Photo/JOE LOVELL MARTINS FERRY’S Dasyn Hores looks to pick up yardage after one of his seven catches during Friday’s game in Morristown. Defending for Union Local are Caleb McWhorter (6) and Ayden Smolira (5).

MORRISTOWN — Martins Ferry hasn’t lost three consecutive games to start a season since 2005. It still hasn’t.

Senior quarterback Jacob Probst equaled a career-high with four touchdown passes — all to classmate Dasyn Hores in the first half — and the Purple Riders held Union Local to 67 yards of total offense in a 50-7 dismantling Friday night at Jets Stadium.

The entire second half was played with a continuous running clock under the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s 30-point mercy rule. It was 42-0 at the half.

“We just didn’t execute against a couple of pretty good teams in the first two weeks,” second-year Martins Ferry head coach Chas Yoder explained. “We got better from week one to week two, and I think we got a little bit better from week two to week three. We’ve got some guys playing better and we need to build off of that and keep improving.

“It was a good team win.”

The senior combination of Probst-to-Hores clicked seven times in the first half to the tune of 211 stripes and the aforementioned four six-pointers. They came from 60, 59, 35 and 25 yards out.

“I thought he threw the ball well. He made good reads. He had a good game,” Yoder said of Probst, who completed 13 of 18 attempts for 268 yards.

“It’s something that we’ve been improving on each week,” Yoder said of the Purple Riders pass-happy attack in the first half. “We saw something on film that we thought we could take advantage of, and we did.”

Hores also picked off a pass on defense to add to his fine all-round night.

Senior Caleb Olson also found the end zone twice, scoring on runs of 1 and 9 yards. He finished with nine carries for 53 yards. Sophomore Colton Redinger led the Purple Riders with 63 rushing yards on eight totes. Freshman George Hulsey scored from 6 yards out and also ran for the two-point conversion.

Cody Olson was perfect on all seven PATs.

While the skilled athletes were doing their things, the guys in the trenches controlled the game from the first play.

The defensive line of ends Richard McFarland and Evan Carpenter and tackles Donte Lewis and Preston Thaman, along with linebackers Cody Goff, Caleb Olson, Noah Duck and Trevor Hanson combined to hold the Jets to minus 10 yards rushing on 23 attempts.

Meanwhile, tight end McFarland; tackles Peyton Hores and Gage Kwiatkowski; guards Lewis and Carpenter; and center Duck were opening holes for a running game that amassed 185 yards. It also gave Probst all the time he needed to find open receivers.

“We played solid team defense and I thought we had good pass protection,” Yoder praised of the work his D-line and O-line did. “Like I said, it was a good team win. We played well.”

The same can’t be said for Union Local.

“They were the better team tonight. Flat out. They were the better team,” Union Local second-year head coach Bernie Thompson assessed of his team’s lackluster performance. “We just need to get better. We need to get better as a whole … in all aspects of football, special teams, defense and offense.

“I know we’re young but at this point in the game we’re not making excuses,” he continued. “We practice hard all week and it’s got to start translating on Friday nights. It hasn’t, so we need to go back to work and keep working hard.”

Sophomore Dakota Hess passed for 77 yards on 6-of-20 and a touchdown. He threw two picks. Sophomore Caleb McWhorter caught three balls for 45 yards, including a 34-yard pitch-and-catch that concluded the scoring.

However, it was a play on the previous series that the Jets didn’t make that foretold what kind of a night it was.

McWhorter was all alone in the end zone on fourth down but couldn’t hold onto the ball as it fell to the grass.

“That play summed up our night. Caleb is a great kid and he will rebound from it. He did rebound from it,” Thompson allowed. “Caleb is going to be a leader for us the next two years. All of these kids that are going through this right now are experiencing adversity that will only make us better. Plain and simple.”

Martins Ferry (1-2) will look to continue its winning ways Friday night when undefeated St. Clairsville visits the Dave Bruney Football Complex. Union Local (0-3), meanwhile, travels to Wagner Field in Cadiz to meet 0-3 Harrison Central.