By word of mouth, Mark Yoho learned last year of a football coaching vacancy at Grafton High School.

At the time, Yoho was in his 15th season as a high school coach in North Carolina, but the prospect of a return to his native state sounded tempting, especially at a school with a good football tradition not far from his hometown of Mannington in Marion County.

The lure of West Virginia, in fact, tugged at his soul, even after all those years in North Carolina.

"My gosh!'' Yoho recalled recently. "My wife and I had always talked about coming back. It's home.''

Yoho, a Fairmont State graduate who had coached at three different North Carolina schools, took the head coaching job with the Bearcats before the 2008 season and, since then, things have fallen nicely into place.

"It's been terrific,'' he said. "We have great kids, a great community. I've been real fortunate.''

Grafton won its first nine games before dropping the regular-season finale to Magnolia. And after a 41-16 victory over Philip Barbour in Class AA's opening playoff round last week, the No. 2 Bearcats (10-1) will play host to No. 7 Ravenswood (9-2) at 7:30 p.m. today in the quarterfinals.

The game will match quarterbacks - Grafton's Cameron Gallaher and Ravenswood's Cole Starcher - who have amassed solid numbers passing and running this season.

Gallaher, a 6-foot, 195-pound senior, has completed 98-of-154 passes for 1,553 yards and 21 touchdowns with six interceptions. In addition, he's rushed for 709 yards and 15 TDs.

By word of mouth, Mark Yoho learned last year of a football coaching vacancy at Grafton High School.

At the time, Yoho was in his 15th season as a high school coach in North Carolina, but the prospect of a return to his native state sounded tempting, especially at a school with a good football tradition not far from his hometown of Mannington in Marion County.

The lure of West Virginia, in fact, tugged at his soul, even after all those years in North Carolina.

"My gosh!'' Yoho recalled recently. "My wife and I had always talked about coming back. It's home.''

Yoho, a Fairmont State graduate who had coached at three different North Carolina schools, took the head coaching job with the Bearcats before the 2008 season and, since then, things have fallen nicely into place.

"It's been terrific,'' he said. "We have great kids, a great community. I've been real fortunate.''

Grafton won its first nine games before dropping the regular-season finale to Magnolia. And after a 41-16 victory over Philip Barbour in Class AA's opening playoff round last week, the No. 2 Bearcats (10-1) will play host to No. 7 Ravenswood (9-2) at 7:30 p.m. today in the quarterfinals.

The game will match quarterbacks - Grafton's Cameron Gallaher and Ravenswood's Cole Starcher - who have amassed solid numbers passing and running this season.

Gallaher, a 6-foot, 195-pound senior, has completed 98-of-154 passes for 1,553 yards and 21 touchdowns with six interceptions. In addition, he's rushed for 709 yards and 15 TDs.

Starcher, a 6-1, 153-pound sophomore, demonstrated his talents last week by rushing 17 times for 187 yards and three touchdowns in leading the Red Devils to a 46-22 victory over Webster County in the first round. Starcher also completed 4-of-9 passes for 86 yards and another TD.

Starcher's big game against Webster County boosted his season rushing total to 1,054 yards and 13 touchdowns and his passing total to 765 yards and eight TDs with three interceptions.

The Red Devils were 5-5 last year and had not made the playoffs since 2004 but seemed to turn the corner in their Oct. 17 game against Point Pleasant. Down 21-7 with about five minutes left in the game, they rallied to tie the score with five seconds left and won 24-21 in overtime.   

"Considering the success we had been having, I thought at that juncture, our kids learned they could win close ballgames,'' said Ravenswood coach Dick Sturm. "This is a close-knit group, and I'm proud of them.''

Ravenswood's Jake Young, a 6-4, 224-pound senior, has rushed for 850 yards on 153 carries for a 5.6 average and 15 touchdowns.  Chad Small, a 6-2, 225-pound sophomore, owns a 37-yard punting average and plays offensive guard and defensive tackle.

Yoho attributes much of his first-year success to the Bearcats' talented 74-player roster.

In addition to Gallaher, they have Damon Waters, a 5-8, 175-pound senior, who has rushed for 1,129 yards, averaging 7.5 a carry, and 12 touchdowns. Asa Coplin has caught 44 passes for 746 yards and 11 TDs. On defense, Coplin has returned four interceptions for TDs as part of the Bearcats' seven interceptions returned for scores this year. Beau Bartlett, a 6-1, 170-pound junior linebacker, leads the team with 72 tackles.

Reach Mike Whiteford at 348-7948 or mikewhitef...@wvgazette.com.