NEW MARTINSVILLE - With defending champion Grafton unable to make the 16-team playoff field, a new king for the Class AA division was in the making from the beginning of the postseason.

Looking to move up from its runners-up position of a season ago is No. 2, and unbeaten, Magnolia. However to accomplish that feat, the Blue Eagles of head coach Mark Batton must overcome a No. 6 Bluefield squad that has appeared in the championship game at Wheeling Island Stadium during four of the past six years - winning it all in 2004 and 2007.

"We've played a lot of teams in 104 years of football," explained Batton. "But, I don't believe we've ever played them (Bluefield) and that's unusual given their success in the playoffs."

That will all change at 7:30 p.m. today when the two title hopefuls meet at Magnolia High School.

"We understand what we are up against," continued Batton. "Every round you advance into the playoffs the opponent gets tougher and we know that we will get Bluefield's best shot on Friday."

Bluefield advanced to the semifinal round with victories over No. 11 Liberty and No. 3 Sherman while Magnolia's road was a much shorter one with home wins against No. 15 Roane County and No. 7 Keyser.

Spurring the Blue Eagles on their post season run is an offense led by the running of Dillon Jackson and Stingray Bates and a defense that has given up only one score in the playoffs.

"(Defensive) Coach (Bob) Ripley began coaching under Louie Nocida," explained Batton. "I've known him for 35 years and I tried to encourage to take the head coaching job here when it first opened."

While Batton was the eventual selection to take over the head coaching duties, Ripley remained as the team's defensive coordinator and Batton is glad that he did.

"The kids respect him (Ripley)," added the head coach. "He works very hard at developing a different scheme for every team we play that takes away what they like to do most.

"It's the same base defense, but he does a wonderful job of putting the kids in the right places to make the plays and the kids have done a wonderful job of caring out his plans."

As displayed in last weekend's 9-0 win over Keyser.

With the offense struggling to put points on the scoreboard, the defense took control of the contest, recording its fifth shutout of the season.

So dominant has the prevent unit become that it has overshadowed a record-setting performance by Dillon, who eclipsed the school career rushing record in the Blue Eagles' 57-8 win over Roane County, and Bates, who leads the team with 988 yards and 14 touchdowns on 174 attempts and is right behind Dillon on the school's all-time rushing list.

"Both (Dillon and Bates) have provided us with a solid running attack," said the coach.

"If teams spend too much time trying to stop one, the other will usually have a big game."

And, should a defense become successful at slowing down the Magnolia rushing attack, there is junior quarterback Justin Fox.

The Blue Eagle signal-caller has completed 71-of-133 attempts for 1,227 yards and 9 touchdowns with 11 of his passes being picked off.

Fox' favorite targets have been Jared Blatt (35 catches, 524 yards, 5 TDs), Derek Fruner (11-191, 1 TD), Cameron Benson (10-203, 1 TD) and Stephen Rogalski (4-168, 2 TDs).

"We feel like we have a balanced attack," said Batton. "We will throw the football, but we like to run it whenever we can."

The winner of Friday's contest will meet the winner of Saturday's other semifinal between No. 1 Wayne and No. 4 Frankfort next Friday at 7 p.m. at Wheeling Island Stadium for the Class AA title.