MAN — The old coach’s cliche says, “Offense wins games but defense wins championships.”

It seems the saying suits both the Man and Madonna football teams.

The No. 2-ranked Hillbillies (12-1) and the No. 1-rated Blue Dons (13-0) have been like mirror images of each other this season as the two teams have thrashed their opponents with a potent running-oriented offense and a punishing defense.

Something will have to give on Saturday night when the two teams meet in the Class A state championship game at Wheeling Island Stadium.

Madonna has one state championship to its credit, a 22-8 victory over Matewan in the 1987 Class A state final. The Blue Dons have been the runner-up twice, in 2004 and last year. In ‘04 Madonna lost 34-7 to Wheeling Central in the finals. Last year, the Blue Dons fell 23-7 to Williamstown.

Man has been to the state finals three times in its Double-A days, falling 20-6 to Poca in 1977, 18-13 to the Ceredo-Kenova Wonders in 1980 and 14-10 to Grafton in 1984.

The Blue Dons’ defense has been supurb this season as they have only surrendered 37 points — 22 of which coming on the first-team players. Madonna has recorded seven shutouts and has rolled up 530 points.

Man has outscored its opponents 485-151.

Man eighth-year head coach Harvey Arms said the Blue Dons will be tough to beat.

“They’re a good football team,” Arms said. “They haven’t given up a whole lot of points and they are undefeated through 13 games. They’ve got to be tough. They were there last year at Wheeling and in 2004. It’s not so much a new experience for them that it is for us. But we told our kids today that we have to go up there and be confident in our abilities and the way we play and not look at it like they have any advantage because they’ve been there and we haven’t. We’ve worked hard all year long and one week at a time and we don’t want to go up there and be satisfied that we just made it to the state finals. We want to go and win.”

Madonna advanced to the state title game with last Friday night’s 18-7 win over Wheeling Central at Weirton’s Jimmy Carey Stadium. The Maroon Knights had averaged 33 points a game before Madonna’s defense was able to shut them down.

Outside of a pair of passes from quarterback Zach Hood to Jordan Sorge that covered a total of 77 yards, Wheeling Central spent most of the time fighting for yardage. The Maroon Knights reached the other side of the 50 just three times.

‘‘They all take pride in their individual jobs,’’ Weirton Madonna coach Bob Kramer told the Weirton Daily Times newspaper after the game. ‘‘They all know they have a responsibility to take care of, and they take pride in that idea. Not one of them wants to be the one to let them score. Everybody wants to pitch in and help other people. They take a lot of pride in saying ‘No, you’re not coming to my field and score.’’’

Madonna linebacker Grant Weaver said Kramer got the Blue Dons to the state finals.

‘‘Coach prepared us and we had some butterflies but we knew we were going to win, 100 percent,” Weaver told the Daily Times. “I’ve waited eight years for this, since Junior Dons and I’m pretty speechless. Like we do every week, prepare the same week. Coach Kramer has prepared us the best and he’s the best. Obviously it was the best offense we’ve seen this year and we just prepared. They pull every time and we’ve been taught how to read pulling guards for four years. It finally paid off.’’

The Blue Don defense forced six three-and-outs and two other drives stalled after one first down.

Man senior tailback Brandon Plymale said the Billies should be able to stack up well against Madonna.

“They’ve got to be real good to make it this far,” Plymale said. “They beat Wheeling Central, which means a lot but I think we’ve got the tougher schedule and I think that we’ll pull through it.”

Madonna is led by quarterback Max Nogay, who carried the ball 30 times for 135 yards and scored on a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs against Wheeling Central. He also fired a 15-yard touchdown pass to Connor Arlia in the third quarter.

“Madonna is good. They’ve got a solid defense,” Man senior running back Andrew Hale said. “Their quarterback is good. We’ve just got to try and go out there and do our thing.”

The Blue Dons opened the season with a 54-6 win over Paden City at home then won 48-0 at home over Bellaire St. John, Ohio.

In Week 3, Madonna blanked Valley Wetzel, 41-0, on the road before scoring another shutout win, 56-0, at home over Cameron on Sept. 26. The Blue Dons then won 22-8 over Bridgeport, Ohio, and 52-0 over Clarksburg Notre Dame. Madonna closed out the regular season with four wins over Steubenville, Ohio (33-8), Toronto, Ohio (47-0), Bishop Donahue (35-0) and Clay Battelle (28-2).

In Madonna’s three home playoff games, the Blue Dons crushed Gilbert (48-6), shut out Tucker County (48-0) and got past state power Wheeling Central (18-7).

Man opened the season with a resounding 34-7 victory at home over Triple-A County rival Logan, then crushed Mount View, 56-0. In Week 3, the Billies squeaked past 2A contender and playoff team Westside, 20-14, before winning 42-12 at home against St. Marys, a Single-A playoff squad. On Oct. 2, Man won 23-7 at Class A playoff team Fayetteville before falling 16-14 at home to 2A playoff squad and county rival Chapmanville.

On Oct. 16, the Billies crushed eventual No. 16 seed Gilbert, 48-12, and then stomped 2A Wyoming East, 61-0, on Oct. 23 at home. Man closed out the regular season with a 42-12 victory at Buffalo and a 56-6 annihilation of the Matewan Tigers on Nov. 7 at home.

Man recorded home playoff wins over Parkersburg Catholic (25-20), Fayetteville (37-26) and Richwood (27-20) last week.

— Man championship T-shirts for sale

Man High School football T-shirts, “The Blue Funk is Back,” are now on sale at Man High School.

The shirts are long sleeve and are navy and white with red trim.

The cost is $15.

For more information call MHS at 304-583-6521.

— Charter buses going to Wheeling

If you are going to the big game on Saturday but don’t want to drive to Wheeling, you can get there by bus.

Man High School has chartered three fan buses on Saturday for the Class A state championship game. The buses will leave the school at 9:30 a.m. and will return to Man immediately after the game between 2-3 a.m. early on Sunday morning.

Tickets are $44 for adults (includes bus ticket and game ticket) amd $42 for students.

Bus seats are available on a first come first serve basis.

Man is to play Madonna in the title game, which is slated to kick off at 7 p.m. at Wheeling Island Stadium.

— Getting ready for the Field Turf

To get ready for Wheeling’s Field Turf the Billies will be practicing at 2:15 p.m. today at CAM Stadium in Belfry, Ky.

CAM, which has Field Turf, opened in 2005.

The stadium is home to the state powerhouse Belfry High School Pirates.