WARDSVILLE, Mo. - Most times, when football teams play a home-and-home series, it's in back-to-back years.
For the Blair Oaks Falcons and Versailles Tigers, they could pull off the feat in back-to-back weeks.
The teams will close out the regular season with a 7 p.m. contest today at Versailles. Then, unless something drastic happens, the district standings will reflect what it currently does - Blair Oaks would host Versailles next Friday in the first round of district play.
Blair Oaks coach Terry Walker said the Falcons won't go into tonight's game worried about holding anything back or showing too much.
"It really wouldn't matter who we played (in that scenario), it could be Eldon or California or Fulton," he said. "At this time of the year, teams have kind of found their identity as far as what they're going to do offensively and defensively.
"We're not trying to keep any secrets at this point. You've got to beat them all through district play to win it. Usually the teams that are the toughest mentally and physically are the ones that ending up winning the games at this time of year. So that's what we're going to try to do."
The game has another interesting subplot in that a win would complete an undefeated run through the Tri-County Conference for the Falcons. Blair Oaks is 8-0 overall and 6-0 in league play, while Versailles is 3-5 and 2-4. The Falcons are coming off a 57-point win at Warsaw, while the Tigers are coming off a 50-point loss at Southern Boone.
"I thought we played the ball real well last week (on defense), but we had an opportunity to get a couple of interceptions and it would have been nice to finish those plays off," Walker said. "When you get in a game that's maybe a little more competitive than last week, those possessions will count."
Walker said he didn't think those plays were due to the Falcons relaxing in a game where the outcome was decided early.
"Quite often, I find myself coaching harder in a game that may be a little less competitive," he said. "I want the kids to understand that it's not about the scoreboard, it's about you doing what you're supposed to do. The scoreboard is irrelevant at that point in time."
Walker added that's a lesson that goes beyond football.
"Everyone wants to be successful, but more important for us is for the kids to understand how they choose to finish games, how they choose to finish plays, will go beyond the football field and will carry over to things they do outside of football," he said. "We want them to understand you finish everything you do, and you finish it just like you started it."
Besides, when you relax is when bad things happen.
"My biggest concern in a game like that is not, "Are they playing too many plays?' My concern is the risk of injury," Walker said. "Usually, when you get in games like that, some kids tend to relax. When you relax and you're maybe not going full speed, that's when injuries tend to occur. ... We need the kids keeping themselves in a good athletic position all the way through the whistle, that they're playing the play all the way out so as not to risk an unfortunate or foolish injury."
The Falcons will need to be alert this week, especially when the Tigers are on offense.
"Like a lot of the teams we have seen, they do a lot of different things - they line up in a bunch of different formations," Walker said. "Last week at Southern Boone, we saw them in a new formation we hadn't seen them in during the previous times we'd watched them play. We may see something this week we haven't seen to date.
"So the kids need to recognize the formations, understand how we align to them and then just play good gap responsibility and have good ball awareness."
The Tigers have rushed the ball for 1,053 yards (3.8 avg.) and thrown for 709. Dalton Schmidt, a senior, is the team's leading ballcarrier with 502 yards on 132 attempts (3.8) with six touchdowns, while sophomore Taylor Dobbins has 51 carries for 358 yards (7.0) and four scores.
Duane Danner, a senior, has completed 57-of-123 passes for 578 yards with five touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Dobbins is the team's leading receiver with 17 catches for 173 yards and two touchdowns. Kyler Huff and David Conner, both juniors, are second with 14 catches each. Huff's have gone for 201 yards and one touchdown, while Conner's have covered 115 yards.
Walker said Versailles' defense is similar to many of the teams Blair Oaks has played in that they're willing to take quite a few risks.
"They're willing to bring their inside linebackers and bring six or seven guys on every play," he said. "Many times that results in success for them, but if the other team can catch them, that results in a big play for the other team."
Junior Devin Radcliff, one of those linebackers, leads the team with 76 tackles. Schmidt, another linebacker, is second with 35 and junior Gage Smith, another linebacker, is third with 34. Radcliff and Smith lead the team with seven tackles for loss apiece.
Walker said the Falcons will have to be alert for trick plays on special teams.
"We gave up a fake punt last week and we worked hard on that this week, and I know (the Tigers) have run a fake punt before this year," Walker said. "We're just trying to prepare our kids as best we can, based upon what we've seen and then trying to prepare them for things we may not have seen."
Notes: The Falcons came out of last week in good shape injury-wise, but will be without tight end/defensive end Justin Cobb, who is out due to illness. "He'll be out this week and he may be out next week, we'll just have to see how that goes," Walker said. "Justin has been a really strong sophomore performer for us. Hopefully he can come back as soon as possible." ... Returning to the lineup is offensive lineman/linebacker Cole Stockman, who was out due to lingering discomfort caused by his chin strap. "His helmet was giving him some problems, and we needed him to take a few days off to let his mouth heal up a little bit," Walker said. "I think he'll be fine this week." ... Heath Branch's recovery from a broken foot in the preseason seems to be going fine, as he played for the first time last week and had a 30-yard fumble return for a touchdown. "We watched him real close during the game and we've watched him all week," Walker said. "We haven't seen him favoring it. His biggest problem right now is just working himself into game shape. We'll continue to keep focusing on that and hopefully as we get closer to districts, he'll be able to play more plays at a higher level than last week." ... A win would give Versailles its most wins in a season since the Tigers went 4-6 in 2011. They were 2-8 in 2012, 0-10 in 2013 and 1-9 last year.
Blair Oaks at Versailles - Updates on Twitter: @tony_hawley. Listen live online: lakeradio.com
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