WARSAW, Mo. - The Warsaw Wildcats' best play Friday night was a fake punt. Their worst plays were all tied into their real punts.
The Wildcats had their first punt of the game blocked by C.J. Closser and returned 31 yards by Chance Cumpton for a touchdown.
On their next possession, the Wildcats came up with their biggest play of the night - a 23-yard gain on a fake punt that accounted for almost half of the team's total yardage in the game - to prolong the drive. But that one stalled, too, and the ensuing punt was blocked by Cody Alexander and returned 30 yards for a score by Heath Branch.
Obviously nervous, Warsaw went for it on fourth down on its third possession, deep in its own territory. The Wildcats failed to convert, and the Falcons scored two plays later.
Same thing the next time around, although it did take Blair Oaks six plays to score after Warsaw turned it over on downs deep in Wildcat territory.
Then, the first two punts Warsaw actually got off covered just 14 and 11 yards, respectively, with the second one giving Blair Oaks a short field, leading to a touchdown.
All in all, some shining examples why coaches are forever preaching that special teams account for a third of the game.
"We talk to the kids all the time about preparation, and the kids, to their credit, have done a good job preparing," Blair Oaks head coach Terry Walker said. "I look at the blocked punts and I'm not totally surprised, because I know how we prepare. I hate to say I expect it, but a lot of times I do expect it."
Cumpton said he was excited to open the scoring in the contest.
"It was a great bounce, it ended up right in my hands," he said. "I just took off for the end zone."
Branch, meanwhile, was happy just to be playing. The senior was getting his first action of the season after breaking a foot in the preseason.
"It was pretty awesome just to be back," he said.
He got a chance to see how well the foot had healed on that 30-yard scoring dash.
"I was just thinking, don't trip and fall in front of everybody," he said with a laugh.
Before the Blair Oaks offense had even touched the field, the Falcons had a 16-0 lead.
"I was really pleased with how we came out and started off hot, which is something we haven't been doing," Branch said.
But it didn't take the offense long to get warmed up, as it also scored a pair of touchdowns in the first quarter. Owen Luebbering got his first score of the season, combining with quarterback Jordan Hair on a 29-yard touchdown, while Brenden Brown had a 2-yard scoring run.
The second quarter saw a pair of Hair to Adam Schell touchdown receptions, one from 14 yards out and the other from 13.
With a 43-0 halftime lead, the second half was played with a running clock due to the mercy rule. It failed to slow down the Falcons, who needed just 38 seconds to score in the third quarter when Alexander dashed 62 yards for a touchdown.
Then in the fourth quarter, which saw the Falcons shuttling in ballcarrier after ballcarrier, Jared Lootens had a 1-yard touchdown run.
In all, the Falcons had 12 different players run the football.
"We were happy we had an opportunity to play a lot of kids who have worked really, really hard, from the freshmen all the way up through the varsity," Walker said. "You're always pleased when you have the opportunity for the kids to get on the field and enjoy some of the fruits of their labor. It was good to see them execute."
Thanks mostly to his long touchdown run, Alexander led the team with 76 yards on three carries. Hair was next with 34 yards on four carries and several other reserves were clustered together - Brayden Pritchett had six carries for 52 yards, Lootens had nine carries for 42 yards and Josh Wilbers had six carries for 21 yards.
Warsaw, meanwhile, had no such luck running the ball. The Wildcats had just 45 yards rushing on 31 carries, although it drops to 22 yards on 30 carries if you throw out the fake punt.
And the Wildcats' leading rusher, Austin Steenburgen, managed just 3 yards on 19 carries.
"We scouted them and we knew they had a good back and he was going to be one of their dangerous guys," Cumpton said. "To come out and shut him down like that, it's just what the defense sets out to do."
Blair Oaks (8-0 overall, 6-0 Tri-County Conference) will close out the regular season Friday at Versailles. Warsaw (0-8, 0-6) will travel Friday to California.