PHOTO/joe Lovell MARTINS FERRY’S Colton Reddinger looks for open field as he carries the ball during Friday’s game against Wheeling Central.

 MARTINS FERRY – With three games left in West Virginia’s regular season Wheeling Central, as usual, is sending a message to the entire Class A field that it is back, and it is ready for another run at the gold trophy.

 Since losing to Belmont County powers Bellaire and Shadyside, the Maroon Knights have rolled through their last three games, scoring 150 points and allowing just 54, including Friday night’s lop-sided victory over Martins Ferry.

 Senior quarterback Michael Toepfer threw for 232 yards and four touchdowns, all to classmate Caleb Ratcliff who had five grabs for 155 yards and the Wheeling Central defense limited the Purple Riders to 69 total yards of offense in rolling to a convincing 47-6 victory at the Dave Bruney Football Complex.

 The victory moves Coach Mike Young’s squad to 5-2 on the campaign, heading into a huge road meeting Thursday night with another Belmont County powerhouse, 7-1 record St. Clairsville. Meanwhile, Coach Chas Yoder’s Ferry squad drops to 1-7 on the season and will travel to Beaver Local Friday night.

 “This was a good win and a great team effort,” Young said. “We played more physical than we did last week, we executed the game-plan on both sides of the football, the defense did a super job shutting them down and the Toepfer-to-Ratcliffe connection was really on.

 “Now we have to continue to improve and have a great week of practice heading into what should be a heck of a ball game with St. Clairsville Thursday night.”

Following a quick three-and-out for the Purple Riders the Maroon Knights quickly went to work, going 80 yards on just six plays to take the early lead. The big play on the march was a 45-yard bomb from Toepfer to Braxton Anderson that eventually set-up junior Lorenzo Ferrera’s 26-yard, tackle breaking, touchdown run. Eli Tucker’s point-after made it 7-0 at 7:04.

 Another quick series, this time with a 15-yard punt, had Wheeling Central beginning at the Martins Ferry 45. The visitors need four plays this time with Toepfer finding Ratcliffe deep down the right side for a 32-yard scoring strike at 3:32 to up the count to 14-0.

 The Riders’ only score of the half came at 5:25 on a nifty 45-yard punt return from senior Davian Ray. Hauling the ball in at the 45, Ray headed to the right, skirted the sidelines and broke a few tackles before bouncing into the end zone with 5:25 to play in the half. The try for two failed.

 However, the Knights were not finished, needing just six plays to score three touchdowns in the final 4:01 of the half. Ferrera got things started, capping a three-play, 55-yard drive with a 45-yard burst through the left side of the line. The PAT failed and it was 20-6 at 4:01.

 Another Purple Rider punt once again had the visitors in good field position and Central needed just one play with Toepfer lofting a pass deep down the middle, taking a huge hit as he left the ball go, to Ratcliffe from 46 yards away for a 27-6 score. Yet another three-and-out for the hosts led to the final tally of the half.

 On the second play of the drive from their own 49, it was the Toepfer-to-Ratcliffe connection for a third time, this time from 51 yards away with just 33 ticks remaining that allowed the visitors to head to the locker room with a commanding 34-6 advantage.

 Toepfer completed six of his eight first half passes for 177 yards and three touchdowns, all to Ratcliffe, who had just the three catches for 129 stripes. In all, Wheeling Central had 277 first half yards, holding the Purple Riders to just 55, with nearly half of those coming in the final 33 seconds of the half.

 The running clock went into effect less than two minutes into the third quarter when Toepfer closed a four-play drive with a fourth touchdown completion to Ratcliffe, this time from 19 yards out that made it 41-6 with 10:16 showing in the third. Central closed the scoring late in the game with an eight-yard Riley Watkins run for a score.

 “Tribute to our line, they gave Michael (Toepfer) time and he and Caleb (Ratcliffe) definitely had the right chemistry (Friday),” Young added. “Coming in we wanted to be able to score quickly and the kids responded to that. I am very proud of this effort and what the kids have done to improve to 5-2 and push us towards the playoffs.

 “But we have to continue to work hard every day and get better every day. Our coaches do a tremendous job of getting these kids ready and keeping them focused and even when we have a kid here or there that might not be having a good night, we have other kids picking him up.”

 Wheeling Central finished with a whopping 445-69 advantage in total yardage in the contest.