VERSAILLES, Mo. - If you have been wanting to see what the future of Blair Oaks football looks like, Friday night was a perfect chance.
With the Falcons racing out to a 35-0 lead against Versailles in slightly more than 10 minutes of game time, the starting offense was on the sideline by the time the second quarter started.
The first-team defense lasted a little longer, departing soon after halftime, giving the reserves plenty of chances to make an impression.
No matter who was in, the offense was plentiful, as the Falcons cruised to a 70-0 win against the Tigers to wrap up the regular season.
Blair Oaks had four players with two or more rushing touchdowns in the contest, including two reserves.
"We certainly were not trying to run up the score," Blair Oaks head coach Terry Walker said. "We were trying to play fundamentally sound football. But by the same token, when kids haven't had a chance to play, I'm not going to tell them to hold back. I'm going to tell them to play hard, just like we tell all of our kids."
Friday was also a good chance to see how the Falcons might fill the holes graduation will eventually bring.
"From a coaching perspective, we love when we have the opportunity to get the younger kids on the field," Walker said. "We get to evaluate them in a game, which is valuable for us and them. You can't replicate game speed many times in practice, so it's a nice opportunity."
The reserves got plenty of minutes because the starters effectively ended the game early. The Falcons' quick-strike capabilities in the first quarter included:
• A seven-play, 56-yard drive that lasted just 1:56, capped by a 16-yard touchdown run by C.J. Closser.
• A six-play, 54-yard drive that took up 1:34, ending in a 30-yard scoring run by Brenden Brown.
• A 75-yard touchdown run that took Closser 11 seconds on the first play of the third drive.
• A 39-yard scoring run in eight seconds by Brown on the fourth drive's only play.
• A two-play, 45-yard drive that lasted 22 seconds and ended on a 39-yard run by Closser.
Brown, who's earned most of his yardage this season on pounding runs of 4 or 5 yards, enjoyed having plenty of room to run Friday.
"It felt great - it's been awhile since I've had the opportunity to do that," he said. "The line really contributed tonight. I was impressed that there wasn't anyone in my face right when I got the ball a lot of times."
The Falcons' reserves kept the pressure on the Tigers all game, as Blair Oaks scored on 11 of its 13 possessions. One ended in an interception, with the Falcons getting it back on the very next play on an interception by Adam Schell, and the other fruitless drive ending when time ran out in the game.
The second quarter included touchdown runs by Jared Lootens (from 4 yards out) and Brayden Pritchett (from 1 yard out) and a field goal by Paul Karsten.
In the third quarter, Cody Alexander had a 32-yard scoring run and Lootens ripped off a 69-yard touchdown dash.
Pritchett closed out the scoring in the fourth quarter with a 33-yard run.
"I'm just pleased with our kids," Walker said. "We had been on them all week about staying focused on the task at hand, and I think they did a real nice job of that."
The Falcons racked up 536 yards of offense, with 423 of those yards coming on the ground. Those two numbers impressed Brown.
"That's awesome," he said. "As coach always says, it starts with the line. We have trust into the huddle, knowing that every guy will do their job. We have fun playing together and the results happen."
The win closed out Blair Oaks' regular season with a perfect mark of 9-0, including going 7-0 to win the Tri-County Conference title.
"I told the kids it's something they'll look back on 10 or 15 years down the road and will feel proud about the hard work they put in in order to earn that accomplishment," Walker said. "And they had to earn it, we had some tough games. But it's not something that we focus on as a coaching staff, we focus on trying to win the week and next week will be no different. If we do our due diligence and prepare well, we'll have a chance to be successful."
In a bit of an odd quirk, the Falcons and Tigers will meet again this week to open district play. The Falcons are the top seed, meaning they'll host district games as long as they keep winning, and they'll start with the eighth-seeded Tigers at 7 p.m. Friday at the Falcon Athletic Complex.
"I don't think we'll have a hard time getting the kids to be focused," Walker said. "... At this time of year, it kind of becomes the kids' team and not so much the coaching staff's team. You want them to take ownership, because where we go from here is kind of up to them."