Photo by Joe Lovell Martins Ferry’s Tev’n Williams holds onto the ball while a pair of East Knox defenders try to bring him down to the turf Friday.

MARTINS FERRY — After a turnover on its first play from scrimmage, and digging themselves a quick 10-0 first quarter hole, East Knox’s rushing attack took over the final three quarters of its Ohio Division VI, Region 23 first-round playoff game against Martins Ferry and ran away from the Purple Riders.

Junior Blake Elliott rushed for 184 yards and four touchdowns as the Bulldogs bullied their way for 288 rushing stripes while Martins Ferry continually shot themselves in the foot with penalties and negative plays as East Knox recorded a 35-17 victory over the Purple Riders on the turf at the Dave Bruney Football Complex.

The victory moves coach Andy Beatty’s squad into next week’s regional quarterfinals with a trip to unbeaten, top-seeded Garaway, a 45-7 winner over Ironton Rock Hill last night. Meanwhile, coach Justin Kropka’s Purple Riders finish the campaign with a 5-6 mark, but ahead of schedule for where he thought his team might be.

“This team has performed better than its talent all season long,” Kropka said. “Our top three or four players are real good, but we are very inexperienced after that. It’s hard to be upset at a team that had at least seven first-year players on the field at all times. We have to say goodbye to 11 seniors, but nine of them were out for football for the first time this year.”

Things started bad for the Bulldogs with sophomore quarterback Jaxon Lester’s pass on their first offensive play was tipped and intercepted by Tev’n Williams at the 24.

The Purple Riders were able to get one first down, moving the ball to the 13 before Jordy Lavall entered on fourth down and pounded a 31-yard field goal at 9:42 for a 3-0 lead.

East Knox went on a nine-play drive and appeared to hit a big pass for 45 yards inside the Martins Ferry 10, however, an illegal man downfield penalty erased the big gainer and the ‘Dogs eventually had to punt.

The hosts managed to extend the lead on its next possession, starting at its own 18 and moving 82 yards on seven plays with the big play a 39-yard Williams burst up-the-middle for the touchdown at 1:16 with the PAT making it 10-0.

Unfortunately for the Riders the second quarter belonged to the Bulldogs. East Knox’s first possession went 11 plays before stalling at the Ferry 29. A Riders’ punt gave the visitors control once again, this time at their own 31, and this time they did not come away empty.

Utilizing mainly the rushing attack, the ‘Dogs drove to the other 26 with Lester rolling to pass, scrambling out of trouble and moving down the near sideline untouched for the touchdown. Will Jensen’s point-after at 2:55 cut the deficit to 10-7.

Disaster struck for Martins Ferry on the kickoff as the East Knox offering was squibbed, rolled about 15 yards and was recovered by the visitors. The Bulldogs needed five plays with junior Blake Elliott busting through the right side of the line for a 16-yard score with one minute to play in the half for a 14-10 lead at the break.

The third quarter didn’t start much better for the Riders, who had a big play called back for a holding penalty on the first play of the drive, and eventually turned the ball over on downs at the East Knox 46. From there it took three plays for the visitors to convert.

A seven-yard gain on first down was followed by a 46-yard strike from Lester to sophomore Liam Dewinter that put the ball on the one. Elliott busted in from there and that quickly it was a 21-10 lead at 7:42.

Martins Ferry didn’t need long to answer, after another short kickoff put the ball at midfield Williams took a handoff out of motion, caught the sideline and rambled 50 yards for the score. The PAT cut the margin back to 21-17 just 15 seconds later.

While the Purple Riders were unable to find the end zone again, Elliott capped the scoring with a pair of fourth quarter touchdown runs that put things away from the visitors.

“Our guys have grown more and more every week,” Beatty said. “The goal is to come out and do things the EK way with that kind of mindset. Things didn’t go well for us early on, but we responded and turned it around.

“Running the football is our identity and when we were able to start doing that good things happened. As for the onside kick, we saw something on film that we saw here (Friday) so we thought we would either take advantage of it or give them good field position and luckily it worked out for us. It’s the playoffs and you have to take chances.

“We are a team that is disrespected by the other teams in Knox County, and we feel the media as well, so that fuels this team to come out and play as hard as they can. There were some things that didn’t go our way, but I am proud of how resilient the kids were.”

Lester finished with 104 yards rushing and a score for the winners while Williams had 105 yards on the ground with two touchdowns for Ferry. Quarterback Aiden Ludolph ran for 30 yards and threw for 146 for the Riders.

“I am disappointed at how this one turned out (Friday), but I am very proud of where these kids have taken us to this year,” Kropka added. “When their running game got going it hurt us with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores up front. We came out like a ball of fire, but we just couldn’t keep up that pace and they are a senior-laden team, which is something we were concerned about coming into the game.”