CALIFORNIA, Mo. - The Blair Oaks Falcons have been wearing out scoreboards for the past month.
Friday night was the fourth straight week the Falcons have scored 50 or more points. The latest points surge resulted in a 65-7 win against the California Pintos at Riley Field.
Through five weeks of the regular season, Blair Oaks was already averaging a robust 40.6 points per game. After Friday's win, that averaged has increased to 50.2.
Still, Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage thinks there is more to come.
"After this game was over, I told the players I have a passion for where we need to go," he said. "I want their passion to be the same as mine right now.
"It hasn't hit me we're 9-0. We have to get ready for next week."
For the second straight game, Blair Oaks opened the offensive onslaught with a long pass play on its opening drive. Nolan Hair connected with Marcus Edler for a 65-yard touchdown that put Blair Oaks ahead 6-0 just nine seconds into the game.
"It was something we saw on film, the way they were adjusting to the motion," LePage said. "What people are starting to do is they'll spin a safety down and roll somebody up. Well, that left Marcus one-on-one on the back side."
The touchdown was Hair's 89th of his career, breaking the school record previously held by his older brother, Jordan Hair.
Nolan Hair added three more touchdown passes Friday and is closing in on a few more of Jordan's career records as the playoffs arrive. More records - such as career yards passing and career total yards - could fall as early as next week's district opener.
"It's almost inconceivable," LePage said. "I congratulated him as soon as he came off the field. To be able to fill up those numbers is mindboggling.
"He's a humble young man who has fun playing the game, and he works very hard at his craft."
Later in the first quarter, Blair Oaks had back-to-back plays for negative yardage, a rare occurrence for the offense this season. It led to the Falcons' only punt of the game.
"It was an RPO (run-pass option) play and it just happened to be that the combination wasn't correct on it," LePage said. "We came back, ran it later and ran it really well."
Those negative plays, two of the three they had all game, were quickly a distant memory. Three plays following the punt, Ben Thomas intercepted a pass from California quarterback Hunter Oliver and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown.
The interception was the 12th of Thomas' career, but it was his first returned for a touchdown.
"You see him catch so many passes on the offensive side, but on the defensive side, he's just as good a player," LePage said of Thomas, who has 18 total touchdowns this season. "That was a great individual effort to intercept it and put it back in the end zone. Getting a defensive score is a big goal for us."
Oliver filled in at quarterback for Alex Currens, who was serving a one-game suspension after he was ejected from the Pintos' previous game against Southern Boone for helmet-to-helmet contact.
LePage said he didn't learn Currens wouldn't be playing until the morning of the game.
"At that point in time, it's too late to change anything," he said. "You have to go with your game plan."
Thomas also had two receptions in the win, and both went for touchdowns. The first score, from 10 yards out, was set up by a Kamron Morriss interception late in the first quarter, extending the Blair Oaks lead to 27-0.
The second was a 34-yard touchdown grab that included Thomas making a cut to the middle of the field near the 10-yard line. Thomas has a team-high 30 catches this season, and 16 have resulted in touchdowns.
"The best thing about Ben is he runs off (the field) and says, 'I need the ball, I need the ball. I'm open, I'm open,'" LePage said. "Ben's open on every play."
Sophomore wide receiver Cobi Marble finished with three catches for 52 yards. Entering the game, Marble had one catch for 10 yards.
"Cobi works with those seniors every day, and works his tail off," LePage said. "He's extremely explosive, he can really run. We've just seen his confidence grow and grow."
By halftime, the Falcons had 218 yards passing with just 70 yards rushing. They added another 92 yards rushing after halftime, even with a running clock in effect for the full 24 minutes.
"We really wanted to isolate our run game in the second half," LePage said. "They were doing some things to try and clog up the run.
"We're going to run our play. We're going to see if we can go iron on iron, wheel on wheel. I thought we did in the second half."
Blair Oaks has shown its dominance this season in the passing game, as Hair has thrown 30 touchdowns with no interceptions. However, the Falcons are still averaging 5.6 yards per carry and have a 2-to-1 run-to-pass ratio this season.
"It doesn't look pretty, because it's only 5 or 6 yards, but for a coach heading into the playoffs, you see 5 or 6 yards on a run and you get pretty excited," LePage said.
The Blair Oaks defense never let California have any breathing room all night. The Pintos netted just 49 yards of total offense and had three first downs all game, highlighted by a 30-yard pass from Alex Meisenheimer to Clayton Winkler late in the first half.
"I thought our run defense was outstanding," LePage said. "We need to go back and look at a little bit of our pass coverage. They completed the one, but I think it was more the body position of the receiver. It was a good ball thrown in there."
California was only able to avoid a shutout through its special teams. Meisenheimer returned the opening kickoff of the second half 83 yards for a score.
"He went a little more to the center of the field," LePage said. " He's a good back and he's extremely explosive. He proved it on that one."
Blair Oaks (9-0) finished as the No. 1 seed in Class 2 District 5 with 53.69 points. California (0-9) finished last in the district with 21.86 points.
As a result, the two teams will meet again in the first round of the district playoffs next Friday at the Falcon Athletic Complex. The same scenario happened to the Falcons in 2015, topping Versailles 70-0 in back-to-back games.
The rematch will save LePage and his staff time on scouting for its upcoming opponent, but that's not his primary focus.
"This is about us getting better," LePage said. " You have to be on your game every snap of every opportunity you get on the football field from here on out."