Close might be the wrong word to describe how Lawrence High’s boys soccer team nearly picked up its first victory Thursday night at the Youth Sports Inc. fields.

The Lions — who clearly outplayed Shawnee Heights down the stretch — just missed on several scoring opportunities in the final 10 minutes that would have at least helped them tie the Thunderbirds, if not pull out a win.

Instead, LHS settled for its third straight setback, falling 2-1.

“I think every part of our game was on except our shots,” said LHS co-coach Matt Makens. “A couple of opportunities where, if a shot was a little longer, a little harder, it would have been a tie game.”

That’s how the Lions tied it in the first half after Heights took a 1-0 lead in the first five minutes.

In a half that featured a lot of midfield battles, Lawrence’s offense got going in the final minutes.

Junior forward Jake Brewer drove a ball deep into Thunderbird territory before whacking it off a Heights player and right to the foot of junior Adam Renfro, who booted a crosser into the back corner of the Heights net.

While the Lions fought more than 30 minutes to get back in the game, they found themselves again down a goal less than 10 minutes into the second half.

Heights controlled the first 20 minutes of the second half, but beat Lawrence three times on one play before Derek Berry finally put the ball in the open net.

Saving the ball from going out of bounds, Lawrence High's Tim Haynes, left, battles Shawnee Heights' Jasper Scheuermann for control. The Lions fell, 2-1, Thursday at the Youth Sports Inc. fields.

Heights’ crazy flurry of shots started when Jason Fundis missed a ball wide left, which teammate Kevin Walter misfired wide right.

Luckily for the Thunderbirds, Berry was wide open in front of the net and tapped the goal home.

The Lions didn’t get discouraged, though, and owned the final 20 minutes, constantly keeping the ball in Heights territory. But LHS missed time and time again on opportune shots.

“We just kind of choked a little bit at the end,” said Brewer, whose final shot in the last 15 seconds sailed over the top of the Thunderbird goal. “We’ll fix that in practice, though, working on finishing work. It’s disappointing. But, hopefully, we can work through it and keep the momentum going, because we’ve been playing better and better each game.

“We’ll get there, we’ll get there.”

Shawnee Heights 2, Lawrence 1

¢ 6Sports video: Lawrence High soccer has rocky start

Shawnee Heights 1 1 — 2

Lawrence 1 0 — 1

SH: Michael Woodall, 5:00

LHS: Adam Renfro, 37:13.

SH: Derek Berry, 47:22.