Two weeks remain in the regular season, and once again, the Blair Oaks Falcons are nearing an undefeated finish to the football regular season.
Since taking over as Blair Oaks' head coach prior to the 2015 season, Terry Walker has won 25 consecutive regular-season games and boasts a 31-2 overall record. Regardless of Blair Oaks' football reputation, that's impressive for a first-time head coach.
It appears Walker and the Falcons are on their way to a third straight perfect regular season, with Blair Oaks to host California on Friday before playing at Warsaw the following week. That also means a third consecutive Tri-County Conference championship, which also means another No. 1 seed in district play.
Winning has become the norm within this program, and has been for a while. Prior to Walker's arrival, Brad Drehle went 97-22 in nine seasons at Blair Oaks with a state championship in 2006. Before that, Ted LePage was 48-13 in five seasons, which included a 2004 state title.
The thing is, the 2017 season hasn't been a typical season for the Falcons, making their 7-0 start and No. 2 ranking in Class 3 even more impressive.
Quarterback Nolan Hair was on his way to an all-state caliber season, throwing for 652 yards and six touchdowns in the first two games of the season. At that rate, he would have broken older brother Jordan's school single-season passing record by the end of the regular season.
And then, one play prevented that from happening.
In Week 3 against Versailles, Nolan Hair already had 69 yards passing and 49 yards rushing in the game's first six minutes. Then, on a zone read keeper, Hair went down with what appeared to be a minor injury at the time, but was later diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his lower right leg. He was expected to miss 6-8 weeks.
Enter freshman Cade Stockman, who had played one series at quarterback and had yet to attempt a pass in his brief varsity career prior to the Versailles game.
Two seasons ago, Stockman was playing offensive line in the Junior Falcon football program. Now he was quarterbacking the No. 2 team in the state. That's a lot of pressure for a 14- or 15-year-old.
Much like the football program itself, pressure hasn't seemed to phase Stockman. He led the Falcons to a 34-14 win against Versailles, a game in which he likely had no intentions of stepping on the field unless Blair Oaks had a big lead in the fourth quarter.
Then Stockman and the Falcons faced the gauntlet portion of the Tri-County Conference schedule. His first career start would come against Eldon, ranked No. 7 in Class 3 at the time. Blair Oaks won 32-12.
Since then, the Falcons have reeled off wins against Hallsville, Southern Boone and School of the Osage. Stockman is already among the area's leading passers and should reach 1,000 yards passing this week against California.
The Falcons haven't remained perfect just because of Stockman, though. Running back Riley Lentz has had four 100-yard rushing performances since Hair's injury, and the Falcons have four other players with at least 200 yards receiving each.
And I haven't even gotten to the defense yet, a unit that has held opponents to 13 points per game while allowing an average of 176.6 yards of offense. Opponents have failed to successfully run the ball against the Falcons this season. When teams have gone to the air, it has yielded in six Blair Oaks interceptions in the past two weeks.
The quarterback transition has been an above-average experience for Blair Oaks. Few teams in that predicament can say the same.
In 2010, I covered a Fayette football team that was down to its third-string quarterback by the third quarter of the season opener due to injuries. Those Falcons had to move their No. 1 wide receiver to the quarterback position for the rest of the year and finished with an 0-10 record.
Blair Oaks is hopeful Hair will have his cast removed this week, with a possibility to play by the regular-season finale next week. It appears he'll be back behind center in time for the postseason.
Most people will say when Hair returns, everything will be back to normal. But thanks to Stockman, winning has remained the norm at Blair Oaks.