Unbeaten, untied and unlucky in the draw. That’s Free State High’s football team.

The Firebirds had to settle for a No. 2 seed in the Class 6A playoffs and will meet No. 7 seed Shawnee Mission East (5-4) at 7 p.m. Friday at Haskell Stadium.

“It really makes no difference,” Free State coach Bob Lisher said about the seedings announced Saturday. “I think they all match up pretty well all the way across the board.”

Shawnee Mission West, also unbeaten and untied, is the No. 1 seed in the eastern half of the state bracket.

“They looked at our records and looked at all the tie-

breakers,” Lisher said, “and we were still even, so they pulled names out of the hat.”

As the top seed, SM West (9-0) will meet Olathe Northwest (3-6), the No. 8 seed, in its Friday opener.

If the Firebirds had been tapped as the No. 1 seed, they would have had a rematch with O-Northwest, a team they flogged 61-0 during the regular season, so Lisher prefers SM East.

“(SM) East is a quality opponent,” the Firebirds’ coach said, “and I’d rather play a quality opponent in the first round.”

Another plus, Lisher figures, is that Free State and SM East, although both members of the Sunflower League, did not meet during the regular season.

“It’s very difficult to defeat a team twice during the season,” Lisher said.

If the ‘Birds do dispose of the Lancers, they will have to meet a team they faced during the regular season, either Olathe South or Olathe East. O-South is the No. 3 seed and O-East No. 6. Free State topped O-South, 37-21, in Week Four and O-East, 33-28, in Week Two.

Lawrence High, meanwhile, is the No. 5 seed, and the Lions (5-4) will travel to No. 4 Blue Valley North (6-3) on Friday.

“I learned a long time ago not to worry about who you’ll play,” Lions coach Dirk Wedd said. “They tell you where to go and you go.”

This will be the fourth time in the last five years the Lions will meet a Blue Valley school in the first round of the 6A playoffs. Lawrence has won the previous three, including a 40-21 triumph over BV North in 2002. The Lions knocked off BV Northwest each of the last two years.

Lawrence High is in the same bracket with SM West, the team that thumped the Lions, 51-7, in Week Six. The Lions, incidentally, played SM East, the Firebirds’ first-round foe, during the season and won, 16-3.

Defending Class 6A state champion Hutchinson, the only other unbeaten large-class team in the state, is the No. 1 seed in the western bracket. Maize (7-2) is the No. 2 seed.