Martins Ferry 23 Bellaire 12 @wearethebigreds @mfpurpleriders @PaFootballNews

Tagged under: Beyond The Keystone, Game Photos, Gameday Hub

David Burnworth | November 3, 2019

Yesterday afternoon I made another trip to Nelson Field in Bellaire, Ohio to catch the gigantic rivalry between Martins Ferry and Bellaire Big Reds. This one had playoff implications built into it, for the home team. A win and Bellaire would host in round one of the O.H.S.A.A. playoffs and a loss would send them most likely to Canfield to play a very hard core team in South Range. For Martins Ferry it would be a chance to double stick their rival, with the win being the biggest reward and the salt to the wound would be sending Bellaire to Canfield.

The Bellaire defense would have to carry the load in this one because the offense was missing its stud quarterback, Bobby Roth. Roth will be out anywhere between 4-6 weeks, according to my source. With 8:30 left on the clock in the opening quarter, Luke Farmer would crush the Purple Riders Chase Goff with a Jack Lambert type hit.Then at the 8:12 mark Trenton Wilson saved a touchdown, when he knocked the ball away from the Purple Riders Logan Smith. The Purple Riders would recover from the two Bellaire stops and hit pay dirt just six seconds later with Jake Probst catching a 11 yard pass from Jacob Probst to make this a 6-0 game, the point after kick from Cody Olson was good to make this a 7-0 game. The drive was started at the Bellaire 21 yard line thanks to a block punt by Trevor Hanson. The quarter held one last big play and that came from Evan Carpenter who stopped the Big Reds Jake Heatherington for a short loss.

The 2nd quarter would see Connor Rosen block Probst punt and then pick it up, taking the ball to the Purple Riders 9 yard line, with 4:16 showing on the clock. For Bellaire starting just nine yards away from a score, was just what the struggling offense needed. Cole Porter would sprint to his left and cross the goal line, with 2:57 left to pull the Big Reds within a point. Missing the starting QB also meant that Bellaire was missing their kicker, so Chase Nolan , a lineman trotted on the field to attempt the PAT that looked to be tipped by a Purple Riders player causing the kick to come up short, leaving this a 7-6 game.

Probst to Olson would hook up again, this time for a 46 yard gain just fifteen seconds into the 3rd quarter. The 6 play, 66 yard drive would come to an end ,when Goff scored from 5 yards out. The PAT was missed leaving this a 13-6 game, with 9:36 left in the quarter. Probst and Olson would strike again, this time for a 40 yard gain, but the drive ended a short time later as the Bellaire defense again found a 2nd wind.
CODY OLSON THE PAFOOTBALL.COM PLAYER OF THE GAME would make an easy pick with 1:57 left on the clock. Probst would throw into super tight coverage to find Dasyn Hores for a 35 yard touchdown, after the point after, the score was 20-6. For Martins Ferry it had to be satisfying seeing other receivers step up after their bog 6-6 receiver, Logan Smith had left the game very early because of what might have been a concussion.

Bellaire would get a big catch from Ray’Shad Pettigrew and another from Andrew Littel to set up a Trenton Wilson 5 yard touchdown catch in the left corner of the endzone to make this a 20-12 game, with 6:43 left. A sack on a big hit by the Purple Riders Trevor Hanson with 6:40 left started the fat lady to warm up her voice, then a fumble recovery on a punt by Connor Probst
all but sealed the deal. On the punt Bellaire had not tried to catch or field the ball all game long, but for some reason Cole Porter elected to field the ball that was rolling slowly even though he was surrounded by Martins Ferry players. A 21 yard field goal from Olson made this a 23-12 game, with 58:9 seconds left. Trevor Hanson registered a sack with 41:7 seconds left to put one final nail in the Bellaire coffin.

UNOFFICIAL STATS

Martins Ferry
63 Plays
234 yards (41 in the first half)
Passing, 9-20 1 TD)

Bellaire
64 Plays
113 Yards
Passing,

7-17 1 TD 1 INT

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