WARDSVILLE - Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage has seen all the film he needs to see on the Boonville Pirates. He knows what the Falcons have lining up in front of them.
"They're explosive offensively, and I mean explosive," LePage said.
Blair Oaks will put its 44-game Tri-County Conference winning streak on the line when it plays tonight in Boonville's home opener. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Gene Reagan Field.
Boonville (2-1, 1-0 Tri-County) is coming off a 40-14 win last Friday at Southern Boone, the Pirates' first win in four tries against the Eagles since joining the conference in 2018.
All that remains is just one team Boonville is winless against in Tri-County play since the start of the 2018 season: Blair Oaks.
"Our goal is to be conference champions," LePage said. "This is a district opponent, and third, our players are going into a tough environment. It's electric there when you walk out.
"Our players are excited about it, we like playing on the road. It's a challenge, and we know we're going to get their best."
Speaking of Boonville's best, that discussion begins with DJ Wesolak, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound senior who is a four-star recruit and is rated the third-best football player in the Class of 2022 in the state of Missouri by 247sports.com.
"You just don't see guys like that at this level," LePage said.
Wesolak, a defensive end and a slot wide receiver, has nearly 50 scholarship offers from Division I football programs, according to rivals.com. He has 21 total tackles and two sacks, as well as a pair of touchdown receptions.
"He's a guy you have to account for on every single snap," LePage said. "He can change a game. He's an unbelievable talent, a generational talent for our conference.
"Here's a guy who can play on Saturdays next year, so our players are getting fired up for that. They want to play well against a guy like that."
Another key player for the Pirates is senior running back DaWan Lomax (5-10, 170), who has rushed for more than 100 yards in each of Boonville's three games and is averaging nearly 15 yards per carry. Last week against Southern Boone, Lomax had nine carries for 165 yards and a touchdown.
"You want to try to keep him inside," LePage said. "You want to try to bring him down before his momentum gets going, and that's extremely tough to do, because they do a really good job of getting him isolated in space."
Leading Boonville's offensive attack - which is averaging 29.3 points per game - is junior quarterback Colby Caton (5-7, 165), who has completed 28-of-57 passes for 359 yards with seven touchdowns and one interception. Caton also has a team-high 39 rushes for 190 yards.
"They manipulate your eyes with their motions," LePage said. " He's more of their 'up the middle' back, and he runs angry. He will flat-out lower the 'boom' on you.
"He's not a quarterback. He's a football player."
In addition to Wesolak, other receivers for the Pirates include senior Jamesian McKee (6-2, 200) and sophomore Dakota Troost (6-0, 165). Troost has 103 yards receiving and two touchdowns, while McKee has 90 yards and one score.
"They'll bring Wesolak in as a blocking back, but mostly, they've been a spread offense," LePage said. "You almost wish they would be tighter, because with their athletes, you just have so much space to cover."
When Blair Oaks last played at Boonville two years ago, the Pirates led 14-12 after one quarter with the help of an 85-yard kickoff return and a 62-yard touchdown pass. LePage said the Falcons have to eliminate those big plays.
"In every game (this season), they've had a 70-plus-yard touchdown," LePage said of Boonville. " They all can put it in the house at any time."
Defensively, LePage said the Pirates have lined up in both a three-man front and a four-man front.
"Against Southern Boone, they just didn't give up a yard," LePage said. "It was amazing to watch."
Teams often choose to move the ball away from Wesolak, but waiting at the other defensive end position is junior Tyson Ellison (6-2, 195), an all-Central Missouri Activities Conference transfer from Battle. Ellison leads the Boonville defense with three tackles for loss.
"He's fundamentally sound, you can see he's been coached very well," LePage said. "He knows what he's doing on the defensive line, and he turns around and plays offensive tackle, too."
The Pirates have plenty of talent at linebacker, too, with McKee, senior Travis Dell (5-9, 190) and sophomore Xavier Flippin (5-8, 160). Flippin has a team-high 27 tackles, including 17 in the Pirates' 13-6 win in Week 2 at Holden. Dell is next with 23 tackles, 10 coming last week at Southern Boone.
"Last week, they moved Caton up to linebacker, so they went with a four-linebacker look," LePage said. " Their two inside linebackers do a good job of coming downhill."
Senior defensive back Luke Green (6-2, 170) leads the secondary with two interceptions, both coming against Holden.
"He's a ball hawk," LePage said. "He plays opposite of Lomax or Troost, and we anticipate we'll see all three of them."
Tonight's game will be an interesting contrast of lineups. Boonville starts several players on both sides of the ball, while Blair Oaks will only have two starters play both ways.
"Our guys have been talking about this game now for four or five days," LePage said. "Boonville has been really competitive with us in all sports in the Tri-County, so we're real familiar with them. We played them twice last year, and we knew they'd have a lot of these guys coming back.
"It's an opportunity for us to see where we're at as the season moves along."
Notes: Blair Oaks (3-0, 1-0 Tri-County) remained No. 1 in Class 3 in this week's Missouri Media Rankings, still taking nine of the 10 first-place votes. However, with St. Mary's: St. Louis losing 26-21 last week to Neuqua Valley (Ill.), the Falcons gained an extra point in the voting up to 99 points, moving from No. 3 to No. 2 on the 10th ballot. Boonville began its 2021 season with three straight road games. The Pirates opened the season with a 43-35 loss to Pleasant Hill before defeating Holden and Southern Boone. In addition to Blair Oaks and Boonville, other Tri-County teams to win their conference openers last Friday were Eldon (54-48 in OT vs. School of the Osage) and Class 2 No. 3 Hallsville (67-30 vs. Versailles). Through three games, Blair Oaks is averaging 54.3 points per game, its highest scoring average through the first three games during the past four seasons under LePage (39 ppg in 2018, 35 ppg in 2019 and 50 ppg in 2020). LePage said junior wide receiver Adam Hall will return to the starting lineup tonight after missing the California game.