WARDSVILLE, Mo. - On a night where C.J. Closser scored four touchdowns, there was no doubt which one was the biggest.
Closser's Blair Oaks Falcons were clinging to a 12-8 lead after an evenly matched first half with California, and time was dwindling in the first half.
With just 2.8 seconds left before intermission, the final play of the half started to the right for the Falcons. That's when Closser came streaking from right to left from his wide-receiver position on a reverse, and he ran the width of the field in an attempt to score. He eventually beat the final California defender to the corner for one of the longest 7-yard touchdown runs you're ever going to see.
After Cody Alexander ran in the 2-point conversion with just zeroes showing on the clock at the Falcon Athletic Complex, Blair Oaks' four-point lead had grown to 12.
"It was huge, it really was, because we're looking at 12-8 going into halftime, and 12-8 versus 20-8 is a big difference," Blair Oaks head coach Terry Walker said. "... We really felt like if we could punch one in, the game certainly wouldn't be decided, but it puts (California) in a tougher spot. And we knew we wanted to put the ball in one of our better player's hands."
It was the first of four straight touchdowns for Closser, as he caught three second-half touchdown passes from Jordan Hair.
That decisive scoring run, however, might not have happened if not for four straight big plays by Closser, a senior coming up big on Senior Night.
It started on defense, as he had an interception with less than 20 seconds left in the half, and he returned it 24 yards down to the Pintos' 20-yard line.
On the next play, Closser caught an 18-yard pass from Hair that got the ball to the 2 with :07.2 left. However, an illegal use of the hands penalty on Blair Oaks brought the ball back to the 12.
A 5-yard pass from Hair to Closser then got the Falcons to the 7-yard line with :02.8 left, setting up the scoring dash.
"(The touchdown) was a big play," California head coach Marty Albertson said. "If I had it to do over, I probably wouldn't have put the ball up. I probably would have run out the clock there in the first half and went in at 12-8 and felt good about it. But hindsight is 20-20."
Closser's first second-half touchdown catch was the only score of the third quarter. After five straight run plays by the Falcons had the Pintos' defensive backs creeping closer to the line of scrimmage, Closser broke behind the defenders out of a power run formation, and he hauled in a pass and dashed 29 yards.
He then caught two scoring passes in the fourth quarter - one from 5 yards out and the other from 16 yards out where no defender was within 10 yards of him.
"We broke coverage three or four times (in the game)," Albertson said. "I think it was a situation where they were making the calls on the sideline and all the kids weren't getting the call. ... Half of them were playing one coverage and the other half we playing the other, and that doesn't work too well."
The Pintos got the game's first score, taking the opening kickoff and going 71 yards in eight plays, capped by a 2-yard run by Jacob Wolken.
They also got the game's final touchdown, with 2:03 left on a 13-yard pass from Wolken to Ethan Hodges. That drive covered 79 yards in eight plays.
Outside of those two drives, the Falcons had the better of play. On the Pintos' seven drives in between their scores, they had just 30 yards of offense.
California rushed for 20 yards on that opening drive, but had just 27 yards on the ground the rest of the game.
"We just kind of challenged the kids, because we knew they had two good kids on the edge," Walker said. "We felt like we've got some pretty good kids on the edge, too. We just said, "Hey, we're going to put seven in the box and we're going to make them throw it and you guys need to defend.'"
Albertson said Blair Oaks did a good job adjusting to California's attack after that first drive.
"I think the first drive, they were more worried about our passing," he said. "Then they moved six guys or seven guys in the box later on and stopped our run. Early, they only had five in there, so it was a little easier to run on them."
The Falcons' defensive front four did a good job of shifting into the gaps on the line prior to the snap and then busting through those gaps.
"(Defensive coordinator Bill) Duke did a great job of getting the kids ready this week," Walker said. "It was something we've done before, but had not spent a bunch of time on it over the past three or four weeks. We knew we needed to do something a little bit different against California, we knew we needed to show them something different. And I thought the kids played it really well."
The Falcons' defense also did a great job of batting down passes at the line. Gavin Herst had one huge play in particular early in the second quarter, as a slant play would have been wide open for a touchdown if he hadn't batted down the pass.
"That was an absolute fantastic play by Gavin, because (the receiver) was running wide open down the seam," Walker said.
Owen Luebbering, meanwhile, batted down at least three passes for the Falcons.
"That's one thing we've really, really stressed since taking over," Walker said. "We knew we needed to improve with our ball awareness defensively, because you've got to have 11 guys that know where the ball is.
"That's something Owen has been doing pretty much all year. Sometimes we don't get the best rush, but they do a good job of getting their hands up and getting in the passing lanes."
After California's game-opening score, the Falcons got the next two on a 5-yard run by Brenden Brown in the first quarter and a 2-yard run by Alexander in the second quarter roughly six minutes before Closser's decisive run.
With two games left until district play, Blair Oaks is in the top spot and California is in the fourth, meaning the teams could play again in the district semifinals.
"We can hope that we win out and maybe get another shot at them later on," Albertson said.
Blair Oaks is now 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the Tri-County Conference, while California is 4-3 and 4-1.
"For some of (the kids), it's really a sweet victory," Walker said. "We've got to temper that with the fact that we could turn around and play them here in three or four weeks. It's one game, it was a great game, we played well, but we've got to be ready to see them again possibly."
Blair Oaks returns to action Friday at Warsaw (0-7, 0-5), while California will play Friday at School of the Osage (3-4, 2-3).