Hair, Blair Oaks roll past Warsaw

WARSAW, Mo. - Blair Oaks quarterback Nolan Hair had a career night against the Warsaw Wildcats.

Well, actually, a career half.

Playing for the first time since suffering a hairline fracture in his lower right leg Sept. 1, Hair finished 23-of-30 passing for 401 yards and six touchdowns Friday night, all in the first half of the Falcons' 64-6 win.

Blair Oaks coach Terry Walker said Hair couldn't wait to get back on the field. In the Falcons' game the previous week against California, even though Hair wasn't yet cleared to play, he still dressed in full pads and uniform while standing on the sideline against the Pintos.

"Nolan has been anxious to play, and it showed," Walker said. "Nolan adds a completely different dimension to our team offensively. He needs to continue to improve, just like all the other kids do, but he puts a lot of pressure on the defense with his ability to see the field and extend plays. That's tough to defend."

His accuracy was there from the get-go, as Hair completed his first eight passing attempts. Then he had a streak of six straight completions midway through the second quarter, and he finished the first half with another six consecutive completions in the final two minutes.

"I had been watching him the last couple of weeks once he was cleared to do a few drills," Walker said. "On Thursday morning, he was throwing BB's. I fully expected that he was going to come out and light it up."

This season, Hair has played in just 11 quarters total, but in that time he has thrown for 1,122 yards with 12 touchdowns and two interceptions. He's averaging better than 100 yards passing per quarter played.

"He was definitely in tune, and he did a great job of preparing, as far as what they were going to do defensively," Walker said.

Hair also had plenty of time to survey his receivers. Blair Oaks' offensive line allowed Hair to look from sideline to sideline, and he was never hurried by Warsaw's defensive line. The only time Hair was touched by the Wildcats was when he recovered a pair of fumbled snap exchanges.

"We told the offensive line at halftime that they had done a great job of pass protection," Walker said. "Nolan really had a lot of time to survey the field. They were putting three (defenders) over two (receivers), and four over three in some cases, trying to defend against the throw."

Ethan Luebbering led the Falcons with nine catches for 113 yards and two touchdowns.

"Ethan is a great possession receiver," Walker said. "He's got really good hands and he really knows how to work the sideline. We had a mismatch on one of the corners and Nolan was taking advantage of it. Any time you can get 10 or 12 yards whenever you want, it's nice offensively."

Five players had at least 50 yards receiving Friday. Blair Oaks already has four players with 400 yards or more receiving this season, with Braydan Pritchett leading the way with 665 yards. Ben Thomas (481), Luebbering (426) and Marcus Edler (408) aren't far behind.

"I really feel good about the fact that we have four or five guys at the receiver position that can catch the football," Walker said. "And our running backs have done a good job of catching the football.

"If we're going to be able to do anything in districts, we're going to have to be able to spread the field and attack all the quadrants of the field, both vertically and laterally."

Edler and Thomas also had two touchdown receptions each. Thomas leads the Falcons with 10 touchdown catches.

Warsaw finished the game with 145 yards rushing, only the fourth time this season an opponent has rushed for more than 100 yards in a game this season against the Falcons. Close to half those yards came on Kieon Davis' 68-yard touchdown run to end the first quarter.

"It wasn't our best defensive game, because they moved the ball," Walker said. "They controlled the line of scrimmage during portions of the game."

Even so, for the fifth time this season, Blair Oaks held an opponent in single digits. The Falcons allowed 11.4 points per game during the regular season, and only one team - School of the Osage - managed to score at least 20 points in a game.

Blair Oaks also won the turnover battle for a third straight week and is plus-6 in turnover margin for the season. Edler, in addition to his two touchdowns, also picked off Warsaw quarterback Matt Luebbert twice. He's now second on the team with four interceptions.

"Marcus is a very good cover corner," Walker said. "He did a great job on both plays."

Brandon Sharp also had a fumble recovery for the Falcons.

Blair Oaks (9-0) will be the No. 1 seed in Class 3 District 6 and clinched home-field advantage throughout district play. The Falcons tallied 49 points in the district standings, well ahead of No. 2 Mexico, which finished with 43.08 points.

Blair Oaks will host eighth-seeded Missouri Military Academy (1-8) at 7 p.m. Friday at the Falcon Athletic Complex.

Walker said the only thing that changes at this point is a loss signals the end of the season.

"Our preparation won't change, our message won't change," he said. "At the end of the day, the kids can control one thing: how hard they play on a Friday night and how hard they prepare Monday through Thursday. We'll do that exact same thing, and hopefully we'll get some breaks and be able to advance."