Despite the lopsided results to end the season, North Callaway football likes the direction it is going.

The Thunderbirds’ 2022 season ended in a 71-14 loss at state No. 1 Blair Oaks (10-0) in the semifinals of the Class 2 District 4 Tournament. No. 5 North Callaway (7-4) closed the season by winning six of its final eight games, with both of those losses coming against state-ranked teams and its first loss of the year happening against state-ranked Macon.

Senior quarterback Braydn O’Neal finished with 269 yards of total offense — 194 in the air on 10-for-31 passing and 75 yards on 13 carries. North Callaway ran for 80 yards on 27 carries, making it the fourth time of the season the Thunderbirds finished with less than 100 yards on the ground — two of those times occurred against state-ranked Bowling Green and Macon. For the defense, senior Davis Woods led with 11 tackles, and senior Brandon Speight picked up a sack.

Head coach Kevin O’Neal said his team had the toughest test yet on Friday in Wardsville. Quarterback Dylan Hair was tremendous as always — scoring six touchdowns while accumulating all of his 311 total yards in the first half — but the Falcons are the top team in the state because they have great players around him.

“They’re good at every position on the field,” O’Neal said. “They’re offensive line is solid, they’re quarterback’s really good and he has really good receivers to throw to. It’s hard to take away everything. You try to take away something, and they have something else for you.”

North Callaway didn’t fare well early as Blair Oaks jumped out to a 14-0 lead after the Falcons fumbled a kickoff. Three more Hair touchdowns later and Blair Oaks had a 43-0 lead after one quarter.

Braydn O’Neal in his final game as a Thunderbird found AJ Siegel for a 37-yard touchdown he took down the sideline after beating a Blair Oaks defender. Hair scoring two more touchdowns contributed to the halftime score of 64-6 Blair Oaks. O’Neal had 179 total yards at the half.

“We obviously didn’t execute very well,” Kevin O”Neal said. “You can’t do the little things wrong against a really good team. If you do, they are going to exploit it, and that’s what happened.

“They’re sound on defense. They make you earn every yard that you get. We really couldn’t get a running game going, and we struggled in our passing game as well.”

O’Neal connected with Siegel one more time for a touchdown on a 33-yard play to make it 71-12 — 71-14 after a two-point run by the lineman Speight.

North Callaway improved its record from a season ago but will have to move on without seniors such as O’Neal, Siegel and Speight, who all were part of the 10 Eastern Missouri Conference team selections during game week. Each of the three made the first team along with Sergio Moreno at receiver, and three were unanimous, including Moreno, O’Neal at defensive back and Speight at defensive lineman. O’Neal, Speight, Moreno, Siegel and Eli Henry each had offensive and defensive selections while Landon Oney was selected as a second team offensive lineman and Kyle Pennell was a second team linebacker.

“I’m proud of our seniors and proud of the growth we had throughout the year,” Kevin O’Neal said. “It’s a culture we’re working on building, and our seniors, from the time I took the job in March, were on board. You always hate to see a class go, and when your son is a part of that class, it’s a little more tough. They’re all going to be great young men due to the life lessons that they’ve learned from football.

“I think our program is going in the right direction, but we have to continue to improve. We worked hard to get better every week (this season). Three of our four losses were to ranked teams this year, and that’s where we want to get to. We want to be that ranked team, but we’ve got some work to do.”