WARDSVILLE - Heading into last Friday's game against School of the Osage, the Blair Oaks Falcons knew they weren't going to be playing in Week 10. They just didn't know if they were going to be the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in Class 3 District 4.
In northeast Missouri, the Palmyra Panthers provided the Falcons with some assistance, defeating the Centralia Panthers to close out the regular season. Centralia (7-1) was positioned in the No. 1 seed in District 4 for three consecutive weeks, but the loss to Palmyra dropped Centralia's district standings point total to 44.20.
Blair Oaks (8-1) received the No. 1 seed with 46.18 points and a first-round bye in the six-team district.
"The No. 1 seed only assures you of one thing: you're the No. 1 seed," Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage said. "Now you have to play it out."
The Falcons defeated Osage 61-14 to win thir sixth straight Tri-County Conference title. The win, coupled with Centralia's loss, guarantees Blair Oaks home-field advantage throughout the district playoffs.
But the Falcons are also wary of looking too far ahead.
"Honestly, when you get to the playoffs, you don't look past the next round," LePage said. "Do you appreciate having home-field advantage? Yes, that was one of our goals. Conference champs, district champs, state champs. We're conference champs, we accomplished that last week.
"But we do get that game at home, we do get an opportunity to win that next game."
With the bye, the Falcons await to see who they will face next: No. 4 California (6-3) or No. 5 Boonville (5-3). That district first-round game kicks off at 7 p.m. today at Riley Field in California. Blair Oaks will host the winner next Friday at the Falcon Athletic Complex in the district semifinals.
California won the regular-season meeting 21-14 on Sept. 25 at Boonville.
Blair Oaks played both teams in back-to-back weeks. The Falcons won 50-6 in Week 3 at California, then routed Boonville 51-7 at home.
"With playing California and Boonville so long ago, this week we spent a little time on film watching our previous game, but more than that, we have to study - whoever wins the game - what they're doing better now," LePage said. "It's not about who your were. It's about where you're at and where you're going."
This week of practice at Blair Oaks has been focused more on the Falcons rather than planning for their next opponent.
"We have watched film of both teams, but we haven't spent a ton of time on both," LePage said. " Let's take what both of those two teams do really well, let's take some looks at them during the week, but more importantly, let's look at our identity."
In the meantime, it has been an odd week with no game on tonight's schedule for Blair Oaks. This is the Falcons' first bye week since the first round of districts in 2016, when they were in a seven-team district after Missouri Military Academy dropped out after the district assignments were announced.
LePage has previously experienced bye weeks when he was an assistant coach at Jefferson City, but those bye weeks were in the regular season, not the playoffs.
"The biggest thing is this is a chance to concentrate on your team," LePage said. "I did some research, I called several coaches around the state of teams that are off this week. I'm asking, 'What are you doing? How are you doing this?' And I think everybody's in the same situation."
That situation, LePage said, is a Catch-22.
"You don't want to stop the momentum of why you have the bye week, which is because you've been winning games, but you don't want to go out and completely bang yourself up, because you've earned the bye week," he said. " We've really tried to take the best of everything I gathered from around the state."
And with the dreary weather, Blair Oaks practiced inside Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday's practice was the Falcons' first time outside this week.
"We've cut our amount of time on the field down," LePage said. " Being inside, it's very little contact. It's more mental work."
In the regular season, if a team canceled a game due to COVID-19 concerns, it went down as a bye week on the schedule. However, if that were to happen in the postseason, it would go down as a forfeit and end the team's season.
LePage said the Falcons - who played all nine weeks of the regular season - will continue adhering to the safety precautions they have taken at practice during this coronavirus pandemic.
"When you play football, there's a lot of group work, but we don't do anything longer than five minutes on the field and nothing longer than 10 minutes in the film room or in the locker room," LePage said. "I have been religious on that, and I will continue to be religious on that.
"People know we're trying to do everything we can to keep these seniors' dreams alive of playing another football game."
So the Blair Oaks players will enjoy a night off tonight. But what about the coaches?
"If anybody knows me or anybody on my staff, you know exactly where we'll be and exactly what we'll be doing," LePage said. "We'll be at a football stadium."
Notes: In the final regular-season poll of the Missouri Media Rankings, Blair Oaks stayed put at No. 4 in Class 3. Lutheran North holds the No. 1 spot, followed by Valle Catholic and Odessa. Centralia dropped one spot to No. 6. The Panthers await the winner of the other District 4 first-round game between third-seeded Southern Boone (5-3) and sixth-seeded Macon (3-4). The win against Osage was the 43rd consecutive win in conference play for Blair Oaks.