WARDSVILLE, Mo. - Through almost three-and-a-half games, the Blair Oaks Falcons had yet to attempt their 2-minute offense.
With :48.6 left in the first half of Friday's game against the Versailles Tigers, Blair Oaks was 63 yards away from the end zone. No better time to give the 2-minute drill a try, even if the Falcons were shorted 72 seconds.
Blair Oaks moved the ball quickly to the Versailles 7-yard line and ended the half with a 25-yard field goal. Three points. Mission accomplished.
"The big issue there was the clock management on offense, being able to spike the ball and work and get out of bounds," Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage said after the Falcons' 37-0 win at the Falcon Athletic Complex. "Our receivers did a good job tightrope walking (the sideline) down the field and getting out of bounds."
LePage said the Falcons' defense allowed the offense to run its 2-minute drill. After Ben Thomas caught a 75-yard touchdown pass from Nolan Hair with 1:19 left in the half, Blair Oaks still had all three timeouts remaining.
The defense came away with a three-and-out, LePage used all three timeouts and Blair Oaks got the ball back on its own 37-yard line.
Braydan Pritchett got out of bounds on a 12-yard reception, then Hair scrambled to the sideline for a 10-yard gain to move the chains again. Marcus Edler caught a 5-yard pass and couldn't get out of bounds, so Hair had to spike the ball with just more than 20 seconds left at the Versailles 36-yard line.
After an incomplete pass, Hair connected with Edler on fourth down for a 16-yard screen pass along the left sideline. The two repeated the same play, this time for a 13-yard gain to the Versailles 7 with :03.7 on the clock. Rather than go for the end zone, LePage sent his field-goal unit onto the field.
"Sometime during the season, we're going to need a field goal," LePage said, "and that was a big confidence booster for the whole entire team to have him hit that."
After back-to-back catches, Edler lined up for the kick from the left hash mark and split the uprights.
"I was very tired. Luckily the half ended after that," Edler said. "Even though I was tired, I had a to stay focused and do my job."
It's the first made field goal by Blair Oaks since Ryan Paschal made a 30-yarder against McCluer South-Berkeley in the 2016 Class 3 quarterfinal round.
"It was exciting. It was my first (field goal) ever," said Edler, who also made four extra-point attempts Friday.
Blair Oaks scored on all five offensive possessions in the first half to lead 30-0 at the break. The Falcons took just 28 seconds to score again in the second half when a 49-yard pass to Edler set up a 9-yard sweep by Thomas into the end zone.
Edler may not have reached the end zone, but he led Blair Oaks with five catches for 109 yards and scored seven points with his leg.
"Now everybody knows Marcus Edler," LePage said. "We know Marcus is a big-play threat and he came to life this game, not only with his kicking, but also his receiving."
Hair finished with 293 yards passing and three scores, while Thomas and Pritchett each had 88 yards receiving. Running back Riley Lentz added 76 yards rushing on nine carries.
"Riley did a great job between the tackles," LePage said. " It seemed like there was a mass of people, and all of a sudden, No. 22 comes shooting out of there."
While the Blair Oaks offense had its first turnover-free game of the season, the defense was busy posting its third consecutive shutout.
It was no easy task facing dual-threat quarterback Coby Williams, but Blair Oaks set the tone immediately. Versailles came out with an empty backfield on the game's first two plays. The first resulted in an incomplete pass, the next was a 4-yard sack of Williams by Nolan Atnip.
"We looked at film last week and we saw that, when they went empty, there wasn't a lot of protection there, because you're only protecting with five guys," LePage said. "So we sent six. We rolled the dice and it definitely worked out to our favor there to start the game."
Through the first three games of the season, Williams had 450 yards rushing and another 363 passing, averaging 271 total yards per contest. On Friday, the Falcons held him to 104 yards total - 87 passing, 17 rushing.
"Our kids did a good job of rattling him early," LePage said. "We let him get a little bit loose later, but that team had been averaging 32 points a game. Any time a team's averaging that much, they've got confidence on offense."
Versailles running back Michael Trotter, who had averaged 11 carries per game, finished with 16 rushes for 50 yards.
The only big play the Tigers had all game was a 40-yard pass downfield from Williams to Dallas Waller early in the third quarter, moving the ball to the Blair Oaks 25-yard line. And just as Versailles started to build momentum, it was gone in a flash.
Four plays later, Williams threw a pass to the end zone that was intercepted by Jake Closser. It was the first career pick for the Blair Oaks sophomore, who came down just inside the goal line for a touchback with 6:55 to go in the third quarter.
"I thought I had it if he threw it to me," Closser said. "He rolled out in the backfield and he threw it deep, lobbed it up there. I just went over the receiver trying to get that ball."
The Tigers had a turnover on downs at the Blair Oaks 30 on the second play of the fourth quarter. The Falcons secured the shutout with an interception by Levi Haney with 1:35 to play.
"We're really playing good right now," Closser said of the defense. "The line's dominating, and the corners and safeties are really covering well."
Class 2 No. 2 Blair Oaks (4-0, 2-0 Tri-County) plays at 7 p.m. Friday at Eldon, ranked No. 6 in Class 3. The Mustangs (3-1, 1-1 Tri-County) suffered their first loss Friday with a 39-7 defeat to Class 3 No. 10 Southern Boone.
"Right after the game was over, they were excited about going to work tomorrow," LePage said. "That's the great thing about these young players. Football's fun, and they are enjoying football."
III
Thomas' 88 yards receiving pushed him past 2,000 yards for his career. In the Falcons' win Sept. 7 against Boonville, the senior wideout broke the school record for career yards receiving of 1,986 yards, set by Mikel Drehle in 2014. After Friday's win, Thomas has 2,082 yards receiving and extended his school record to 35 career touchdown grabs.