MAN — Only the Richwood Lumberjacks separate the Man High School football team from reaching the Class A state championship game.

No. 2 Man (11-1) and No. 3 Richwood (12-0) are scheduled to meet on Saturday night at Man’s George A. Queen Memorial Field in the Single-A semifinals.

Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.

Man advanced with a 37-26 victory last Friday night at home over Fayetteville. The Hillbillies had previously beaten Parkersburg Catholic, 25-20, in the first round of the playoffs.

Richwood moved on with last Saturday night’s 46-26 victory at home over No. 6 Wirt County in the quarterfinals. The Lumberjacks had previously scored a 44-26 win over Pendleton County in the playoff opener.

Man is playing in its first state semifinal since 1989. The Billies are looking to advance to their first state championship game since 1984, when Man lost to Grafton, 14-10, in the Class AA state finals.

The winner of the Man-Richwood game advances to play in the Class A state finals on Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Super Six at Wheeling Island Stadium. The Billies or Lumberjacks would play the winner of the other semifinal matchup which pits No. 1 Madonna (12-0) against No. 5 Wheeling Central (9-3). Madonna High School, out of Weirton, beat Tucker County, 48-0, in the quarterfinals, while the Maroon Knights prevailed 28-14 over last year’s state champion, Williamstown.

Man didn’t have too much trouble with Fayetteville in last week’s game.

The Billies led just 14-7 at the half but then turned in on in the third quarter to walk away with the victory.

Man led 30-7 in the third after Derrick Earnest’s 26-yard field goal before the Pirates made it interesting with two straight touchdowns to pull to within 30-20. Man then reached the end zone one more time to put the game away.

Man was led by senior quarterback Ryan Crum who scored three touchdowns on runs of 4, 30 and 1. Crum kept Fayetteville’s defense at bay with several roll outs where he had the option of throwing or tucking the ball and running. He had 15 carries for 130 yards for the game. Crum also was 2-of-4 passing for 21 yards.

The Billies were also led by tailback Brandon Plymale, who finished the game with 14 carries for 119 yards and one touchdown. Andrew Hale added 13 carries for 78 yards for Man, which rolled up 350 yards on the ground as a team.

Richwood was led by its one-two punch of quarterback Sam Tindal and running back Dustin Brown in last week’s victory over Wirt County.

The Lumberjacks sawed their way through the Wirt defense with a punishing ground game, which rolled up a Class A playoff record 594 yards.

Tindal amassed an individual playoff rushing record of 358 yards in the game. The junior signal caller scored three touchdowns on runs of 18, 59 and 33 and senior teammate Brown chipped in with two more scores on runs of 27 and 76 and had an additional 206 yards on the ground. Brown also kicked a 37-yard field goal.

Richwood coach Jason Rogers was impressed with the performance.

“I can’t explain it,” he told the Beckley Register-Herald. “All I know is that if they’re on Dustin, Sam takes over. And if you’re on Sam, Dustin takes over. The offensive line was dominant. You don’t break rushing records without the guys up front.”

Richwood is testing new waters as the Jacks are only one win away from Wheeling and the Super Six.

“It feels awesome,” Brown said. “We’ve never been here before. I’d like to keep playing.”

Richwood led Wirt 6-0 after one and 24-7 at the half. Wirt County’s Tigers then closed to within 24-20 after three but were outscored 22-6 in the fourth period.

Rogers said he chose Saturday night to play at Man because of continuity.

“We like playing Saturday nights,” he told the Beckley newspaper. “That way, we can keep the same schedule as this (past) week.”

Richwood began the season with a 37-26 win at Webster County. The Jacks then won 31-6 at home over Greenbrier West before winning 48-34 at Fayetteville. Richwood followed that up by downing Midland Trail, 54-19. The Jacks then closed out the regular season with six straight wins over Pocahontas County (33-24), Tygarts Valley (48-0), Hannan (40-0), Valley Fayette (47-46), Summers County (21-15) and Gilmer County (68-26).

Man and Richwood shared just one common opponent this season in the Fayetteville Pirates.

In addition to beating Fayetteville in the playoffs last week, the Billies also beat FHS, 23-7, on Oct. 2 on the road.