photo by: Joe Lovell

Martins Ferry’s Walkquem Cox jukes a defender during the Purple Riders’ week one game Friday against Expression Prep inside the Dave Bruney Athletic Complex. Cox scored two touchdowns in a 55-0 victory.

MARTINS FERRY – Going into the Dave Bruney Athletic Complex for their week one game against Expression Prep, Martins Ferry head coach Justin Kropka said that he did not know what to expect from the Huntington, W.Va.-based team which was starting up the very first year of its football program.

The answer? Touchdowns. Lots of touchdowns.

The Purple Riders encountered little resistance Friday in a 55-0 victory over the Lions, who Martins Ferry agreed to play after a different team backed out at the last minute.

“You know, we didn’t know what to expect, to be honest with you,” Kropka said. “You know, it was kind of a late signing. We had a team actually get out of a two year contract with us, late in the, signing period, I guess you would say.

“They called us, we needed a home game and they were willing to come up. So we had no idea. They’d never played, they’d never scrimmaged, and we kind of went into this one blind.”

Martins Ferry only needed to throw a handful of passes Friday, slicing up Expression Prep’s defense on the ground. Ferry threw for two touchdowns, but ran for six, and averaged almost 18 yards per carry. The Riders’ defense, meanwhile, held the Lions to negative net yardage on the game, at -1 total yards.

Junior quarterback Colby Kropka threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to Luca Shane on the game’s opening drive, and snuck in a one-yard touchdown later in the first quarter. Sophomore running back Walkquem Cox ran for 10- and 45-yard touchdowns in the first half.

Gunner Disher hit the biggest home run of the game, a 55-yard rushing touchdown, while Maurice Bennett ran in for an 18-yard score and Javis Johnson Jr. rushed for a 31-yard touchdown.

In the fourth quarter, backup freshman quarterback Derek Lucas threw a catch-and-run touchdown to junior Kadence Luckett for 31 yards.

Junior Jacob Theaker, a two-time Belmont County Spelling Bee Champion, booted five extra points, recorded a touchback on a kickoff, and was first to the ball for a safety in the first quarter.

Junior RJ Welshans finished with a sack and a tackle for loss; Barnett came down with an interception in the third quarter, taking it 50 yards to the house for what would have been a pick six- but his interception return was nullified by a penalty.

In the second half, the game was played with eight-minute quarters on a running clock.

“There’s going to be some really good guys that come out of that team.” Kropka said of Expression Prep. “They are just young. I thought we came out and did what we needed to do tonight, and on to next week.”

Kropka thought many of his second-string players got valuable experience from the game- backups came in shortly before halftime- and, most importantly, all of the Purple Riders got out healthy.

“These [games] are kind of- it can be tough to handle. You don’t know when to sub and when to do all of that stuff. You try to stay healthy and you gotta factor in a lot of things. When it’s a war, you know, you don’t have time to think about any of that stuff. So, you look back and you hope you did everything right. I’m glad everybody got to play. These kids deserved it. You know, we’re not going to have a JV game this week, so it was nice to get those kids some time and I thought they did well.”

Martins Ferry will remain at home next week to face Malvern.