JFree State assistant coach Chris Enneking, right, consoles junior Chucky Hunter after the Firebirds' 46-29 loss. Free State's season ended Friday at Haskell Stadium.

Olathe South junior Jake Byrd, left, latches on to FSHS senior Ryder Werts.

Free State's Cameron Schmidt bobbles a pass under pressure from an Olathe South defender. O-South won, 46-29, Friday at Haskell Stadium.

The intensity on the faces of the Free State High football players gave way to tears one at a time.

Coaches consoled players, teammates hugged one another, and the Firebirds’ season came to an end.

“It’s tough,” said senior Ryder Werts, holding back his emotions. “This is a special group. Even if I go on to play college ball, I can’t imagine it being any better than this.”

Third-seeded Free State (7-3) suffered a 46-29 setback to Olathe South (7-3) in the first round of the Class 6A state playoffs Friday at Haskell Stadium. The loss was the Firebirds’ second to the Falcons this season.

The rematch was a far different ballgame than the first meeting between the two Sunflower League squads. In the opener, Free State jumped out early, only to see the Falcons claw their way back and eventually take control of the game.

This time around, O-South broke to an early lead and forced Free State to play catch-up. After being stuffed on their first offensive drive of the night, the Falcons scored touchdowns on three of their next four possessions en route to 21 first-half points. The three scoring drives took just two plays each and ended with touchdown strikes of 50 or more yards.

The first came when Jake Byrd scored from 50 yards out. Byrd darted left and ran past Werts in the secondary before holding off a last-ditch effort from Camren Torneden.

“Their first touchdown was completely my fault,” Werts said. “I got caught out of position, and it cost us. We made mistakes, and they made mistakes. I just think they did a better job of capitalizing on ours.”

Trailing 7-0, the Firebirds answered with a seven-play, 58-yard touchdown drive, capped by senior quarterback Craig Rosenstengle’s 27-yard run. As soon as Rosenstengle crossed the goal line, the Firebirds’ sideline seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, and the game was on.

South struck again at the 8:59 mark of the second quarter when QB Mike Keese hit Reggie Harris down the middle of the field for a 52-yard touchdown. On its next drive, South scored again as Byrd added to a memorable night with a 53-yard run to put the Falcons up 21-7.

Free State answered again. After the interior running game was taken away, the Firebirds opened things up with their “Utah” package. The package, which features a nifty, against-the-grain shovel pass, helped Free State dig its way out of a 14-point hole.

Trailing 21-14 at halftime, Free State opened the second half with a defensive stand and second consecutive touchdown. With the Falcons driving into Firebirds’ territory, Kevin Coleman stripped the football from Keese, and Caleb Gress pounced on the loose ball.

The turnover – one of a combined seven on the night – set up the Firebirds’ third TD. An eight-play, 49-yard drive capped by a five-yard run from Rosenstengle featured the power running of Werts. The senior fullback carried four times for 25 yards on the drive to set up the game-tying score. Werts finished with 46 yards on 11 carries.

With the game tied at 21, things began to unravel. A roughing-the-passer penalty and a pass-interference call aided the Falcons’ next drive, which ended with a five-yard TD run from Byrd.

Three minutes after watching Free State tie the game, Olathe South reclaimed the lead – this time for good.

“You can’t make those kinds of mistakes against a good football team,” Free State coach Bob Lisher said of the costly penalties. “Our guys fought hard, and for the most part I thought we played a pretty good football game. We just came up short. We played a pretty doggone good football team tonight.”

If the Falcons’ fourth touchdown of the night didn’t put the game out of reach, a Free State fumble on fourth-and-two near midfield just about did.

With his team driving for a second game-tying touchdown, Rosenstengle tucked the ball and powered forward on fourth down. It appeared that Rosenstengle had picked up the first down, but, in an attempt to gain extra inches, the senior was stripped and the ball came loose. Olathe South recovered. Three plays later, Keese connected with Byrd on an 11-yard touchdown pass, and Olathe South led, 35-21.

“Tonight, they did the little things better,” Rosenstengle said. “Those matter a lot in a game like this.”

A safety on Free State’s next possession put O-South up 37-21 with 10:37 to play.

Still, Free State had one more shot. After forcing the Falcons to punt from their own end zone with 7:00 to play, junior Chucky Hunter ripped off a 40-yard touchdown return that injected life back into the Free State squad. Rosenstengle’s two-point conversion brought the Firebirds within a touchdown at 37-29, but South’s Kyson Ginavan made sure the Free State hopes were short-lived by returning the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown.

Game, set, match, Falcons.

Free State actually outgained O-South in total yards (349 to 342), but the Falcons’ 1-2 punch of Byrd (17 carries for 188 yards) and Keese (151 passing yards) was a touch better than the Firebirds’ duo of Hunter (15-55) and Rosenstengle (248 total yards).

The setback was Free State’s first playoff loss to Olathe South in school history. It didn’t overshadow what Lisher considered a solid season.

“I’m so proud of this group,” Lisher said. “It’s tough to say goodbye to seniors when you’ve been with them for three years. It’s always hard. No loss is harder than another except for the fact that this is the last one, and we don’t get to get back out there on Monday.”