It won’t be a true rags-to-riches tale until they meet Dec. 5 on the Tacoma Dome carpet. It will be the 14th game of the season for the last Class 2A teams standing. Their perseverance will have exploited a fatal design flaw in the state playoff bracket, which stashed them as far apart as possible — one at the very top, one at the very bottom — only to see them meet at the end of the funnel.

The Lumberjacks, not two full seasons removed from a 13-game losing streak, and the Monarchs, whose head coach debuted by snuffing a 12-game drought, will play a football game to determine which team’s bus will shuttle the state championship trophy back to Longview.

Unlikely? Very.

Unthinkable?

Maybe not.

After all, it has been 22 years since Mark Morris and R.A. Long went into a Civil War game with winning records. The 1987 game is also the only Civil War in the 51-year history of the rivalry that decided a league championship outright.

Yet here we are, three days shy of a showdown between MM (7-1, 4-0 league) and RAL (7-1, 4-0) that will repeat both of those milestones.

A Longview school has not won a league football championship since 1996, when Mark Morris smashed Camas on the last night of the regular season to claim the Greater St. Helens AA League title.

R.A. Long tied Washougal for the GSHL AA crown in 1995, then beat the Panthers in a half-game tiebreaker.

Both titles came when the league was comprised of MM, RAL, Camas and Washougal, and when only the league champion advanced to the playoffs.

Prior to last season, when Mark Morris finished second and RAL fourth to clinch berths in district crossover games, there had never been a year when both Longview schools advanced to the playoffs. But regardless of the outcome of Friday’s game, the Jacks and Monarchs will claim the GSHL 2A’s top two playoff seeds.

They will host playoff games in the same season for the first time ever.

That makes Friday’s 63rd Civil War one of, if not the, most significant games in the history of the rivalry.

Shouldn’t Longview residents have license to dream of even the most far-fetched scenarios?

Both teams are already on the road to the Tacoma Dome. The Civil War is just a passing lane.

The journey begins in earnest at Longview Memorial Stadium the weekend of Nov. 6-7. The Civil War winner will play on the 6th against the fourth seed from the Evergreen 2A Conference. The Civil War loser will play on the 7th against the No. 3 seed.

JACKS at a glance

Record: 7-1, 4-0 league

Points scored: 249

Points allowed: 133

State ranking: None

The first eight

• RAL 43, Fort Vancouver 8

• RAL 20, Hudson’s Bay 0

• Astoria 34, RAL 22

• RAL 41, Notre Dame (B.C.) 26

• RAL 48, Woodland 35

• RAL 29, Hockinson 3

• RAL 14, Washougal 0

• RAL 32, Ridgefield 29

MONARCHS at a glance

Record: 7-1, 4-0 league

Points scored: 302

Points allowed: 71

State ranking: No. 7

The first eight

• Kelso 15, MM 14

• MM 41, Centralia 34

• MM 42, Eatonville 0

• MM 48, Franklin 8

• MM 27, Washougal 0

• MM 41, Woodland 7

• MM 47, Ridgefield 0

• MM 42, Hockinson 7

Here’s a look back at each team’s 2009 season:

MARK MORRIS

Nonleague

Sept. 4: Lost to Kelso 15-14. MM’s only loss to date was a well-timed, albeit humbling wake-up call from their other rival.

Sept. 11: Beat Centralia 41-34. The Monarchs bounced back with a wild shootout win over a Centralia team that never fully recovered.

Sept. 17: Beat Eatonville 42-0. Mark Morris got revenge for its most surprising loss of the 2008 campaign and also restored faith that it could play defense.

Sept. 25: Beat Franklin 48-8. This game showed that athleticism is no match for size … and athleticism.

GSHL 2A

Oct. 2: Beat Washougal 27-0. Head coach Shawn Perkins was not amused after the Panthers kept MM off the scoreboard in the second half. Although no one will speak of it, the postgame discussion probably saw Perkins in rare froth and fury.

Next to the Kelso loss, this was one of the key motivational pivots of the entire season. Just look at what Mighties did the next week.

Oct. 9: Beat Woodland 41-7. Given the quality of opponent, this could be the most impressive all-around display in the Perkins era. MM ran for 419 yards. "We couldn’t stop their offense," Beavers coach Mark Greenleaf said afterward.

MM held Woodland to negative rushing yardage, and during one memorable sequence, linebacker Jake McCoy hit someone so hard, the guy’s helmet flew off. Said Perkins: "The most physical we’ve played since I’ve been here."

Oct. 16: Beat Ridgefield 47-0. Senior Night was a laugher. Five different players scored at least one touchdown, and Perkins emptied the bench in the fourth quarter.

Oct. 23: Beat Hockinson 42-7: The Monarchs’ special teams play complemented the typical trench domination, and defending league champion Hockinson’s injury- and sickness-riddled free-fall continued. Jeremy Wolf returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, MM blocked two punts and the rout was on.

R.A. LONG

Nonleague

Sept. 4: Beat Fort Vancouver 43-6. RAL won the second half 29-0 and showed glimpses of big-play potential.

Sept. 11: Beat Hudson’s Bay 20-0. For the second time in two weeks, the Jacks beat a Class 3A team on the Kiggins Bowl turf. William Yordy threw two touchdown passes to J Nusbaum, and Thomas McCall rushed for 112 yards and another score.

Sept. 18: Lost to Astoria 34-22. Despite losing, RAL played arguably its best football of the season in the second half against the defending Oregon Class 4A champs. The Jacks were one third-down stop away from having the ball with a chance to take the lead — after trailing 27-3 in the third quarter.

Sept. 24: Beat Notre Dame, B.C., 41-26. A choppy effort, but a quality win over a team ranked in the top five in its province.

GSHL 2A

Oct. 2: Beat Woodland 48-35. The Jacks defeated Woodland for the first time since the formation of the league with big plays galore. Yordy threw a pair of 51-yard touchdown passes, Dylan Hopkins had a 72-yard fumble return for a touchdown and a 73-yard kickoff return for a TD, and Nusbaum wrestled away a certain interception for a catch that set up the dagger TD of the night.

Oct. 9: Beat Hockinson 29-3. More big plays and excellent all-around defense lifted RAL to its first-ever win over a Hockinson team beginning to feel the effects of illness, injury and expulsion.

Oct. 16: Beat Washougal 14-0. The final score wasn’t impressive, the offense sputtered, the ball took some crazy hops and the yellow hankies flew. But a shutout is a shutout, and RAL’s defense and special teams clinched a win that secured no worse than second place in the league.

Oct. 23: Beat Ridgefield 32-29. The Jacks nearly coughed up an embarrassing loss against the cellar-dwelling Spudders. Kaleb Carr’s 27-yard field goal with 15 seconds left rescued RAL from infamy. A wake-up jolt or a bad omen? We’ll see on Friday.