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WARDSVILLE, Mo. — First-year Lutheran North head football coach Lorenzo Brinkley pointed to Blair Oaks as having the blueprint his team can follow after it dropped a 44-26 decision on the road Friday evening at Blair Oaks High. 

Brinkley was pointing to last season's Blair Oaks team, which lost at North in a one-sided game.

"We can take the same approach they did," Brinkley said. "They lost early and then won a state championship. There's no reason why we can't do the same."

Lutheran North (0-1), the No. 1 small school in the rankings, saw its 13-game winning streak come to an end at Blair Oaks, a place that has become a den of horrors for the Crusaders. Lutheran North has only won once in five visits to the Wardsville-based school, all since 2018.

North romped past Blair Oaks last year at home before both programs went on to win championships. For the Falcons, it was their sixth in program history, while the Crusaders claimed their seventh. It was the first matchup between two defending state champions in a regular-season contest since 2022, when St. Mary's and Lutheran St. Charles played after winning championships in 2021. 

Despite the loss, Brinkley was pleased with the things he saw.

"The thing that I was the most excited about was that we kept finding ways to stay in the game," Brinkley said. 

Blair Oaks (2-0) pushed its lead to 31-12 early in the third quarter before Lutheran North stormed back. The Crusaders sliced into the lead with a Jonathan Moore touchdown pass to senior Martez Stephenson to cut the deficit to 31-18. 

Lutheran North's defense found its footing in the third quarter. After surrendering over 200 yards of offense in the first half, North held the Falcons to 60 yards of offense in the third quarter and forced a turnover.

"ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were committing seven in the box and going straight man across the board, and they're athletic enough that they can do that," Blair Oaks coach Ted LaPage said. "We feel like we have some guys, but they were able to run with our guys and take some of the intermediate passes away."

Late in the third quarter, senior Osar Tate took a handoff and bolted 76 yards untouched to pull the Crusaders to within 31-26. 

But the comeback ended there as the Falcons scored twice to ice the result.

While he was upset with the loss, Moore echoed his coach's sentiments that the blueprint is there for the Crusaders to repeat as Class 4 champions. 

"We just have to keep working," Moore said. "I still have 100% confidence in this team."

Tyler Bax goes off 

Blair Oaks senior quarterback Tyler Bax completed 13 of 20 passes for 280 yards and four touchdowns, and he rushed 15 times for 114 yards and two TDs.

"Lutheran North is a great team and any time you can play as a team and do good things like that, it's amazing," Bax said. "The linemen up front helped block, and if it wasn't for all these guys taking pressure off me, I can take pressure off them. We have a lot of weapons, and they have to try and defend them all."

It wasn't just his ability to gash the defense. LePage praised his quarterback's ability to make the correct read time after time Friday night.

"He puts the ball to positions that he needs to," LePage said. "Great runner, great passer, but he's able to put us into a correct play and get it to the open guy."

Bax found five different receivers as he helped the Falcons tally 40 or more points for the 13th time in their last 15 contests.

Crusaders drop opener

Lutheran North played its first game since capturing the Class 4 championship 273 days ago. 

"We were knocking off some rust," Moore said. "We had some new guys in some new places, but I have to do better at my game too."

Moore went 17-for-28 passing for 177 yards and two touchdowns to go along with two interceptions.

Senior running back Martez Stephenson rushed 12 times for 67 yards, while junior receiver Kyren Evans led the team with five receptions and 68 yards. 

"Short-term memory. I'm already thinking about John Burroughs," Moore said. "We're going to look at film and see what I did wrong, but short-term memory. That's the key to this."