GROVE CITY — Coach Jeff Bell learned a lot when his Grove City High School football team played Fairview earlier this season.

Some of things were not so obvious. Some were.

"Well, we didn't play real well," Bell said.

That was the most glaring thing Bell saw when he reviewed the tape from the Oct. 6 meeting between the Eagles and the Tigers.

Fairview won that game 26-13 on its home field.

The two teams will meet again at Erie McDowell High School at 7 p.m. Saturday in the District 10 Class AA semifinals.

This time, Bell said Fairview will face a much improved Eagles team.

When watching the film from the last meeting, Bell said: "I can't believe I'm watching the same team."

Since that game, Grove City has found a potent running game, which is led by Chris Clark and Dwayne Martin.

Clark has rushed for 626 yards and nine touchdowns in his last four games. Martin has gained 632 yards on much fewer carries than his running cohort.

But the key to the game Saturday might be the quarterbacks.

Grove City's Justin Haugh has been lost in the shadow of Clark and Martin, but the senior has been steady for the Eagles.

In rain and wind last week against Seneca in a 24-13 win, Haugh was 4-of-6 for 40 yards. He is completing better than 50 percent of his passes this season.

"He does a pretty good job throwing the ball," Bell said. "When we protect him, he does pretty good. Like a lot of guys on this team, he's been getting better each week."

Fairview has its own solid performer at quarterback.

Gary Corbin threw three touchdown passes the last time Fairview played Grove City.

"Their quarterback can be a difficult matchup," Bell said. "We have to make him work a little bit harder than we did the last time."

Corbin had a big game last week in a 41-7 drubbing of Greenville. He threw two touchdown passes and ran 51 yards for another score.

Like Haugh, he has a running game to fall back on, as Jack McCann has rushed for 1,081 yards this season.

Bell doesn't plan to completely overhaul his defense for Fairview, but he will add a few wrinkles to contain Corbin and McCann.

"The big thing (with Corbin) is you can't get caught between," Bell said. "He can throw and run, so if you come up to stop him from running, he'll throw it right over you. We have to keep him inside. What happened last time was he got outside and made some things happen."

But Bell believes his team is tough to defend, too.

The only things that slowed the Eagles last week were penalties and fumbles. Grove City committed 10 penalties for 70 yards and lost two fumbles.

Bell chalks that up to the bye week the team had between the regular season and the playoffs.

"I looked at Sharon last week in the playoffs," Bell said. "They had a lot of penalties and they had a bye week, too. We're going to blame that on the week off."

Last week's playoff win for Fairview was its first since 1992.

"I'm real happy for the kids," said Fairview coach Jerry Lightner. "They played real well against Greenville."

But Lightner conceded the playoff experience edge belongs solely to Grove City, which made a run to the state final in 2004.

"The coaches and players, they took a lot of reps and I believe you become better doing that," Lightner said.

Like Bell, Lightner doesn't plan to scrap what got his team to this point in favor of something new.

He'll tinker, but He'll play the same style he has played all season.

"We do what we do, and they'll do what they do," Lightner said.