WARDSVILLE - The Blair Oaks Falcons drew a tough opponent Week 1 in the defending Class 3 champion Maryville Spoofhounds.
The Falcons' Week 2 opponent, the Oak Grove Panthers, has an even harder road ahead of them.
Blair Oaks is the second straight ranked opponent Oak Grove will face to start the season. The Panthers host the Falcons - ranked No. 2 in Class 2 in this week's Missouri Media Rankings - at 7 p.m. today in Oak Grove.
"They're big and fast, they look the part," Blair Oaks coach Ted LePage said of Oak Grove, which lost 32-17 to Class 2 No. 9 Lawson last Friday. "Lawson's a heck of a football team. They were on the road, it was the first game, it looked like at any point Oak Grove was going to break out and really get after them."
The Panthers also play next week at Center (Class 3 No. 7) and Sept. 21 at Odessa (Class 3 No. 2), facing four state-ranked programs in the first five weeks of the season.
LePage said Oak Grove's strength will be its offensive and defensive lines.
"This is a team that's just as big as the team we just saw," he said.
The Oak Grove offense is led by junior quarterback Brenden Marsh. The Panthers will continue to operate out of the T formation, but the passing game will be a bigger feature this season.
Last year against the Falcons, Oak Grove had 34 run plays and just five pass plays. Last week against Lawson, they rushed 18 times and attempted 22 passes."They're probably a little similar to us in our first game, they may have been doing some things they haven't grown up doing, that they haven't been doing over and over," LePage said, comparing Oak Grove's adjustment in the passing game to Blair Oaks implementing the run-pass option in its offense.
"It looked like (Oak Grove) missed on some timing, but if they get that timing down, this is going to be a real dangerous football team offensively."
Junior Clay Griffin and senior Moses Sanderson will be in the backfield for the Panthers. Junior Nate Foster and sophomore Joey Lewis are also two players who will factor into the offense, both rushing and receiving.
"They're extended in the gun, they're not under center," LePage said. "We anticipate at some point in the game they will, but they didn't do it in their first game."
On the line, Oak Grove is led by junior Devin Alewine (6-foot, 270 pounds).
Oak Grove's roster may only consist of six seniors, but the Panthers have plenty of experience returning on both sides of the ball, despite losing their starting quarterback and running back. Oak Grove has seven starters back on offense, and 10 more on defense.
The lone player not back on defense is Tyler Curd, an all-state first team defensive lineman in 2017 and a two-time state wrestling champion who is not returning to the gridiron for his senior season.
Defensively, LePage anticipates the Panthers will continue to operate out of the four-man front just as they have for the past several years under coach Pat Richard.
Oak Grove's strength will be a linebacker, where it returns a trio of starters. Sanderson, Griffin and senior Peyton Clouse combined for 119 tackles last year.
"They've got three aggressive linebackers that will come downhill," LePage said. "Lawson did not have a lot of success between the tackles."
Oak Grove struggled to move the chains against Lawson, converting on just 1-of-10 third-down attempts.
While LePage felt confident in his team's third-down defense last week, he said their success was set up by their play on first down.
"What we did is we kept them behind the chains," he said of Maryville. "If we gave them four or five yards on first down, they easily converted. It's when we had them in second-and-long and forced the third-down situations."
On offense, LePage said Lawson mixed up the run and pass well against Oak Grove, staying on the field for 65 offensive plays.
Not quite the 77 plays Blair Oaks ran against Maryville, but time of possession will be key for the Falcons.
"I think we have to come out and have some success early," LePage said. "If we some success early, I think it's just going to build our confidence. We had a great week of practice, our players are totally bought in."
Notes: Blair Oaks received 94 points in the Class 2 rankings, three more than No. 3 Monroe City and four more than No. 4 Lutheran North. Top-ranked Lamar received all 12 first-place votes. Maryville opened as the No. 5 team in Class 3 following the loss to Blair Oaks. There were no preseason rankings this year. The Falcons have won both regular-season matchups against the Panthers. Blair Oaks won 28-20 on the road in 2016, then routed Oak Grove 46-7 last year at the Falcon Athletic Complex. Tonight will be the final non-conference game of the regular season for Blair Oaks. The Falcons will play their home opener next Friday against Boonville to begin Tri-County Conference play. LePage said no players were injured during last Friday's game, aside from suffering the occasional leg cramp. "We've got bumps and bruises," he said. "Monday, we were a little sore, but Tuesday's practice went better."
Related Media: Blair Oaks Football Podcast [Oak Grove preview, Aug. 31, 2018]