NEW MARTINSVILLE - From time to time we hear stories in the sporting world questioning the heart of certain coaches. That will never be the case with Magnolia's Mark Batton.

He'll be back next year and he'll have the Blue Eagles ready to contend as they always do. But for 11 guys - Cole Mullet, Davey Howell, Cody Elliott, Stingray Bates, Seth Pay, Dillon Jackson, Zach Neff, Jake Potts, Drew Schmalz, Andy Huggins and Jared Blatt - their time here is done after a 13-10 loss Friday night to Bluefield.

''When you've been around these kids that long, knowing they played their last game is very difficult,'' Batton said, choking back his emotions. ''It's tough when you have to look at your seniors like that.

''These are my sons. I have three beautiful daughters, and right there was 11 sons that I just had to say goodbye to and watch them go off to college.''

Their eligibility may be up, but the legacy they leave will stand the test of time. The group became just the fourth in the school's illustrious history to have an undefeated regular season, and made the playoffs each of the last four years.

''What these seniors have accomplished, I just can't thank them enough,'' Batton said. ''They were part of 600 wins and had a perfect season.

''That can not be taken away from them.''

This particular group carried quite the weight on its collective shoulders. With nearly everybody back from the 2008 West Virginia Class AA runner-up squad, every prep football observer from one end of the state to the other had the Blue Eagles pegged as the team to beat this season.

''That's a lot for high school kids to carry on their backs,'' Batton said. ''Like I told them (Thursday) night, you've carried this school and you've carried this community on your backs.

''Because that's what they've heard all year, and the maturity level of these kids, they didn't listen to that.

''They knew what it was going to take. That's tough right there.''

Sometimes one or two plays can be the difference in a ballgame. And when the games are as big as the one Friday night at Alumni Field, they're the difference in going to Wheeling Island Stadium and saying goodbye.

Magnolia limited Bluefield to 7 yards in the first half and 144 for the game, but in the end the Beavers made a couple more plays, none larger than Marcus Patterson's 58-yard, third-quarter punt return when in all honesty he should have been stopped soon after he fielded the ball.

''We were all over him, but Patterson is a heckuva athlete and he made the play,'' Batton said. ''He got loose and that was something that kid of concerned us all week.''

But that's high school football. Someone has to win, and someone has to lose.

Magnolia may have lost the game, but if this group should teach us anything, it's that you can win with good people.

Shawn Rine can be reached via e-mail at Rine@theintelligencer.net