WARDSVILLE - Another game, another shutout.
The Blair Oaks Falcons scored on all five offensive possessions in the first half, while the defense held its opponent off the scoreboard for a third straight game with a 37-0 win in Tri-County Conference play Friday night at the Falcon Athletic Complex.
"I'm excited about where we're headed with the defense," Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage said. "I just really, really hope that we continue to condition. This game really helped us to condition.
"There were several drives where they were on fourth down and they could make first down by a couple of inches. It was good that our defense had to work through some adversity, because they hadn't had to do that the last two weeks."
On its first possession, Blair Oaks capped a 6-play, 60-yard drive with a 6-yard touchdown run by quarterback Nolan Hair. Marcus Edler added the extra point to give the Falcons a 7-0 lead with 8:13 left in the first quarter.
The Falcons' next possession lasted just one play. Hair connected on a pass over the middle to Braydan Pritchett, who took advantage of a block downfield and raced into the end zone for a 55-yard touchdown reception. Edler's PAT made it 14-0 with 1:53 to go in the opening quarter.
Hair finished the game with three touchdown passes. His next one came on a 2-yard dump pass over the middle to Grant Laune with 6:49 left in the second quarter.
On his third touchdown throw, Hair aired out a pass downfield to Ben Thomas, who caught it and darted into the end zone for a 75-yard touchdown reception, his eighth of the season. Edler's previous extra-point attempt was blocked, but he made this one to extend the Blair Oaks lead to 27-0 with 1:19 left in the half.
The Falcons would get the ball one more time in the half, using all three timeouts on a Versailles three-and-out with :48.6 remaining.
Blair Oaks utilized its two-minute offense and marched the ball 56 yards down the field to set up a 25-yard field-goal attempt with :03.7 remaining. Edler made the kick to give the Falcons a 30-0 halftime lead.
"Each week, we work on a 2-minute drill, and I thought our 2-minute drill was very, very good," LePage said. "We didn't have any timeouts. I know the players wanted to go for a touchdown there, but I thought it was important for us to line up and kick a field goal."
Blair Oaks received the opening kick in the second half and scored in three plays. Thomas scored his first rushing touchdown of the season on a 9-yard sweep to the left, and Edler's PAT made the score 37-0 just 28 seconds into the third quarter.
Hair finished the game 12-of-15 passing for 293 yards, with one of his incomplete passes being a spike to stop the clock during the final drive of the first half. He also carried the ball seven times for 52 yards.
Edler had team-highs of five catches for 109 yards. Pritchett and Thomas each had 88 yards receiving.
Lentz led the Blair Oaks rushing attack with nine carries for 76 yards.
The Falcons' defense shut down Versailles quarterback Coby Williams, who entered the game with 450 yards rushing and 363 yards passing through three contests.
Williams finished 8-of-16 passing for 87 yards and two interceptions and was held to 17 yards on 16 carries, including six sacks.
Both interceptions came in the second half. Jake Closser picked off a pass from Williams in the end zone in the third quarter and Levi Haney snagged an interception inside Versailles territory with less than two minutes to play to secure the shutout.
The Falcons finished with 451 total yards and held Versailles (2-2, 1-1 Tri-County) to 172 yards.
Blair Oaks (4-0, 2-0 Tri-County), ranked No. 2 in Class 2 in the Missouri Media Rankings, will play at 7 p.m. next Friday at Eldon. The Mustangs (3-1, 1-1 Tri-County), ranked No. 6 in Class 3, dropped their first game of the season Friday 39-7 to Class 3 No. 10 Southern Boone.