Loeffler's Link

Falcons, 'Hounds set to battle for

spot in state championship game

Nov. 17, 2017

WARDSVILLE, Mo. --- As a graduate of the original old school --- not to mention the Air Force Academy --- is this what you'd expect from Terry Walker's football team?

The spread offense? The Fun Gun? Spread 'me out and hang 'em high?

No. The next thing you know, Walker will be on Facebook posting things about his cat, accompanied by smiley faces.

"Had you asked me five years ago if I was going to run the spread," the Blair Oaks head coach said, "I'd have said, 'Heck no, that's never going to happen.'"

But it has. And this spread 'em out aerial show, led by scintillating junior quarterback Nolan Hair, is doing just fine, thanks.

"When you're trying to play to the strengths of your kids," Walker said, "it would be doing them a disservice if we weren't putting them in spread formations. That's what we have, that's who we are.

"That being said, we try to practice as physically as we possibly can, because the knock I've always had against spread teams is that they're not physical enough. We try to combat that daily with our practices.

"But at the end of the day, the system we run suits our kids ... and they love it."

And they do it very, very well. It's carried the second-ranked Falcons (13-0) to the Class 3 semifinals where they'll host the seventh-ranked Maryville Spoofhounds (11-2) at the Falcon Athletic Complex at 1 p.m. Saturday.

"We know Maryville has a great program and those kids are going to play hard," Walker said. "They're going to be fundamentally sound and technically sound, and we're going to have to execute at a high level if we want to be successful."

The biggest question last week --- perhaps the biggest question of the season for the Falcons --- came in Saturday's quarterfinal rematch with top-ranked McCluer South-Berkeley.

It was Berkeley, after all, that unceremoniously ended Blair Oaks' undefeated season with a resounding thud, a 34-10 no-doubter, last year in Wardsville. This year?

Not this time --- Blair Oaks 32, McCluer South 16.

Lessons were learned ... and the revenge was sweet.

"We had scouted them a couple times last year and quite honestly, they really weren't that impressive," Walker said. "But they showed up here and really took it to us, and we knew that we had definitely underestimated them as a coaching staff.

"This year, we knew what Berkeley was about and we knew it was going to be a really tough matchup, with their size and their speed. But our kids practiced really well last week, they played hard and we got a couple breaks along the way."

Walker continued.

"The biggest thing I liked this year which did not occur last year is that even though things did not always go our way, the kids responded and kept playing hard, and they created some other opportunities for themselves.

"Once we got up two scores, I thought Berkeley was going to get pretty uncomfortable. And they did."

Now comes the newest, biggest question --- having climbed the Berkeley mountain, what will have Blair Oaks have left?

"They were excited about the win over McCluer South," Walker said, "but they should be excited about this week, too. You have an opportunity to hopefully advance beyond this game and play for a state championship. For a lot of these kids, that will probably be one of the finest achievements, athletically, in their high school careers.

"You never know what's going on in the minds of 14, 15, 16 and 17-year olds, but we're hopeful they'll embrace the opportunity and make the most of it."

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

WITH A NAME LIKE SPOOFHOUNDS, you've got to be good. And these guys are. But this isn't just a good team coming to Wardsville, it's a good program.

Maryville's losses this season were to Class 4 Smithville (42-6) and Chillicothe (20-12), as the Spoofhounds avenged an early-season 24-0 loss to the Hornets in the district finals.

How good has Maryville been? Those two regular-season losses were the first such setbacks for the Spoofhounds since 2011.

"The best thing they do is that they're confident in their system," Walker said. "They know who they are and what they're going to do. They like to run the football and they'll do it out of a variety of sets, and they're going to challenge you, physically. They're going to challenge you and see if you will stick your nose in there and battle for 48 minutes.

"Defensively, they're going to chase the ball well and they have some athletes. If there's any advantage we might have, it's that they haven't seen a lot of spread teams in the conference they play in."

And few run the spread better, or was well, as the Falcons under the direction of Hair, who's returned from an early-season hairline fracture in his right leg and has not missed a beat.

"He's having a fantastic season, both before the injury and since he's been back," Walker said. "He's just put up some fantastic numbers, but a lot of that is the result of the guys around him, too. They're doing their jobs so he can do his."

Hair threw eight --- count 'em, eight --- touchdown passes in the district-clinching rout of Mexico. Against Berkeley, he threw for 260 yards and three scores, and also rushed for 126 yards and a touchdown.

"His development between this year and last year has really been phenomenal," Walker said. "Last year as a sophomore, we did some things to protect him and limit his exposure. But this year, his ability to recognize defenses and understand where the soft spots are is so much better.

"And then, his ability to run the football, we knew it was going to be better and it certainly led to his injury. But the fact he's a running threat from the backfield ... you see good teams all the time have trouble with mobile quarterbacks."

Whether he poses enough trouble for Maryville remains to be see. But this promises to be one, entertaining afternoon of football, with the winner advancing to the state championship game.

"It's going to be two good teams playing each other and somebody's going to go home disappointed," Walker said. "That's just the way it goes. But at the end of the day, it's a game ... the kids are just playing a game. There are a lot more important things going on, but it's very important to them right now because of all the work they've put into it.

"Hopefully, fate will shine on us."

If so ...

Smiley faces all around.

Head coach Terry Walker and the Blair Oaks Falcons will host Maryville in the Class 3 semifinals at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Falcon Athletic Complex.