Maybe the stars were aligned Thursday night at the Youth Sports Inc. fields.

Scratch that. There wasn’t a star in the sky during Lawrence High’s soccer game.

How about an extraordinarily bright moon, which prompted injured LHS senior Ian Legler to say: “It’s really not getting smaller like you might think it is, because we’re looking at it in relation to the rest of the sky and not compared to the horizon.”

Nope, too technical, even if he did learn the concept in his coach David Platt’s psychology class.

LHS forward Jake Brewer’s explanation was simple, not celestial.

“This is the way it was supposed to be all year. We just had some bad luck,” said a smiling Brewer, who had plenty of reason to smile because LHS won its first game of the season Thursday, defeating Shawnee Mission North, 2-0.

Brewer’s reasoning sounds good enough. The Lions didn’t need luck from above, they manufactured just enough in the second half.

From the start of the final 40 minutes, the Lions broke open a game that was close because neither team could control the tempo in the first half.

Chris Armstrong broke away for a one-on-one with SM North’s goalie and slipped a shot passed him for a 1-0 LHS advantage.

Lawrence High forward Ibrahim Bah, right, is trapped by two Shawnee Mission North defenders during the first half. Bah, who hit the post during the game, was an offensive catalyst in the Lions' 2-0 victory Thursday night at the Youth Sports Inc. fields.

The Lions didn’t let up, and nearly scored off a header later in the half when Jon Gittins went top shelf, but was called for being offsides.

Just minutes later, Lawrence tried the trick again and it worked.

Adam Renfro knocked in an identical ball with his noggin in the 50th minute that made the score 2-0.

“It’s just awesome,” Renfro said of the win. “But really we were close in so many games that we knew we could win.

“But when you actually do it, it feels pretty good.”

The Lions defense didn’t let the Indians back in the game, although SM North (3-8) had two quality opportunities late.

With a little more than 10 minutes left, a SM North free kick bounced past outstretched LHS goalie Sean Hargis, but deflected off the post and out of bounds.

Another strong Indians’ strike slid just wide of the Lions goal as 2:16 showed on the scoreboard.

“We put it all together tonight,” LHS co-coach Matt Makens said. “We got a couple of scores, played solid defense, and just got it done.”

Platt offered even more praise — or was it more psychology — to his 1-8-1 LHS squad after the game.

“Thank you guys for not quitting,” he yelled.

LHS principal Dick Patterson might have given the team the best present Thursday night.

“Because of this win, you can all take the day off tomorrow,” he said.

Then again, today is Lawrence High’s homecoming, and students already were scheduled to be off.