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.

"What we did was try to get people in the box and try to take away gaps," Messinger said after his team clinched a second consecutive trip to the Super Six in Wheeling, where it will play No. 1 seed Brooke (13-0) at noon Saturday.

South Charleston has won 29 of its last 30 games heading to Wheeling Island Stadium.

"We told our linebackers all week long, if we're going to stop the run we're going to occupy blockers up front and you're going to have to make the plays, and that's what they did," Messinger said of the semifinal win. "(Nose tackle) Blake (Brooks) did a heck of a job up front, and what it did was allow Napoleon (Gregory) and "Little" (Ray-sheed Coleman) and some of these guys to run to gaps."

The Indians, a run-heavy team that operates out of the stick-I formation, was held to an average of 3.3 yards on its 29 plays on first down.

That left senior quarterback Jeff Hill in a position where he was forced to make more plays with his throwing arm, and left the Bridgeport coaching staff in a position where it had to be more creative with its play calling when faced with greater necessary distances on second and third downs.

Hill was 3-of-13 passing for 44 yards. He had thrown only 45 passes through 12 games.

Bridgeport beat No. 6 seed George Washington (9-3) 31-0 in the quarterfinals a week earlier. In that game, the Indians averaged 5.8 yards on first down.

"Any offense, if you can keep it to short yardage - especially our offense ... In the first half, the back-side linebacker was making the plays," Carey said. "That's why we took (running back) Corey (Wagner) out and put Alex (Sutton) in there (at tailback). We thought he would hit the hole harder, and then we tried to change our blocking to pick up that back-side guy.

"They loaded the box with as many as they could get in there without standing on top of each other."

Sutton is the Indians' regular fullback. The switch brought West Virginia University commitment Wes Tonkery into the game full-time to fill the position vacated by Sutton's move.

Gregory had 15 tackles to lead South Charleston's defensive effort. Of those, 11 came in the first half when the Black Eagles gained a 14-10 lead.

"We changed our defense up a little bit, and it made it easier for me to read the flow and shoot to the hole and make plays," Gregory said. "In the second half, they tried to change it up a little bit throwing a couple linemen at me, but pretty much all we did was got to it.

"We penetrated and did pretty good."

As Gregory's tackle total diminished, junior Tyler Harris saw his tackle numbers grow.

Harris, who 8-of-13 passing for 234 yards, three touchdowns and one interception as the Black Eagles' quarterback, finished with six tackles at linebacker. All of them came in the second half.

The most crucial first-down play had little to do with SC's effort, though.

The Indians were driving and at the Black Eagle 37 with less than 2 minutes left to play. With kicker Brian Kaufmann already having kicked a 36-yard field goal, the Indians were quickly approaching range in which the sophomore could potentially tie the game and send it into overtime.

At that point, Bridgeport was flagged for a holding penalty, creating a first-and-19 situation from the SC 46. Just three plays later, South Charleston junior cornerback Perry Henry intercepted an option pass by Tonkery, and returned it 50 yards to the Bridgeport 35 to end the threat.

It was Henry's eighth interception of the season.

"I know it wasn't back-and-forth. We got up and stayed there," Messinger said. "But if they get inside the 30, they've got a chance to kick a field goal and send this thing into overtime. We didn't want to play Bridgeport in overtime."

Bridgeport had 347 total yard to South Charleston's 342, and ran 75 plays to the Black Eagles' 39. However, SC was able to gain an average of 8.8 yards per play, and had nine plays that gained 15 yards or more.