's 26-yard run to the SC 37. However, a holding call on first down (the only holding call of the game) brought up first-and-20 and put the Indians into a passing mode, which isn't their strong suit.
Henry leaped and barely broke up a deep pass intended for running back Wes Tonkery on second down, and then picked off Tonkery's option pass meant for Zach Randolph. Henry brought back the interception 50 yards to the Indians 35 with 1:14 to go.
"It has nothing to do with me,'' Henry said. "It's a team effort. The defensive line, the linebackers, they put pressure on the quarterback and he's got to react so fast and not be able to really take his time and throw it. I give credit to our defensive line and the linebackers. They did a heck of a job for me to be able to [intercept] the pass and finish it.''
Except it wasn't finished. Bridgeport then burned all its timeouts, bringing up fourth-and-12 for SC from the 37. Instead of pooching a punt downfield, the Black Eagles curiously called for a pass to Spurlock that fell incomplete with 23 seconds remaining.
Hill only managed to hit on a short pass to Sutton on the next series, which ended on an incompletion from Bridgeport's 40 as time ran out.
Bridgeport coach Bruce Carey, who announced before the game that he was going to step down at season's end because of health issues, thought the holding penalty was the killer for his team. The Indians were whistled for an uncharacteristic 10 fouls.
"First and 20 is not a good play for our offense,'' Carey said. "We made a few little mental mistakes, which hurt us. But I thought our kids played real well. We had the ball with three, four minutes to go and were driving, and we get a penalty that sets us back. It's hard to make that one up.
"I thought we had them there. I thought we had the momentum at the end. But I can't complain too much. The kids played hard all season. I told them after the game that I don't know if the best team won or not. But any offense you keep to short yardage [on first down], especially our offense . . . They loaded up the box with as many guys as they could get without standing on top of each other, and did a pretty good job.''
Sutton finished with 142 yards and three TDs on 27 carries for Bridgeport, who had pounded George Washington 31-0 in the quarterfinals last week using 58 running plays.
Bridgeport took its opening drive Saturday 57 yards for a TD, but twice needed to convert fourth-and-inches. The Indians converted just 7-of-16 chances on third down, and started the game 1-of-6.
Messinger lauded the effort of his offensive and defensive lines, especially all-stater Blake Brooks.
"We've got a group of kids,'' Messinger said, "that you don't know from week to week who's going to get it done. Every week, we brag about these receivers and these running backs. There's some big boys up front that are the reason why that's happening. We can't forget about those guys. We win championships here in the offseason, and you've got some of the hardest-working big hogs up front that spend their time and pay their dues in the weight room.
"We just played disciplined defense. We controlled the gaps. We did what we had to do, and it could have been anybody here today. They get inside the 30 with a chance to put this game in overtime with a field goal, and I'll tell you what. We didn't want to play Bridgeport in overtime.''
Harris completed 8-of-14 passes for 233 yards and ran for 46 yards on 12 carries. Raymond Coleman led SC on the ground with 66 yards on 14 attempts, including a 15-yard touchdown burst.
