Blair Oaks set to host Fulton after bye week

Blair Oaks wide receiver Cody Alexander tries to evade a tackle from a Warsaw defender in a game earlier this month at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville.
Blair Oaks wide receiver Cody Alexander tries to evade a tackle from a Warsaw defender in a game earlier this month at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville.

WARDSVILLE, Mo. - The Blair Oaks Falcons have home-field advantage throughout the Class 3 District 6 playoffs, but they took to the road last Friday night.

Rather than getting some extra rest as a result of having a first-round bye, the players and coaches traveled to Fulton to watch the Hornets win 50-28 against Winfield in the first round of district play.

It was one of the rare times Blair Oaks coach Terry Walker had a chance to watch the Falcons' future opponent in person rather than on film.

"From a coach's perspective, the things that I think were the most important is just being able to watch the kids interact and watch their body language in between plays," Walker said. "See how they interact on the sideline, see how they interact with the other players on their team.

"And then also you get a good feel for how quick the kid is or how fast the kid is when you get to see him live."

The Falcons would've rather been on the field playing an opponent, but they didn't have an option, receiving the No. 1 seed in a seven-team district.

"We didn't have a choice in the matter," Walker said. "It is what it is, so we tried to make the most use out of the time that we could."

Blair Oaks (9-0) will host Fulton (5-5) in tonight's district semifinal. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at the Falcon Athletic Complex.

Tonight's game is a rematch of last year's district championship, when Blair Oaks topped Fulton 48-29.

"Last year, they lost their running back a week prior to our game," Walker said, referring to Fulton's all-state running back, Travis Dean. "They did a great job of making adjustments coming into our game, and they gave us fits."

Fulton will have to do make some adjustments again in response to losing a key player due to injury.

The Hornets will be without senior wide receiver Alec Fleetwood, who had eight touchdown receptions and 633 yards receiving before suffering an ankle injury in Week 9 against Kirksville.

Fulton's offense will be led by senior quarterback Devin Masek, who has thrown for 2,378 yards with 23 touchdowns and nine interceptions this season. He also leads their rushing game with 539 yards on the ground and seven touchdowns.

"Every team they have played to this point has heard the exact same thing that we've been telling our kids: You've got to stop No. 5," Walker said of Masek. "Guess what? No one has stopped him yet.

"We're not going to try to stop him. We're going to try and control him."

Walker said Fulton has all aspects of its offense working last week in the win against Winfield. Even without Fleetwood, the Hornets have a couple of key receivers with juniors L'Trevion Vaughn (718 yards, eight touchdowns) and Makygh Galbreath (401 yards, five touchdowns) to lead their passing game.

Walker added the Hornets also ran the ball well with the zone reads and jet reads. Junior running back Ammod Davis has 384 yards rushing and six touchdowns this season, while sophomore Taeon Logan has 401 yards and two scores.

"When you play a team like Fulton, you have to recognize they are going to make some plays because they have some big-play kids," Walker said. "Our job is to limit the plays that they make and then to prevent them from making scoring plays."

On defense, the Hornets are led by senior linebacker Will Dunn, who has 111 total tackles in 10 games. Another senior linebacker, Lukas Berrey, also has 99 tackles to go with seven tackles for loss, a pair of sacks and three fumble recoveries.

In the secondary, Galbreath - who also plays cornerback - has six of the team's 15 interceptions.

"They do a good job of changing some things up defensively," Walker said. "They will bring their linebackers on various occasions, which that makes them somewhat unpredictable. We just have to look for opportunities to find what may be a mismatch and then try to take advantage of that mismatch."

Fulton's defense has allowed 260.8 yards rushing per game. Blair Oaks' offense averaged 221.8 yards rushing per game, led by senior running back Jake Van Ronzelen, who had 1,194 yards rushing and 12 touchdowns during the regular season.

Falcons sophomore quarterback Nolan Hair has put up comparable numbers to Masek, compiling 1,841 yards passing to go with 22 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Cody Alexander, Braydan Pritchett and Ben Thomas have been his top targets, each with 450 or more yards receiving this season.

The winner of tonight's game will face the winner of the Southern Boone-O'Fallon Christian game in the district championship game Nov. 4. Third-seeded Southern Boone blanked Wright 49-0 last Friday, while No. 7 O'Fallon Christian upset second-seeded Mexico 28-25.

CLASS 3 Bracket

Blair Oaks hosts Fulton, 7 p.m. Friday

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Podcast preview: Blair Oaks Falcons Football Podcast [Fulton preview, Oct. 28, 2016]