Undefeated Blair Oaks hosts School of the Osage for Senior Night

Blair Oaks quarterback Nolan Hair (right) hands the ball off to Braydan Pritchett during last year's district semifinal game against Wright City at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville. Hair and Pritchett will be among the 12 Blair Oaks seniors honored prior to tonight's Senior Night game against School of the Osage.
Blair Oaks quarterback Nolan Hair (right) hands the ball off to Braydan Pritchett during last year's district semifinal game against Wright City at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville. Hair and Pritchett will be among the 12 Blair Oaks seniors honored prior to tonight's Senior Night game against School of the Osage.

WARDSVILLE - It won't be their final home game, but tonight will belong to the seniors.

The Blair Oaks Falcons will honor their 12 seniors prior to kickoff, as they host the School of the Osage Indians on Senior Night at the Falcon Athletic Complex. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

This year's senior class has not been part of a varsity loss during the regular season.

Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage said it's remarkable to see a senior class, which has always won, adapt to a new coaching staff, make changes on both sides of the ball and still continue its winning ways.

"Every day is a blast to come to work," LePage said. "These are a bunch of fun guys to be around. The coaches and I have developed a really tremendous relationship with them.

"They have said, 'Whatever you all think, we're going to follow you.' That has been most humbling to me."

Blair Oaks (7-0) raised its play to another level in last Friday's 56-17 win at Southern Boone, routing a Class 3 ranked opponent on the road.

"Right now, we're starting to see us come into our own," LePage said. "We're really starting to get where we're hitting our stride.

"We haven't played our best game yet. That's exciting for me, for them."

The Falcons can clinch at least a share of the Tri-County Conference championship tonight win a win against Osage (2-5).

The Indians are coming off a 29-13 loss last Friday at home to Versailles. They have lost four in a row since defeating California in their conference opener.

"They're doing some things that don't help themselves at times," LePage said. "That's scary, because if they'll do everything right, they'll be in a lot of football games."

The Osage offense is led by senior quarterback Dalton Depee. Primarily a wide receiver and return specialist last season, Depee has shifted behind center this fall. He leads the Indians with 423 yards rushing and four touchdowns, adding another 419 yards passing and four more scores to his resume.

"It seems like this is the 'Year of the Quarterback' in the Tri-County," LePage said. "He's a very special player. He runs the ball extremely well, throws it well. He's going to be a chore."

LePage said Osage is interesting to watch, because its offense can change looks from one snap to the next. That has made practice this week more difficult for the Blair Oaks defense.

"One snap, they may be with no backs with (Depee) running around, trying to make plays," LePage said. "The next snap, they may be under center running an outside veer. They're looking at what your defense is giving.

"It is very much centered around their quarterback."

LePage said Osage has dominated the line of scrimmage against teams. The Indians' line is led by seniors Ryan Moore (6-foot-4, 270 pounds) and Gunner Vandervort (6-0, 225).

"We'll come out with our base defense and make adjustments as we see them settle in," LePage said.

When the Indians run the veer, LePage said Depee will usually be pitching the ball to sophomore running back Mason Clarke. Depee and Clarke each had 50 yards rushing last week against Versailles.

"They're trying to take what their strengths are and make you make a decision," LePage said. "You have to take one or the other."

Senior tight end Garrett Sutherland (6-4, 190) has been Depee's top target. Sutherland has nine catches for team-highs of 159 yards and two touchdowns.

"He'll go up and get the football," LePage said. "He really went up and made a heck of a play over (BJ Fisher) of Hallsville, a really athletic and impressive play."

For the Blair Oaks offense, the timing of facing Osage on the schedule could not have been better.

"Defensively, they're similar to Southern Boone," LePage said.

The Indians, like the Eagles, use a 4-3 defense with four defensive backs in the secondary, and they are an attack-style defense with their linebackers.

"Their front four are physical, big kids," LePage said. "The linebackers flow real well and their secondary covers up a lot of things."

Depee, one of the three linebackers, leads the Indians with 79 tackles this season and had a team-high 13 tackles against Versailles. Junior middle linebacker James Hutchcraft has 59 tackles and junior Drew Edwards, the team's third linebacker, has 58 tackles and leads the team with three sacks.

Depee has also forced three fumbles, recovering one, and leads the Indians with two interceptions.

Senior defensive lineman Mason Etter leads Osage with five tackles for loss to go with his 38 tackles. He has an interception and has forced three fumbles.

LePage also said Osage's secondary plays slightly different when compared to Southern Boone.

"They're going to play four across and try to keep everybody in front of them," he said. "What we saw out of Southern Boone last week is they had to make an adjustment because we were running the ball so effectively. When they did that, they left some guys on an island.

"(Osage) doesn't try to leaves guys on an island. They try to force you to throw underneath, and they drive up and stop it. They play a little deeper than most secondaries we've seen."

Blair Oaks extended its regular-season win streak to 36 games last week, with two more to go in 2018.

LePage said it's easy to overlook an opponent like Osage, such as the way the Falcons did in the first few minutes against Hallsville. With that in mind, he said Blair Oaks will continue to worry about itself, not its opponent.

"We have to control what we can control, and that's our stance, our start and our takeoff," LePage said. " The players have really bought into that simplicity motto. Let's control ourselves and take care of what we do."

III

According to Blair Oaks athletic director Corey Felten, senior recognition for Senior Night will begin at 6:30 p.m. Blair Oaks continued to hold the No. 2 spot in Class 2 in this week's Missouri Media Rankings. However, the Falcons lost another point this week, receiving 105 out of a possible 120 points in the rankings. Southern Boone dropped three spots to No. 9 in Class 3 following last week's loss. Blair Oaks is in first place in the Tri-County standings with a 5-0 record. Boonville is alone in second place at 4-1, while Southern Boone and Versailles are tied for third at 3-2. The Falcons saw their lead increase in the Class 2 District 5 standings. Blair Oaks is first with 55.14 points, but after losing last Friday to Montgomery County, North Callaway (6-1) is a distant second with 44.10 points. Blair Oaks junior linebacker Kamron Morriss suffered a groin pull last week against Southern Boone and is doubtful to play tonight. LePage said senior Trinity Scott will start at linebacker in Morriss' place, and sophomore Cobi Marble will start on offense at the split end position.

Related Media: Blair Oaks Football Podcast [School of the Osage preview, Oct. 12, 2018]