ELDON, Mo. - The Blair Oaks defense was on the field Friday night much more than coach Ted LePage would have liked.
The defense could easily point fingers at the Falcons' offense if it weren't for those six first-half touchdowns.
Blair Oaks ran just 17 offensive plays in the first half against the Eldon Mustangs, but the Falcons scored touchdowns on all six possessions en route to a 49-6 win in Tri-County Conference play.
"When you have seven consecutive drives for scores, you're executing something right," said LePage, whose team also scored on its first possession of the second half to extend the lead to 49-0.
The previous week, the Falcons scored on their first six possessions of the game as well. On Friday, the offense was on the field for a total of 3 minutes, 44 seconds in the first half.
"Running-wise, we've just picked it up a lot, which has made it a lot harder to guard our offense," Blair Oaks quarterback Nolan Hair said. "You used to be able to just guard the pass, but now you have to guard both of them. It just makes it hard on the defense to choose which one."
Hair scored the Falcons' first two touchdowns on runs of 34 yards and 1 yard to make the score 14-0 just 2:59 into the game. Neither possession lasted more than 32 seconds.
"The first play he scored on, they hadn't run a run play like that in a long time around here," LePage said. "That was a nice read by him, it was a good ol' triple-option read and he takes it to the house."
Blair Oaks' longest possession of the first half lasted 63 seconds. It was two short runs by Riley Lentz, followed by a 50-yard pass down the middle to Ben Thomas for a touchdown. That gave the Falcons a 28-0 lead with 5:47 left in the half.
Blair Oaks had another possession last five plays that took 1:01 off the clock. That drive ended with a 6-yard run by Braydan Pritchett.
Marcus Edler finished the half with a 67-yard touchdown reception to give Blair Oaks a 42-0 halftime lead.
"Once they started stopping the run, we had Marcus score one and Ben go down the middle," LePage said. "We had guys running open because they have to commit so many (players) to stop the run."
Blair Oaks finished the game with 398 yards of offense on 35 plays, an average of 11.4 yards per play. The offensive line never allowed Hair to be pressured in the backfield, and Blair Oaks did not have a play go for negative yardage with the first-string offense on the field.
"Our O-line is really doing a tremendous job," LePage said. "I'm really excited about our five offensive linemen and how they have grown."
LePage praised starters Corban Bonnett, Connor Wilson, Collin Branum, Andrew Luebbering and Shane Gillmore for their blocking in the win.
"My offensive line has been terrific," Hair said. "They've improved so much over time and it's just amazing to be able to sit back there and not worry about defenders coming through."
Cade Stockman quarterbacked a pair of drives in the second half, and for the first time this season, Blair Oaks was able to insert JV quarterback Gavin Wekenborg into a varsity game Friday.
"You build a program from the bottom up," LePage said. "We could leave our starters in and we could do everything we wanted to, but if you don't give other people the taste of what Friday night's about, they don't know how to work throughout the week and get better."
The second-string defense came up with big stops in the second half against Oak Grove, Boonville and Versailles to extend the Falcons' shutout streak, but the Mustangs snapped it with 2:27 left in the game, when quarterback Collin Tamm scored on a 7-yard run.
It was the first points Blair Oaks had allowed since the final minute of the season opener against Maryville nearly a month ago.
"The nice thing about it is our players who were a part of that are going to get to see themselves and some of the things they were doing," LePage said. " That's the reason we play games, and it's the reason you practice and that's the reason you watch film, so we can get better."
Eldon's offense ran 15 more plays than Blair Oaks and finished with just 145 total yards. The Mustangs were playing without quarterback Dawson Brandt, who suffered a knee injury in their previous game against Southern Boone.
Isaiah Parsons led Eldon (3-2, 1-2 Tri-County) with 17 carries for 60 yards, while Logan Hall added 13 rushes for 52 yards.
Five games into the season, LePage is seeing an offense that is getting more comfortable with the run-pass option each week, while the defense has shut out opponents in 15 of the past 16 quarters.
"We're seeing a lot of the drills we're doing at practice carry over to games," LePage said. "We're seeing the knowledge they're learning at practice carrying over into games.
"It's not fun to practice, but we're having as much fun as we can."
Blair Oaks (5-0, 3-0 Tri-County), ranked No. 2 in Class 2, will host Hallsville (1-4, 1-2 Tri-County) for Homecoming on Friday. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.