WARDSVILLE - In the two games since their first loss of the season, the Blair Oaks Falcons have returned to near-perfect efficiency on offense.
Scoring six touchdowns in the first 13 minutes of Friday's game against the Hallsville Indians made that abundantly clear.
"I go back to Valle Catholic, and I think in that game we learned our tempo and our sets can give people trouble," Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage said after Friday's 55-16 Homecoming win at the Falcon Athletic Complex. "We asked, 'What do we do best?'"
Answer: the run-pass option.
While LePage said he wants Blair Oaks to be close to 50/50 on run plays vs. pass plays, the Falcons have put strength back in their run game in back-to-back wins. Against Hallsville, quarterback Dylan Hair finished with seven carries for 69 yards and two touchdowns, while running back Jayden Purdy had six carries for 57 yards and two touchdowns.
"We're going to run option, we're going to run option," LePage said.
The passing game wasn't too shabby, either, as Hair completed 9-of-11 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns.
"Dylan was hitting the medium routes," LePage said. "Those are tough balls to throw, but he can sling it so well. He's able to hit it into that middle seam, and that's really tough against a 3-3-5 (defense)."
Carson Prenger hauled in a pair of touchdown catches, while Jake Closser added another touchdown grab in the back of the end zone.
Aside from the Valle Catholic game, Hair has completed 70.9 percent of his passes in Blair Oaks' other six games this season.
"We work on it in practice every day," Hair said of the passing game. "The coaches and I go over stuff, all the reads, and that's really where we go above and beyond what we put into the game."
The Blair Oaks receivers also played their role in helping their teammates gain yards. Closser made a big block that allowed Hair to run for a 17-yard gain, setting up a 19-yard touchdown pass from Hair to Closser on the next play. On the Falcons' next possession, Prenger blocked two defenders to make room for Purdy to score on a 16-yard pitch to extend the lead to 34-6.
"Our receivers block very well, but Carson and Jake, for being elite receivers, the biggest part of their game they add more to our offense is by the way they block," LePage said. "They want to get out there, they want to be lead blockers."
The Blair Oaks defense also did its part by forcing three punts, two interceptions and a turnover on downs against Hallsville in the first quarter.
Both interceptions were made by Cobi Marble, who returned the first pick 31 yards for a touchdown.
"There's no greater feeling," Marble said of his first defensive touchdown.
Marble was second among Blair Oaks wide receivers with 21.6 yards per catch in 2019, but he has embraced his new role at cornerback on defense. He leads the Falcons with three interceptions this season and also had three pass breakups entering Friday's game.
"I love it, it's so fun to be out there," Marble said. "You get to go knock some people down."
For the second straight week, a team that prefers to run the football had to go to the air more than usual against Blair Oaks.
Hallsville quarterback Tyger Cobb attempted eight passes in the Indians' previous game, a 28-26 win against Marshall. On Friday, he attempted 27 passes, completing 13 of them for 90 yards while throwing three interceptions.
The Blair Oaks defense limited Hallsville to just three pass plays of more than 10 yards, and three went for negative yardage.
"The nice thing with being able to knock down the long balls is I think their quarterback began to hold it for a little bit," LePage said. "We were only rushing three, so we weren't going to get a lot of pressure, but one of our front three is going to get through."
For the first time in LePage's second stint as Blair Oaks head coach - and for the first time dating prior to the 2014 season - Blair Oaks went the entire game Friday without committing a penalty.
But LePage didn't take any time revelling in that accomplishment. He was too frustrated by the three turnovers the Falcons committed against the Indians, which doubled their season total.
"We threw three interceptions tonight," he said. "I'm not real excited about that. We are not that careless with the football. One was a wrong route that brought a defensive back into it, and the other two were just careless balls.
"That's not the way we're going to win football games. We cannot turn the ball over three times in a game."
Another negative was allowing Hallsville's Ben Boyle to return a kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. It's the second time this season Blair Oaks has allowed a special teams touchdown.
"Everything they did, we always had an answer for it," LePage said. "But the kickoff return, it was one guy who made a mistake, and he came over and admitted it immediately. He corrected himself on the next kickoff and made the tackle.
"The crazy thing was tonight was probably the best kickoff coverage we've had, outside of that one."
The loss knocked Hallsville (4-3, 1-1 Tri-County) out of a tie for first place in the Tri-County Conference standings, leaving just two teams at the top.
Blair Oaks (6-1, 3-0 Tri-County), ranked No. 4 in Class 3, will play at Southern Boone, ranked No. 8 in Class 3, at 7 p.m. Friday in Ashland.
Southern Boone (4-2, 2-0 Tri-County) lost 52-13 on the road Saturday to Tonganoxie, the No. 3-ranked team in Class 4A in Kansas.
"They're very physical and very fundamental," LePage said of Southern Boone. "They don't beat themselves, and that's a sign of a team that's going to be a tough matchup."