Falcons hand Mustangs first loss with strong defense

The Blair Oaks Falcons and Eldon Mustangs square off Friday night in Wardsville.
The Blair Oaks Falcons and Eldon Mustangs square off Friday night in Wardsville.

WARDSVILLE, Mo. - With a battle of the remaining two unbeaten teams in the Tri-County Conference, something had to give Friday night between the No. 2-ranked Blair Oaks Falcons and the No. 7-ranked Eldon Mustangs.

The Blair Oaks defense withstood its tall task of shutting down Eldon's wing-T offense, while Blair Oaks quarterback Cade Stockman threw three touchdown passes in his first career start to lead the Falcons to a 32-12 win at the Falcon Athletic Complex.

"It was just a good team win against a quality opponent," Blair Oaks coach Terry Walker said. "We were a little short-handed, but the kids came out and played their (rear ends) off. I couldn't be more proud of them."

Stockman started the game with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Braydan Pritchett on Blair Oaks' opening drive, making the score 6-0 just 1:36 into the game.

Eldon hit paydirt with a 3-yard touchdown by Isaiah Parsons with 8:11 left in the second quarter, tying the game at 6.

It appeared the score would remain tied going into half, with Blair Oaks starting a drive inside its 30-yard line with :46.2 left in the half. On the second play of the drive, Stockman connected on a downfield pass across the middle to Marcus Edler, who raced to the end zone for a 71-yard reception with :05.7 left, giving the Falcons a 12-6 halftime lead.

"I don't know if they expected us to go deep at that point in time, but I was looking at the clock and we were letting it wind down," Walker said. "If it was incomplete, there was going to be about two or three seconds to go on the game clock, so I told coach (Steve) Samson, 'Hey man, run it.'

"Sure enough, the safety bit and our guy kept on going and Cade laid it in there, and away (Edler) went."

Stockman added another long pass in the third quarter, which happened to break a school record. Stockman's 97-yard strike downfield to Ethan Luebbering broke the Blair Oaks record for longest touchdown pass, previously held by Blake McPheeters to Justin Ortmeyer for 92 yards that had stood since 2000.

The long touchdown score extended the Blair Oaks lead to 18-6 with 4:11 left in the third quarter.

Eldon answered with a 13-play, 54-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Isaiah Merida, trimming the Blair Oaks lead to 18-12 early in the fourth quarter.

Blair Oaks scored on two of its next three drives to seal the win, getting a 9-yard run by Pritchett and and 41-yard run by Riley Lentz to extend the lead to 32-12 with 3:11 to play.

Lentz's touchdown run was set up by an interception downfield by Ben Thomas. Eldon attempted 10 passes in its first three games combined, and completed just 2-of-10 passes Friday against the Falcons.

Blair Oaks' defense held Eldon to 150 yards rushing on 50 attempts. The Mustangs averaged nearly 400 yards on the ground in their first three games.

Parsons led Eldon with 22 carries for 76 yards.

"They did a couple things defensively that gave us a little bit of trouble on some of our base-run plays," Eldon coach Shannon Jolley said. "Hats off to them. I thought their kids did a really good job executing the scheme and what they were trying to do."

Lentz topped the Falcons with 18 carries for 110 yards, surpassing the 100-yard rushing mark for a second-straight week. Pritchett added eight carries for 49 yards.

Stockman finished the game 10-of-25 for 235 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Pritchett had a team-high seven catches for 56 yards, while Edler's and Luebbering's touchdown grabs were their only receptions of the game.

Blair Oaks (4-0, 2-0 Tri-County) plays at Hallsville next Friday. Hallsville (3-1, 1-1 Tri-County) beat Southern Boone 28-24 on Friday. Eldon (3-1, 1-1 Tri-County) hosts California next Friday. California (1-3, 1-1 Tri-County) lost 13-6 to Versailles on Friday.