Considering the way this season was going for Free State High’s football team, Friday’s monumental victory over Lawrence High probably should have made the Firebirds’ year.

But the Firebirds see that 14-12 victory over the Lions as just one step in their quest to forget an 0-5 start and make it to the Class 6A state playoffs for the fourth straight season.

“Hopefully we can build off of what we did last week and get after Washburn Rural,” Free State coach Bob Lisher said.

With a win tonight — kickoff is 7 p.m. at Rural — the Firebirds (2-6) would be one of two teams to advance out of Class 6A’s scrambled District 4.

All four district teams — Lawrence High (3-5), Topeka (4-4), Free State and Rural (5-3) — have a 1-1 record over the last two weeks and thus are all playing for the right to go to state.

“It’s never happened before that I can remember, at least in our district,” said Lisher, Free State’s coach since the school’s opening in 1997. “Every team is in contention, so every play is going to be a fight. Hopefully our kids understand this scenario and are ready to go.”

One would think it would be hard for the Firebirds not to be fired up after the struggles they went through earlier this season.

“I don’t think we ever thought we’d be out of it,” Free State senior lineman Philip Weinmaster said. “We just came back focused last week against LHS, and now we’re focusing on this game more like a playoff game now.”

But Lisher is quick to point out a victory would be just as big for Washburn Rural, which he says has a “big” size advantage over the Firebirds.

“Comparatively speaking, Shawnee Mission Northwest is the biggest team we’ve played this year, and these guys stack right up there with Northwest,” Lisher said.

The Junior Blues’ big line has made plenty of room for Rural running back Mark Stotts, who leads his team with 916 rushing yards.

But Weinmaster said the Firebirds could combat the lack of size with their speed.

“The major key is to stay lower than them and use our speed to our advantage,” he said. “Since they are bigger than us, we can’t just go up against them and try to be more physical. We have to try and use our speed to get to the outside and things like that.”

Lisher points out Lawrence High used some big offensive plays to equalize Rural’s brawn in the Lions’ 33-7 victory over the Blues two weeks ago, although he said the game was much closer than the final score indicated.

But if Free State can stay on the right side of the scoreboard tonight, Lisher said it would show how much his kids kept fighting even when others had stuck a fork in them.

“Our kids have done a good job all year long, but the last couple of weeks it’s even improved,” said Lisher, whose team broke its winless streak with a 31-11 victory over Olathe Northwest three weeks ago, then lost a 36-28 triple-overtime heartbreaker against Topeka in the district opener.

“We’re two out of three, and with a break here and there and opportunity not missed, we could be 3-0 here in October.”