Bridgeport's Zach Rohrig sat out last year's season-opener against Buckhannon-Upshur because of injury.

It didn't take long for the Buccaneers to wish Rohrig was missing in action again.

The senior standout, first-team all-state running back and reigning Loria Award winner, took a direct snap on the Tribe's second play from scrimmage and was virtually untouched on the way for an 83-yard touchdown.

Rohrig and the Tribe were just getting started as they scored on eight of their nine possessions en route to a 55-13 season-opening victory at Freal Red Crites Memorial Stadium.

The Indians finished with 570 rushing yards and led 48-0 before the Bucs finally got on the board against BHS reserves on defense. Rohrig finishes with 190 yards and three touchdowns and was also 7-of-8 on PAT kicks and had a couple of strong kickoffs including one touchback.

"Zach's a good player, we knew they were giving us interior traps and we wanted to exploit those and run our other stuff," BHS coach Tyler Phares said. "We did a lot of good things, overall I'm pleased with it being the first game but there are some things we need to clean up on offense."

Equally impressive early for the Tribe was Beau Ford, especially on the defensive side of the ball where he has moved from tackle to end. He had three tackles for a loss and a sack in the first half and seemed to live in the Bucs' backfield.

"It felt great to help my team every way that I could," Ford said. "And it felt great to show everybody that I could play a new position and be just as effective if not more effective than I was. I've got a great group of backs behind me, a great group of linemen alongside me. It might have looked like I was doing everything but I promise it wasn't just me, everyone was in there making plays.

"I think it's important we started so strong, especially in a game like this on the road. Coach always says go out there and set the tone early and we did that."

Rohrig capped off Bridgeport's second drive with a 16-yard touchdown run to cap a seven-play drive that began after the stingy BHS defense forced a three-and-out.

B-U's third drive ended with a turnover as Josh Love forced a fumble that Rohrig recovered. The Indians however couldn't capitalize and were forced to punt (which Rohrig also did).

Another three-and-out for the Bucs led to a Jack Spatafore 48-yard touchdown run with 18 seconds left in the first quarter, extending the lead to 20-0.

Rohrig added a 60-yard touchdown run that put him over the 2,000-yard mark for his career early in the second quarter.

The Tribe would go on to get TD runs of 42 yards from Love and 3 yards from Cam Martin to make it 41-0.

Ford had a sack on the final play of the first half.

"I was real pleased with how many hats we were getting to the ball and the tackles in the backfield on defense," Phares said. "Beau made some big plays for us. I thought we played really well and I'm excited to watch it on film to see where we can improve."

The BHS offense began the second half in a similar fashion to the start of the game as after forcing a turnover on downs, Love reached the end zone for the second time, scoring on a 73-yard touchdown run.

Alex Moses capped the scoring for the Tribe with a 63-yard touchdown run.

B-U tacked on late scores thanks to an 8-yard run from Wyatt Morris and a 6-yard run from Daniel Hedrick.

Love joined Rohrig in reaching the 100-yard mark as he finished with 115 yards on just the two carries that ended up in the end zone.

The Tribe just missed having a third player reach 100 yards as Moses had 97 on six attempts. Spatafore finished with 89 yards and Tanner Hathaway added 69 rushing yards.

The Bucs finished with 245 yards of total offense, 161 coming through the air as sophomore quarterback Dawson Tenney completed eight of his 14 attempts. Ian Strader was his top target, hauling in three passes for 106 yards.

Morris led the B-U ground game with 44 yards.

Bridgeport will play its home opener next Friday at Wayne Jamison Field against Morgantown, a 65-0 winner against South Charleston in Week 1.