WARDSVILLE - The Blair Oaks Falcons wrapped up a fourth consecutive perfect regular season last Friday with a 65-7 road win against the California Pintos.
The Falcons' reward? They get a rematch against the Pintos, but tonight's game will be played at the Falcon Athletic Complex. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. for the Class 2 District 5 first-round matchup.
There will also be something different about Blair Oaks this week. The Falcons enter the state playoffs as the No. 1 team in Class 2, a ranking they have not held since Week 2 of the 2007 season.
"I think it shows the consistency of the year they've had," Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage said. "You always like when people think really well of you.
"From that standpoint, we appreciate the respect we're getting, but at the same standpoint, we know we have to earn what's there, and you're not going to be given anything just because people vote on it. That doesn't mean you're going to end up there, you have to earn it."
Blair Oaks ascended to the No. 1 ranking in this week's Missouri Media Rankings after then-No. 1 Lamar lost 24-21 at Cassville on a last-second field goal.
The loss snapped Lamar's 57-game win streak, which was the longest in the nation.
"They've played Class 4 schools, they've played private schools," LePage said of Lamar, which has won seven straight Class 2 state championships. "They'll take anybody that will play them. To actually put that together is as tremendous an accomplishment as you can have."There were times last week, however, when LePage didn't think his Falcons looked like a No. 1 team.
"As the game wore on, I thought we lacked some passion," he said. "That's something we really discussed at great length on Friday night, and then again Saturday during film (session).
"This week at practice, we really put an emphasis on our players and ramped it up a little bit."
With the No. 1 seed, the Falcons will have homefield advantage throughout the district playoffs.
"In the playoffs, the homefield advantage makes a huge, huge plus for you," LePage said. "I've noticed that the last couple years of coaching, that if you're on the road, it's really tough in the playoffs."
Tonight won't be the first time the Falcons - or LePage - have faced the same team in Weeks 9 and 10 to open the postseason.
In 2015, Blair Oaks finished the regular season with a 70-0 win against Versailles. The Falcons would turn around and beat the Tigers by the same score the following week.
When he was Jefferson City's coach in 2013, LePage and the Jays won 31-21 at Rock Bridge in Week 9. However, the Bruins got the last laugh, winning the rematch 48-18 in the district opener.
So how do you approach a rematch with more at stake?
"You look at (last week's film) exclusively," LePage said, "because you get to see how they tried to attack you, you see how you tried to attack them. You see the changes you can make and you look at the changes they can possibly make."
The Falcons (9-0) are also trying to be ready for any surprises from the Pintos (0-9).
"This is a team that has nothing to lose, so they may come out in a completely different defense," LePage said. " They could really throw a wrench into the wheel."
One change expected to happen for California comes at the quarterback position. Alex Currens will return to action after missing last week's game. He served a one-game suspension after he was ejected for a helmet-to-helmet hit two weeks ago against Southern Boone.
"With Currens, they had strictly been a spread team," LePage said. "But late in the game, they went to a split-back veer. So we know they have that potential."
Alex Meisenheimer also showed strong potential when he touched the ball against the Falcons. He returned the opening kickoff of the second half 83 yards for a touchdown, and during the final series of the first half, he switched from running back to quarterback, completing a 30-yard pass to Clayton Winkler.
However, the Falcons held Meisenheimer to negative yards rushing.
"We were greeting him in the backfield," LePage said. "We changed the line of scrimmage. We really did a good job of making sure that he didn't have a chance to get his fifth step going. He got 'one, two, three, four,' and then we were getting on him."
On offense, Blair Oaks had 30 carries for 162 yards against the Pintos.
"If we want to do something deep into the playoffs, we really have to run the football when we want to run it, not when we have to run it," LePage said.
Nolan Hair threw for 241 yards and four touchdowns against California. The first play of the game was a 65-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Edler, which gave Hair a school record of 89 career touchdown passes.
That's the first record Hair has broken this season, and a few more are within reach tonight. He needs 199 passing yards and 263 total yards to break the Blair Oaks career records in each category. Both records are held by his older brother, Jordan Hair.
"I think back to Drew Brees when he set the all-time passing record (earlier this season)," LePage said. "He celebrated that he did it, but then he turned around to (Saints coach) Sean Payton and goes, 'All right, now let's go win a football game.'
"I think that's Nolan's approach. The numbers are nice, the records are nice, but he wants to win a football game. That young man is a competitor, and when it comes down to it, he wants to win more than he wants to do anything else."
III
Following Lamar's loss, Blair Oaks is one of two undefeated teams remaining in Class 2. The other is third-ranked Lathrop, which is the No. 1 seed in District 8. There are 11 teams with an 8-1 record, including South Callaway, the No. 2 seed in District 5. The winner of the Blair Oaks-California game will face either fourth-seeded Father Tolton (3-6) or fifth-seeded Hermann (3-6) next Friday in the district semifinals. In other matchups tonight, South Callaway hosts seventh-seeded Hallsville (3-6), while third-seeded North Callaway (6-3) hosts sixth-seeded Montgomery County (5-4). LePage said Corban Bonnett (broken finger) will return tonight to start at left offensive tackle. Shane Gillmore, the starting right tackle, will be playing tonight without his arm in a cast. The Blair Oaks softball team is playing in the Class 2 Final Four this weekend in Springfield. The Lady Falcons will face defending state champion Bowling Green in the semifinals at 2 p.m. today. "Hopefully on Saturday, we'll be going to watch a state title game and traveling real well down there with the football players for the softball team," LePage said.
Related Media: Blair Oaks Football Podcast [California preview, Oct. 26, 2018]