photo by: Joe Lovell

Martins Ferry’s Alex Reese (15) catches a pass against Shadyside during the Purple Riders’ week one victory over the Tigers. Reese and the Riders are hosting the River Pilots on Friday at the Dave Bruney Football Complex.

MARTINS FERRY – The Martins Ferry Purple Riders (1-0) are playing host to the River Pilots (0-1) on Friday, the Riders returning to the site of a raucous 56-7 week one victory over Shadyside which head coach Justin Kropka was encouraged to see.

“Any time you start the season with a win, that’s always a positive thing,” Kropka said. “You work all summer and you want to see that hard work show itself on the field. I was happy for our kids. Things went our way early and then snowballed, so you can’t take too much from one week- the biggest improvement for a football team should be between week one and two. That’s really what we’re looking at as far as our goals and where our sights are set. It’s on our improvement more so than anything else.”

While it is Ferry’s second home game in as many contests to begin the year, the inverse is true for the visiting River Pilots, who are going on the road once again- though the drive to Martins Ferry will not be as long a voyage as last week’s trek to play Colonel Crawford, where the Pilots sustained a 55-13 loss in week one.

“The game we just played, there were some good things and there were breakdowns and failures,” River head coach Mike Flannery said. “We opened with a Division VI contender and we knew that coming in. When you have a setback like that you’ve got to learn from it and make it work in your favor. We’re healthy, and we’re getting the emotions back up.

“It’s a new week for us and we’re looking forward to going to Ferry and playing a football game.”

In that game, River did come through with explosive plays early, like a 50-yard touchdown pass from Peyton Blue to Wyatt Stalder in the first quarter and a 61-yard touchdown run by Lucas Dennis in the second. Kropka says there’s more than meets the eye from River’s first game.

“Colonel Crawford is a regional finalist about every year,” Kropka said of River’s week-one opponent. “I think people saw that school and were shocked by it- but you took a team on the road 4.5 hours away, an inexperienced team right now, and they were tit-for-tat with them most of the first half. Then things kind of snowballed on them and got away from them in the end.

The Pilots went 9-3 last year and made it to the Regional Championship game, though they did have their fair share of roster turnover coming into this season.

“I don’t think that’s determinant of how good a football team River is,” Kropka said. “I think they’re a really good football team, I think they’re extraordinarily well-coached, I have nothing but respect for coach Flannery. He always, and this is from one coach looking from afar at another coach, he always does the most with the least. He continually does that and on the defensive side you have coach [Mark] Holenka and coach [Chase] Grinch who I’ve gone against many times in my career, and I know they’re great coaches. I didn’t put much stock in that score, I judged by what I saw off film and what I saw was a good football team.”

Things certainly went smoother for Martins Ferry in their own week one game against the Tigers, where the Purple Riders accrued nearly 300 yards of offense in the first quarter alone, as players like Tev’n Williams, Ayden Ludolph, Maurice Barnett, Walkquem Cox and Jase Mahoney were only some of the Ferry players who had big days.

“They’re very talented and gifted at about every position,” Flannery said of his opponent this week. “They’re a team of speed from the film and they exemplify what speed is all about- speed and toughness. Anytime you’re playing Ferry you’re playing a tough, blue-collar football team. We like to think of ourselves in the same way.

“We’re going to embrace the fact that they won their opener and that this will be a challenge for us. We’re not going to go into the game with a negative attitude, but it’s going to be a challenge for us to get them off the field. I’ve got a lot of confidence in our defensive plan with coach Holenka and coach Grinch. I think we need to make the plays on offense to move the sticks and keep the ball away from a very talented group of running backs and receivers that they have.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday at the Dave Bruney Football Complex.

“It always comes down to the same things,” Kropka said. “When you’ve got two equally-matched football teams it comes down to who makes the fewest mental mistakes, who takes cares of the ball, and who makes the plays at the end of the game. If we do those things, I think we’ll be fine.”