BOWLING GREEN -- The Bowling Green Bobcats came into Saturday’s Class 2 state semifinal game averaging 66 points per game.
However, it was the Blair Oaks Falcons who scored 66 points instead.
Blair Oaks scored touchdowns on 10 of its 15 possessions, accumulating 804 yards of total offense. The Falcons won in the state semifinals for the third time in the past five years, claiming a 66-48 shootout victory against the Bobcats.
“This is one of my more enjoyable wins,” Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage said. “They were such a volatile team. I mean, 66 points a game, and giving up eight (points per game)? That’s unheard of.
“What a great win for our guys.”
Top-ranked Blair Oaks (13-0) will play third-ranked Lamar (12-1) in the Class 2 state championship game Friday at Faurot Field in Columbia. Kickoff is at 3 p.m.
Lamar routed fourth-ranked Seneca 56-14 in Saturday’s other semifinal contest, as the Tigers avenged a 36-33 loss to the Indians during the regular season.
“We get to go to Faurot and play a football game, and we’ll get ready to play whoever we have to play,” LePage said. “We’re going to play as good as we can play.
“We may run into a better team, but they’re going to have to beat us, because we’re going to bring everything we’ve got.”
Gallery: Blair Oaks Football at Bowling Green
Bowling Green allowed just 107 points in its first 12 games this season, but the Bobcats could not slow down Dylan Hair and Co. The Falcons averaged 10.9 yards per play Saturday.
“We thought there were some holes in their personnel that we could attack,” LePage said.
Bowling Green struck first, as Bleyne Bryant returned the opening kickoff 60 yards to the Blair Oaks 31-yard line. Six plays later, Marcus Starks scored on a 19-yard touchdown run and added the 2-point conversion to give the Bobcats an 8-0 lead.
The Falcons answered with a touchdown just 1:36 later, as Hayden Lackman caught a 20-yard pass from Hair on fourth-and-3 to cap an eight-play, 84-yard drive. Nick Closser caught the 2-point conversion pass from Hair, tying the game at 8 with 8:03 left in the first quarter.
“He’s a big part of our offense,” LePage said of Lackman, who finished the game with 103 yards rushing and 82 yards receiving. “Every time, he’s got a passing route. And on that one, he was wide open.”
Bowling Green’s offense blinked first, as the Bobcats punted on their next possession. That’s when Hair began his takeover.
Hair threw a 63-yard touchdown pass downfield to a wide-open Joey Wilde, extending the Falcons’ lead to 15-8.
Hair followed with a pair of touchdown runs for 49 and 69 yards in the second quarter. He finished the game with a career-high 631 yards of total offense: 272 yards rushing on 27 carries and 359 yards passing, completing 16-of-26 attempts while throwing five touchdown passes.
“They just couldn’t match us on the option,” LePage said. “Coming into the game, they were a big, physical team. But you can’t do that with the option, you have to have option matchups.”
Bryant scored Bowling Green’s next three touchdowns, giving the lead back to the Bobcats each time.
Bryant followed Wilde’s touchdown grab with a 27-yard touchdown run.
Adam Hall caught a 51-yard touchdown pass down the middle of the field in the opening minute of the second quarter, but Bryant responded with an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
After Hair’s first touchdown run, Bryant answered with a 57-yard touchdown run, putting Bowling Green in front 32-28 with 9:17 left in the second quarter.
The Bobcats went the next 14 minutes without scoring, and Blair Oaks capitalized with four touchdowns during that drought.
“By playing guys both ways, it just seemed like they had too many guys going in and out,” LePage said. “It really affected the flow of their team.”
Lackman scored on a 4-yard run and Hair’s second rushing touchdown put the Falcons ahead 41-32 at halftime.
Blair Oaks received the opening kick in the second half and finished a nine-play, 72-yard drive with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Hair to Hall.
The Falcons took their largest lead of the game on their next possession, as Lackman caught a short pass along the Blair Oaks sideline and darted into the end zone for a 62-yard score. That extended the Falcons’ lead to 54-32 with 2:07 to go in the third quarter.
Bowling Green went five consecutive possessions without scoring, and LePage credited the Falcons’ blitz -- a defensive adjustment at halftime -- that prevented the Bobcats from scoring in the third quarter.
Alec Wieberg led the Blair Oaks defense with three sacks. Carson Luebbering had two sacks and Jaxon Marshall also recorded a sack.
“Nobody had blitzed them all year,” LePage said. “… Then we were getting sack after sack.”
Starks scored both of Bowling Green’s fourth-quarter touchdowns on runs of 4 and 12 yards. He finished the game with 27 carries for 141 yards, adding five 2-point conversions.
LePage was pleased to see his defense limit Starks to just one carry for more than 20 yards.
“They’re going to get a run, let’s not let them have runs like they did last year,” LePage said.
Bowling Green couldn’t cut its deficit to one possession, as Bryson Varner scored on a 2-yard run -- his only carry of the game -- and Lackman broke a few tackles on his way to a 49-yard touchdown run with 5:24 to play, sealing the win for the Falcons.
Lackman surpassed 1,000 yards rushing this season on that final carry. Hair also surpassed 2,000 yards rushing on his final carry of the game, as he broke his Blair Oaks single-season rushing record of 1,783 yards set last season.
Wilde led Blair Oaks’ receivers with six catches for 107 yards. Zack Prenger added 84 yards on three receptions and Hall caught four passes for 73 yards.
The Falcons moved the chains for a first down season-best 30 times Saturday.
Sixth-ranked Bowling Green (12-1) scored five offensive touchdowns, but the Falcons limited the Bobcats to 293 yards of total offense.
“Our defense just continued to fight,” LePage said. “Our defense was really the story of the game.”
Four of Bowling Green’s five touchdown drives began in Blair Oaks territory. The Falcon defense forced four punts, three turnovers on downs and one takeaway on an interception by Closser midway through the second quarter.
“Our defense, we were bend-but-don’t-break,” LePage said. “But at the same time, we were more physical than I think they thought we were.
“That was the big thing I take away from today’s game. We were a more physical football team.”
Bryant had 10 carries for 92 yards for the Bobcats. Quarterback Dylan Dalton completed 3-of-12 passes for 74 yards.