WARDSVILLE - Blair Oaks has an offense that scores at will. Clark County has a defense that holds teams off the scoreboard.
Something has to give in today's Class 2 state quarterfinal game at Kahoka. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.
"They're an incredibly confident team," Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage said of Clark County (10-2), which won the District 6 championship last Friday with a 20-0 victory at Monroe City. "They believe in each other."
The Indians did not allow a single point in district play, adding a 42-0 win against Highland and a 36-0 win against Palmyra. Teams are averaging just 11.3 points per game against them.
"They wanted to take care of their district," LePage said. "All their district opponents, they had played before. I think they had something to prove."
Last week's district championship game was a rematch. Monroe City defeated Clark County 44-20 in Week 8 of the regular season.
"Last week against Monroe, it was just the intensity they played with," LePage said. "Incredibly snowy game, incredibly cold-looking game, but it looked like they wanted to win that game. No matter what the case was, they played to win."
Clark County's offense has produced 31.5 points per game. The Indians average 231.9 yards rushing and another 86.7 yards passing.
The offense is led by senior quarterback London Brunk (5-foot-10, 170 pounds), who is a dual threat. Brunk has completed 64-of-156 passing for 924 yards, but he has been effective running the ball with 177 carries for 918 yards and 21 touchdowns."All of it goes through Brunk," LePage said. "He makes the decision of whether to give the ball up or keep it."
LePage said Brunk will operate out of the shotgun, but he will line up deeper in the backfield than most quarterbacks. The Indians will run both a fly sweep or a power sweep, giving them the option to pitch the ball to the receiver motion, hand off to the tailback or allow Brunk to keep it himself.
"They also have a play-action pass off of it," LePage aid. "They wear you out with that."
LePage said Clark County uses a lot of misdirection in its run game, similar to what the Falcons saw in the regular season against Southern Boone.
Junior running back Caleb Lapsley has 1,024 yards rushing (7.4 average) and 12 touchdowns. In last week's win, Lapsley had 151 yards rushing and Brunk added 131 as the Indians totaled 315 yards on the ground.
"They have a 1-2 combination they feel really good about," LePage said, adding 52 percent of Clark County's offense goes through Brunk and 25 percent goes through Lapsley. "There's a pretty good chance (Brunk) or (Lapsley) is going to have their hands on the ball."
Junior running back Spencer Gregory (6-0, 180) will serve as a power back for the Indians, while Lapsley tries to get to the edge and run down the field.
Clark County also has some size on the offensive line. Senior Kyle Golbricht (6-2, 275) was on the All-Clarence Cannon Conference first team.
"They seem to be very physical at the point of attack, which you would expect out of a power running team," LePage said.
Blair Oaks (12-0) has allowed just 8.4 points per game, and with last Friday's 49-2 win against South Callaway in the District 5 championship game, the Falcons were the first team to hold the Bulldogs out of the end zone this season.
"I thought we read our keys real well," LePage said. "We stayed where we were supposed to, we were very disciplined."
Clark County will have to stop - or at least slow down - a Blair Oaks offense that scored a touchdown on every offensive possession in the first half during district play.
LePage said the Indians have shown several different looks on defense, lining up either three, four or five players on the line. He has prepared his team to expect anything.
"We see something different every week out of everybody," LePage said. "We're a unique offense."
Brunk and Lapsley both lead the Clark County defense at linebacker, while Gregory was All-CCC first team at defensive end. Golbricht also helps anchors the Indians' defensive line.
Clark County has seen mostly run-heavy offenses with 11 of its 12 games coming against teams from the Clarence Cannon.
"When they're playing power-running teams, they try to stack some more guys in the box," LePage said. " The guys you see on offense turn around right away and play defense. They're big up front, their linebackers flow real well."
Blair Oaks showed its offensive muscle in the run game two weeks ago, rushing for 356 yards against Father Tolton. Last week against South Callaway, quarterback Nolan Hair threw for 230 yards on 23 attempts, his third most throws this season.
"We know Nolan throws the ball hard enough," LePage said. "We don't dare if the wind's blowing 100 mph. If we feel like we've got to throw it, we're going to throw it."
The turnover battle will likely be a factor in today's game. The Indians have committed 12 and forced 32 takeaways, while the Falcons have committed 10 turnovers - all fumbles - and forced 31 takeaways.
Monroe City committed four turnovers - three on fumbles - in last week's loss.
"They're creating a lot of turnovers," LePage said. "It seems with each game we've watched, there are turnovers and they feed off the turnovers."
Today's forecast in northeast Missouri is calling for a chance of snow during the game, with temperatures around 35 degrees.
"On Tuesday, there was snow on the field, it was 27 degrees, it was 18 (degrees) wind chill, the wind was blowing, and we may have had our best practice of the year," LePage said. "It all starts on the practice field. It's a mindset.
"I've never seen our guys as excited to get on a bus. They want to go prove to people that they can play on the road, that they can play in any condition. They're really relishing this opportunity."
III
Blair Oaks finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in Class 2 in the Missouri Media Rankings. Clark County is ranked No. 8. These two teams last met in the Class 2 state quarterfinals in 2012. Blair Oaks won that game 34-3 at the Falcon Athletic Complex and finished runner-up in the state. The winner of today's game will face No. 4 Lutheran North next Saturday in the state semifinals. The Crusaders (10-3) won 51-8 on Friday at Caruthersville in the quarterfinals, extending their winning streak to 10 games. If Blair Oaks wins, the Falcons will host in the semifinals. If Clark County wins, the Crusaders will host in the semifinals.
Related Media: Blair Oaks Football Podcast [Clark County preview, Nov. 17, 2018]