Falcons show off run game, blank Boonville 31-0

Blair Oaks sophomore Cade Stockman listens to assistant coach Andrew Terpstra during Friday's game against Boonville at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville.
Blair Oaks sophomore Cade Stockman listens to assistant coach Andrew Terpstra during Friday's game against Boonville at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville.

WARDSVILLE, Mo. - The rainy weather forced the Blair Oaks Falcons to run the ball more often than normal Friday night.

That didn't seem to bother the Falcons one bit.

Blair Oaks rushed for 285 yards, while the defense posted its second straight scoreless effort in a 31-0 win against the Boonville Pirates to open Tri-County Conference play at the Falcon Athletic Complex.

It was the most rushing yards Blair Oaks has had in a single game since rushing for 331 yards against Southern Boone during Week 6 of the 2016 season.

"The weather was working against us, but we still continued to move the ball," Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage said.

The Falcons ran the ball on 17 straight plays on their first drive, but the 17th run was fumbled and recovered by the Pirates on their own 15-yard line.

Nolan Hair's first passing attempt didn't come until the first play of the second quarter. His first completion was a 15-yard catch-and-run play by Braydan Pritchett, setting up a 1-yard touchdown run by Riley Lentz. Marcus Edler made the extra point to give Blair Oaks a 7-0 lead in the first minute of the second quarter.

Blair Oaks scored on each of its next two possessions.

Pritchett hit paydirt on a 1-yard run with 7:56 left in the first half to extend the lead to 13-0.

The Falcons recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, and six plays later, Hair connected on a 15-yard pass to Ben Thomas in the end zone for another score with 5:30 left in the half. Blair Oaks led 19-0 at intermission.

Boonville struggled to move the ball in the first half, accounting for just 41 total yards of offense in the first 24 minutes.

"It was fun to watch them tackle," LePage said of his defense, which posted consecutive shutouts for the first time since the 2015 season. "I thought we tackled as good as we have all year, and that was a lot of fun."

Avian Thomas led Boonville with 86 yards and 27 carries, but he was held to 30 yards rushing through three quarters.

Blair Oaks scored on its opening possession of the second half. Ben Thomas caught a pass from Hair at the Boonville 5-yard line, then dragged his defender into the end zone for a 27-yard touchdown. That extended the Falcons' lead to 25-0 with 9:20 left in the third.

Pritchett scored the final touchdown on a 56-yard run with 9:00 left in the game. He led the Falcons with 14 carries for 111 yards.

Lentz also had 91 yards on 18 carries, while Hair tacked on 55 yards rushing on 15 attempts.

Hair completed 7-of-13 passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns.

Blair Oaks fumbled six times and lost three. The defense came away with a pair of takeaways: Cobi Marble recovered the loose ball on the kickoff in the second quarter and Edler intercepted a downfield pass in the third quarter.

The Falcons finished with 390 total yards and held Boonville (1-2, 0-1 Tri-County) to 91 yards.

Blair Oaks (3-0, 1-0 Tri-County), ranked No. 2 in Class 2, will host Versailles next Friday. The Tigers (2-1, 1-0 Tri-County) played Thursday night to avoid the rain and defeated Southern Boone 30-22 at home.