Olathe North didn’t have a single returning starter when the Eagles met Lawrence High in football last season.

Turnabout is fair play.

Lawrence High will face Olathe North tonight with no returning starters in the lineup, or as coach Dirk Wedd said: “The shoe’s on the other foot.”

Kickoff for the season opener will be 7:30 p.m. at Haskell Stadium. Sunflower Broadband Channel 6 will carry a delayed telecast at 10:30 p.m.

Actually, Wedd will use one starter from a year ago in lineman Paul Finch, but the 5-foot-10, 240-pound senior wrecked a knee in the second game of the season – coincidentally against O-North – and didn’t play again in 2005.

Three starters from last season’s finale – linebacker-guard Nick DeBiasse, guard Patrick Johnson and tight end Uliti Fangupo – were penciled in as probables this fall, but only one of those three will be suited tonight.

DeBiasse, a first-team All-Sunflower League selection at guard, will miss at least two more weeks with a knee injury and Fangupo, a 290-pounder, opted not to go out for football.

Johnson missed the first week of preseason practice while with the Lawrence Raiders at the Legion Baseball World Series and Wedd said the 5-10, 230-pound senior won’t start, but will definitely play.

At first glance, a lack of Lawrence High returning starters looks like a red flag the size of a sail, but many of the Lions’ projected performers this fall saw considerable action last season, either as back-ups or late in blowouts. Only a couple of starters have seen little or no varsity action.

Still, Wedd wonders if this group will display the same moxie as last year’s 10-2 squad, the best Lawrence High team in a decade.

“We need to find out how tough we are,” Wedd said. “If they get punched in the mouth, will they run home, or will they play like a Lawrence High football team?”

Traditionally, the Lions have featured a punishing rushing attack with a talented 1-2 punch at running back. This year’s featured back will be Tony Williams, a 6-0, 200-pound senior, but Tyler Hunt, a 6-2, 210-pound junior, is dangerous, too. Hunt showed flashes of brilliance in mop-up roles last season.

Senior Chance Riley is the quarterback, a 6-5, 205-pound senior who will also start at defensive end. When Riley isn’t handing off to Williams or Hunt – something he’ll do often – he’ll have a proven passing target in senior wide receiver Nathan Padia.

The Lions needed a pair of touchdown passes last year in order to knock off the inexperienced Eagles, 18-13, at the Olathe District Activities Center.

“We might have to throw a little more this time, too,” Wedd said.

First-year O-North coach Pete Flood has 11 returning starters, including senior running back Josh Gore, who gained 160 yards on 28 carries against the Lions in the 2005 meeting.

Lawrence High will be home next Friday, too, against Olathe South.

“Two weeks from now,” Wedd said, “we’ll know a lot more about this team.”