Photo by Joe Lovell Martins Ferry’s Tev’n Williams looks for space on a rushing attempt during the Purple Riders’ game against Berne Union earlier this season

MARTINS FERRY — Each time over its 100+ year history, the Bellaire-Martins Ferry football game has been the biggest show in town. The fifth-most played rivalry game in Ohio prep football is set to make its annual reprise on Friday at the Dave Bruney Football Complex in Martins Ferry for a 7 p.m. kickoff.

Bellaire has won the last three of the team’s meetings for the S.P.A.R.K.Y. trophy, and leads the all-time head-to-head 59-54-7. The two teams are 5-5 in their last 10 meetings.

It’s a rivalry that doesn’t require much of an introduction.

“You don’t really need to explain, though I think the kids now maybe don’t have as much connection to it as we did,” Martins Ferry head coach Justin Kropka said. “My great-grandfather played in this game, and you grow up hearing about it your whole life. That was when all the families stayed, when grandpa lived a few doors down. I feel like I may have to explain it a little bit and go over it with the guys- but the hardest thing about this week is the stuff going on at the school. Keeping the carnival atmosphere out of the locker room.

“Especially when you’re such a young team- we’ve only got five seniors- sometimes they get caught up in the other stuff that doesn’t really matter. The other hard part is not letting the moment get the better of them. It’s kind of a controlled burn. A lot of times kids come ready to play on Monday, and you don’t want that, because by Wednesday you wonder where their head’s at, and you don’t want that either. You want to be moving in the right direction and making a slow burn through the week.”

Martins Ferry enters the big game at 8-1, with their lone loss coming to St. Clairsville in week four. Since then, they have recorded three shutouts and allowed seven points to both Rootstown and Berne Union.

“We’ve had a heck of a regular season, we’ve progressed a lot farther than what I anticipated in a short, three-year span,” Kropka said. “Good teams were calling us, they couldn’t wait to schedule us. Three years later, we’re not getting those same kinds of phone calls anymore. I’m happy with us, with where we’re sitting right now.”

Bellaire comes in at 4-5, with a schedule full of opponents in bigger divisions than the Big Reds, including St Clairsville, East Liverpool and Indian Creek locally. After a 4-1 start to the season, Bellaire enters Friday on a four-game skid.

“We’ve come through a very tough stretch, physically, and we’re looking forward to another opportunity, another chance,” Bellaire head coach Mark Bonar said.

“I think this game is a complete toss-up,” Kropka said. “I think it’s an even game- they’re strong in spots, we’re strong in spots.

“I think their schedule’s been very challenging- they’ve had D-4 team after D-4 team. I know what that’s like. We had that in my first year here, getting your kids beat up and trying to get them up for the next game- fortunately you never have to worry about getting them up for Martins Ferry-Bellaire.”

Martins Ferry is led on the ground by senior Tev’n Williams, who has racked up 1,101 yards on 84 carries, a healthy 13.1 average yards-per-carry, to go with 12 touchdowns. Quarterback Ayden Ludolph has passed for 1,546 yards at a 72% completion rate, with 18 touchdowns and two interceptions. His top target has been Alex Reese, who has amassed 554 yards receiving and five touchdowns. Reese also has 13 sacks on defense. Williams follows with 500 receiving yards and six touchdowns.

“They have some good skill players,” Bonar said of Ferry.

“I think we match up real good. It should be a fun game, a good game for both teams. I think we match up well, and it ought to be a good challenge. We’ve got to come out ready to play, and battle back from what we’ve gone through.”

Bellaire’s leading rusher is Bradyn Beckett, who has 485 yards on the ground on 84 carries, good for 5.8 yards a pop, and three touchdowns. Sophomore Raekwon Pettigrew is the team’s leading receiver with 23 catches for 422 yards and seven touchdowns. He also has 149 yards on the ground. Sophomore quarterback Michael Dippel has passed for 1,118 yards, 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

“I’m very impressed,” Kropka said of Bellaire. “I think the quarterback has improved every week. Obviously Pettigrew is a special kind of guy. [Maurice] Webb is really good. A couple underrated guys- I think [Beckett] is a really good back. He’s not breaking off 80-yard touchdowns but boy does he run hard and more importantly he blocks well in pass protection and lead blocking.

“I like their defensive ends, [Quentin Scott] and [Graham Campbell]. They’re tough, hard-nosed kids. Bellaire’s always got those defensive ends like that- a little undersized but as tough as nails, who really dance every dance. Those guys I really like. I’d take them on any team I’ve ever coached. They’re hard-nosed, they’re typical Bellaire kids. As much as I don’t like them for one week, I really enjoy watching those guys on film. It always seems like the same guys- they change names but it seems like it’s always the same kind of kids.”

Both schools have spent the week celebrating the long-standing rivalry, and both towns should pour out into the Dave Bruney Football Complex come Friday.

“At Martins Ferry and probably at Bellaire, there’s the regular season which is nine games, there’s Bellaire, which is a season in its own right, and then there’s the postseason,” Kropka said. “You really have three seasons.”

“I don’t think we really need to,” Bonar said, when asked about talking to his team about the rivalry. “The school pretty much takes care of that. Last year the pep assembly and the bonfire was really something special and I think it will be again this year. The kids walk through the hall and see the trophy, and they think it should be there. I don’t think we need to talk to them about it too much.”

While both coaches are at-odds this week, they are in agreement about one thing- the great opportunity this game presents to the young men who will step out onto the field for one of the most prolific rivalries in the Buckeye State.

“I think it’d be great bragging right for the seniors- they’ve been a part of all of this,” Bonar said. “The younger guys, they’ve played well and they know what they have to do. The younger guys, they want to build on this too. It’s a great game to end the season on, everybody should have a game like this at the end, and we’re lucky to have it.”

“Something I hope our kids understand is that they’re so lucky,” Kropka said. “Not everybody gets to play in games like this. It’s a small version of Ohio State-Michigan, it’s such a fantastic, traditional, storied rivalry, and to become part of that is to become part of something bigger than yourself.”