The best season in Lawrence High girls soccer history just got better.

Junior forward-midfielder Kara Roelofs scored two goals and the Lions’ smothering defense posted its ninth shutout of the season in a 3-0 victory over Topeka High in the first round of the Class 6A Central Regional on Tuesday at the Youth Sports Inc. fields. It marked the first postseason win in LHS girls soccer history.

“We’re excited,” said LHS senior defender Bliss Lemmon, who along with junior Lindsay Garito and junior Dyana Lawrence helped deny several Topeka penetrations. “We’re going down in history. As a captain and a senior, it’s awesome to be a part of this.”

The No. 4 seed Lions (9-6-2) will play at 7 p.m. Thursday at No. 1 Manhattan (13-2-2).

LHS dominated against Topeka (6-8-1). The Lions outshot the Trojans 14-4, including 7-1 in the first half.

Roelofs connected on her first goal with 1.2 seconds left in the first half following a Samantha Lopez assist. Roelofs was deep in the box and surprised to find the ball at her feet before firing a shot to the right of the Topeka goalkeeper.

“It was an awesome cross,” Roelofs said of the assist. “I just tried to poke it in.”

Topeka, which lost 1-0 to Lawrence in the regular season, never recovered.

“We didn’t play our best in the first half and we still came out and led 1-0,” said second-year LHS coach Keith Nelson, who has guided the Lions to a school-record nine victories and the program’s first winning season. “It’s our first postseason game, we were a little nervous and I told them at halftime we needed to win all the 50-50 balls.”

In the 56th minute, Roelofs struck again from 35 yards out, blasting a shot over the Topeka goalie.

“Coach wants us to shoot a lot and I took a shot and it went in,” Roelofs said.

The Lions scored their final goal in the 78th minute when senior midfielder Betsy Rowden scored following a corner kick by Lemmon.

Before the regional opener, LHS was 0-2-1 in its final three games of the regular season.

“We played pretty solid (against Topeka),” Lemmon said. “We tried to work our way back to the level we wanted to play.”

With nine victories, LHS tied a city girls soccer record for wins in a season. Free State High finished 9-8 last season.

“I don’t think we should get too excited,” Garito said. “We still have a big game on Thursday.”

During the regular season, Manhattan blanked LHS, 4-0.

“It wasn’t our best game,” Nelson said. “It was one of our weaker moments.”