Olathe ? The teary face of Ryan Murphy said it all after Free State High’s nail-biting 36-35 football loss Friday night against Olathe Northwest.

Murphy had a 21-yard touchdown run, an 81-yard TD on a kick return, and a 17-yard TD reception, and he passed for a 16-yard score.

But he also was responsible for two fumbles, one of which set up the Ravens’ winning drive at Olathe District Activities Center.

“I could look at the good stuff I did, but I’m looking at the bad things,” Murphy said. “I’d rather take a win than any stats – ever.”

Those stats included 292 total yards, and Murphy was 12-for-13 passing the football – the most crucial completion coming in the fourth quarter, on fourth-and-four on O-Northwest’s 22-yard line.

With O-Northwest leading, 36-29, Murphy hooked up with Brett Lisher for a six-yard gain and again on the following play for a 16-yard touchdown that put the Firebirds an extra point away from a tie.

“When we do things right, things happen,” Lisher said about the two consecutive completions. “Murph puts the ball on the money, and if he gets it out there, we’ll catch it for him.”

Unfortunately, a high-arcing PAT by Mike Vaughan soared wide right, and Free State couldn’t score again.

“It was a good snap, good hold,” FSHS coach Bob Lisher said. “I thought it was good from the sideline, but obviously it wasn’t.”

Besides the final minutes of the roller-coaster game, the most thrilling moment came with 6:31 left in the second quarter. Within a 24-second period, 21 points were scored, and two of the touchdowns came on back-to-back kickoff returns.

“That was the same thing that happened in this game last year. We were up, they returned the kickoff for a touchdown,” Bob Lisher said. “The following kickoff we did it to them and it was deja vu – it happened again this year.”

The only Firebird besides Murphy to score a touchdown was Brett Lisher, who also scored on a one-yard TD plunge. After the Ravens’ first touchdown, Lisher caught a 44-yard pass but fumbled the ball, and O-Northwest recovered on its own 20-yard line. Five plays later, the Ravens coughed up the ball on the 15, and the Firebirds took five plays to find the end zone.

“We missed opportunities,” Bob Lisher said. “Basically, we stopped ourselves with a couple of turnovers there that hurt us.”

• 6Sports video: Ravens escape Firebirds (10-07-05)

Lisher said it was back to the drawing board for his defense, which allowed 315 yards of total offense.

“They couldn’t stop us, but the problem was we couldn’t stop them, either,” Lisher said. “We changed our defense around this week. We moved people around, we blitzed a heck of a lot. We did things to try to help our smaller guys out up front and it still didn’t work.”

The Firebirds again will be on the road as they begin district play Friday at Topeka High.

“These are just practice games. The real season starts now at district,” Brian Murphy said. “This is what we’ve been working hard for the whole year, because we want to make the playoffs and hopefully we can make some noise in there.”