WARDSVILLE - If teams win the coin toss in the future against the Blair Oaks Falcons, they might want to choose to receive the opening kick.
It only took the Falcons 34 seconds to score Friday night at the Falcon Athletic Complex. Then they seemed to score at will.
Blair Oaks finished with 10 touchdowns in the first half, crushing its way past the Father Tolton Trailblazers for a 70-6 win in the Class 2 District 5 semifinals.
The Falcons finished with a season-high 355 yards rushing, averaging 13.7 yards per carry.
"The run game was pretty good," said Blair Oaks junior running back Riley Lentz, who had a season-high 140 yards rushing on eight carries. "Our O-line did a great job of blocking for it. We all did a great job of executing."
Each of Blair Oaks' three leading rushers accounted for one long run in the win.
The first was a 69-yard touchdown run by Braydan Pritchett, who found a hole to the right. Two Tolton defenders tried to tackle Pritchett near midfield but he avoided the tackle, making a cutback to the middle of field and ran into the end zone untouched.
That put Blair Oaks ahead 14-0 less than three minutes into the game.
"We saw something with their defense and we thought we could go to the weak side," Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage said. "We had everybody blocked, and then Braydan, what more can you say? He's not only a power back, but he just seems to never get caught. It's just amazing to watch him when he gets into the open field."
The next long run came on the final play of the second quarter.
Quarterback Nolan Hair appeared to take off on a keeper, but at the last second he pitched left to Lentz, who raced down the sideline for a 75-yard gain. Hair scored on a 9-yard run on the next play.
"When it gets to the pitch, the rule is if the pitch gets it, it's a long gain," LePage said of the triple-option play. "That's the way it ended up being. Riley was phenomenal when he got into the open field."
Hair added a 51-yard carry in the second quarter, his longest rush of the season.
"Now we're putting in the last phase, which is the option, and he's running that option very well," LePage said. "He isn't afraid to run the football, and that makes us just that much more dangerous.
"We can run the dive, run the quarterback and run the pitch, along with being able to throw the ball."
The runs by Pritchett and Lentz were also their longest this season.
Pritchett finished with three carries for 113 yards, while Hair added six carries for 88 yards. Blair Oaks finished with 531 yards of total offense.
"It was pretty fun," Lentz said. "I enjoyed it a lot."
The Blair Oaks defense, meanwhile, shut down a Tolton offense that had averaged 49.8 points in its past four games.
The Trailblazers finished with 407 yards on offense, but five turnovers proved to be too costly.
Tolton quarterback Robert Hunter threw for 316 yards, but he struggled to find a rhythm in the pocket all night.
"We watched film, and the defensive coaches thought we could get pressure with three (rushing) and drop eight," LePage said. "We did that a lot. And then there were a couple of times when we brought the house, just to change it up.
"It kept them off-balanced."
Friday was the first time all season the Trailblazers failed to score at least 14 points. Their lone touchdown came on a 36-yard pass from Hunter to Jared Thompson early in the fourth quarter, when the running clock was already in effect.
"First half, I thought defensive execution was really at a high level," LePage said.
Hunter threw two interceptions and the Trailblazers (4-7) also lost three fumbles. The last fumble was recovered by Cobi Marble in the end zone on the final play of the game.
Hair was perfect in the passing game for the fourth time in five games. He completed 11-of-11 passes for 176 yards.
He threw two touchdown passes - giving him 36 for the season, breaking a school record - and the highlight was a 32-yard throw to Marcus Edler, who caught the ball in the left side of the end zone without a defender within 20 yards of him.
"Marcus was worried because he was so wide open," LePage said. "That's one of those that you don't want to miss."
Blair Oaks (11-0), ranked No. 1 in Class 2, will host South Callaway (10-1) in the district championship game Friday. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
The last time these two teams met was in the 2013 district title game. The Falcons won 17-7.
"We had a great week of practice," LePage said, "but this week's going to be even better. I feel our players are really starting to come in their own."