Wheeling Central’s Kade Koroneos (26) breaks a tackle Friday during the WVSSAC Class A state championship game on Laidley Field in Charleston.

CHARLESTON — The Wheeling Central Maroon Knights are bringing home lucky number 13.

Wheeling Central, the top seed in the WVSSAC Class A playoffs, finished off their playoff run in dominant fashion, topping No. 3 Clay-Battelle, 56-34, on Laidley Field in a Friday night title bout.

“I just feel so good for these kids because they earned it,” Wheeling Central head coach Mike Young said. “They deserved it. They worked hard. They overcame a lot of adversity, a lot of injuries, but when they were young, they got their rear ends beat. But this time around they battled back. We started off on a rough game tonight, but, you know, just so proud of them and their resilience and perseverance to go ahead and win.”

The Maroon Knights’ Kade Koroneos starred for Wheeling Central and broke multiple records in finishing with a staggering 415 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns. His 415 rushing yards broke the state record for rushing yards in a playoff game, previously held by Scott’s Jordan Roberts at 404, and his seven scores broke the Class A record for rushing touchdowns in a playoff game, the previous high-mark of six shared by multiple players. The previous record for rushing yards in a state championship game was Independence’s Judah Price at 376, now rewritten by Koroneos as well.

“It’s exciting, but all the credit goes to the offensive line,” Koroneos said of the record. “They put all the work in, you know, obviously they’re the ones opening up those holes and blocking the guy. So it’s so important. It’s so awesome.”

“I love the kid,” Young said of Koroneos. “He’s a workhorse. He’ll be the first one to tell you. It’s the blocking up front that did it. But I got a great coaching staff, veteran staff, great guys, unbelievable special teams, defense, offense, those guys do the job and I’m just proud of these kids.”

The CeeBees cap their season as state runners-up, a year where Clay-Battelle made the state championship for the first time in school history and reached 12 wins for the first time in school history. Early on Friday, it looked like there was yet more magic in store for the CeeBees.

Clay-Battelle scored first Friday, quarterback Corey Coen making a throw on the run to Cody Clovic for a toe-tap touchdown along the sideline from 13 yards out. The drive was spurred by the very first play of the game, a 42-yard run by Caleb Hall, and Clay-Battelle led 6-0 with 8:14 on the first-quarter clock.

Koroneos dove in for a one-yard touchdown on Wheeling Central’s own first drive, the first of many times the Central senior would cross the plane, and Central lurched ahead, 7-6, with 3:57 showing.

Clay-Battelle had haymakers in store for Wheeling Central. Brayden Ponceroff reeled in an 80-yard touchdown streak for a touchdown to take the lead right back, and Clovis caught his second touchdown of the game, a 40-yard deep shot to the 10-yard line wherein Clovis scampered the rest of the way to the end zone, to notch a 20-7 lead over the Knights with 11:52 to play in the second quarter.

The next five scores, though, would be all Maroon- and almost all Koroneos. After having their offense hampered by penalties in the first quarter, Wheeling Central turned into a well-oiled machine the rest of the way, and chewed up yardage up and down the field, while the Central defense capped Clay-Battelle big plays, and the CeeBees couldn’t match Central’s methodical attack.

“We weren’t gonna let up,” Young said of his team’s early deficit. “We were gonna keep fighting back no matter what we felt. We were very proud of our kids and what they did in terms of fighting back and being a quality group. I just love them all and they have a lot to be proud of.”

“We knew we’d make the adjustments and get back to what we do,” Koroneos said. “Yeah, it was a shock. They came out hard, which was good, awesome by them [Clay-Battelle]. But we fought hard and ended up getting it done at the end.”

Koroneos scored touchdowns of 11, 1 and 10 yards to put Central ahead 28-20 at halftime.

Central started with the ball in the third quarter, and Nico Kusic ripped a 45-yard touchdown run just over a minute into the second half to put Wheeling Central on the path to victory.

Kusic finished with 153 yards rushing and 63 passing yards. Max Olejasz had 61 receiving yards.

Koroneos scored two more touchdowns, a three-yarder and a nine-yarder, sandwiched in-between a Corey Coen 1-yard score to make it a 49-26 affair heading into the fourth quarter.

The final frame had one more touchdown in-store for Koroneos, a six-yarder to give him the Class A playoff record. Clay-Battelle got on the board one more time just under three minutes to go in the game, Ponceroff making another impressive catch, this one a 35-yard contested ball in the end zone.

Ponceroff ended with 198 receiving yard and two touchdowns, while Clovis had 109 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

Troy Mortakis had 1.5 sacks and 1.5 TFL’s for Wheeling Central, while Kusic and Joey Hall each nabbed interceptions on defense.

Wheeling Central graduates 13 seniors– Caleb Golden, Nino Jerrome, Wyatt Brady, Maddox Stillion, Joey Hall, Max Olejasz, Kade Koroneos, Troy Mortakis, Carver Bolon, Sheldon Raab,

Brennan Maloney, Luke Wear and Paul Stecker– who go out on top.

“It’s incredible,” Koroneos said. “Grew up around Central, so it’s just an amazing feeling, love all the coaches, love all the players. It’s like a family, so it’s amazing.”

Concluding his 55th year of coaching and capturing his ninth state championship, Young will take some time to think about if Friday was the end of his own long and illustrious career.

“I don’t know, I gotta see,” Young said of retirement. “This is year 55 total now and I’ve loved it. I’ve been blessed, but we’ll see how things come out. I don’t know. I mean, my wife’s a big factor there because she’s my best friend, and my kids are involved, we’ll see how things go.”