By Phil Keren

Correspondent

Rootstown head coach Tom Hannan said he was pleased with his team’s effort, despite a 34-7 loss to a talented and deep Martins Ferry team Friday night.

“These kids, they fight hard,” Hannan said. “My kids never quit. They’re always physical and that’s the one thing about Rootstown football: We’re never going to quit, we’re never going to back down from anybody.”

He also tipped his hat to his opponent.

“(Martins Ferry) is a very good team,” Hannan said. “They’re very, very good. You see the skill they got…They’re well-coached…That was a tough team, a tough matchup for us tonight.” A scoreless first quarter included a blocked punt by Martins Ferry, a fumble recovery by the Rootstown defense on Martins Ferry’s first offensive play, and a personal foul penalty assessed against Martins Ferry for running into the Rootstown punter.

Due to that sequence of events, the Rovers had three separate offensive possessions in the quarter and ran 16 of the first 17 offensive plays of the game. They picked up one first down on their initial possession, went three-and-out on the second possession and again recorded one first down on the third possession.

Starting late in the first quarter and carrying into the early portion of the second period, Martins Ferry put together a 14-play, 80-yard drive culminating with a 6-yard scoring run from freshman running back Walkquem Cox. The Purple Riders kept the Rootstown defense off-balance with four different players running the football on 12 of the drive’s 14 plays. Although the drive was methodical, Martins Ferry only faced one third down.

On the Rovers’ next drive, Martins Ferry junior defensive back Maurice Barnett intercepted a Rootstown pass at the Purple Riders’ 38-yard line. Martins Ferry senior quarterback Ayden Ludolph connected with senior wide receiver Tev’n Williams for a 19-yard gain to the Rootstown 43-yard line. The Purple Riders returned to the ground game with five consecutive running plays and the drive was capped by a 1-yard sneak from Ludolph to put his team ahead, 14-0, with 2:44 left in the first half.

Rootstown answered the Purple Riders’ touchdown with its deepest drive into Martins Ferry territory. On a halfback option pass play, Rover junior running back Damien Reuting tossed a pass down the sideline to wide receiver Nick Malek for a 27-yard gain. The longest pass play of the night for the Rovers gave them the ball on the Martins Ferry 27-yard line. The Rovers then had three consecutive incomplete passes, as well as a holding penalty that pushed them back an additional 10 yards. On fourth-and-20, Rootstown sophomore quarterback Blake Mullaly dropped back to pass and then scrambled for 9 yards before he was brought down by Purple Rider defenders.

“My kids battled there for a while, but one of the things we said we couldn’t [allow] was big plays,” Hannan said.

Thanks to three big plays, Martins Ferry scored 20 points in the third quarter even though they only ran four offensive plays. The first one happened when Barnett opened the second half with an 88-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. The second big play was Ludolph running a keeper to his left, finding a crease, picking up a great block on the outside and breaking free down the sideline en route to a 77-yard touchdown.

Trailing 28-0 midway through the third quarter, Rootstown again called Reuting’s number on the halfback option pass, and the junior again connected with Malek down the sideline, but this time Malek was out-of-bounds when he caught the ball. The Rovers still picked up a first down thanks to an offsides penalty on Martins Ferry and a 3-yard run by senior running back Dominic Duvall. A holding penalty hurt Rootstown’s drive which ended with the Rovers punting it away. Next came the Purple Riders’ third big play of the third period: Cox ran to his right, scampered through the Rootstown defense and then sped down the sideline for an 82-yard touchdown with 1:05 left in the third quarter.

Not to be outdone, Reuting on the next drive collected the handoff, cut to his left, accelerated through a gap in the Purple Rider defense, and sprinted to the left corner of the end zone for a 43-yard score.

Reuting finished the game with 131 yards on 21 carries.

“He’s our workhorse,” Hannan said. “He tells me all the time, ‘coach, give me the ball’…I’m looking for big things out of him next year…He’s a hard runner. He’s hard to bring down.”

Despite the loss, Hannan told his players afterward that it was time to look ahead to the regular season finale against rival Mogadore.

“We still got a lot to play for…when we wake up tomorrow, we’re thinking about Mogadore,” Hannan said. “We’re putting this behind us…we’re both going to be 4-5 and it’s coming down (to) whoever wins next week is going to make the playoffs and whoever doesn’t is going home.”