Lawrence's Bobby Davis (20) works the ball against an Olathe Northwest defender. Lawrence fell, 3-0, on Tuesday at Youth Sports, Inc.

You didn’t have to wait long to see what kind of toll the latest loss for the Lawrence High boys soccer team – a 3-0 setback to Olathe Northwest on Tuesday night – had taken on the team.

As he walked off the field and headed for the parking lot, senior forward Eddie Okene let out a roaring scream that might have been heard in Downtown Lawrence.

“It’s frustrating,” LHS coach Matt Anderson said. “Because we know how close we are to where we want to be.”

That place is far from the 3-7 record the Lions currently own. The challenge now is to move forward without letting the record, or the frustration, bring them down.

Tuesday’s loss at Youth Sports, Inc. resembled so many that had come before it this season.

The Lions competed hard until the clock read 00:00. The Lions possessed the ball, passed well and came up with stops when they needed them.

But even with all of those things on their side, the Lions still came up short in a couple of areas.

For starters, the LHS offense failed to break through against the Ravens’ sturdy back line.

“What we do too many times is wait for the perfect shot,” Anderson said. “It’s just a mentality. You have to want to shoot.”

In their minds, the Lions want nothing more. But transferring the thoughts of shooting to their feet is a different story.

“That’s what we need,” senior Vienney Phiomavong said. “We just need someone to step up and follow through with shots.”

Phiomavong did just that with 7:14 to play, dribbling and driving his way past the Ravens’ defense and into the box before misfiring on the short side of the net.

“I think fatigue kind of came into play on that one,” he said, explaining the miss.

Still, it was one of the positives that came out of the loss.

The Lions’ best chance of the night might have come early on, with 12 minutes to play in the first half. Senior Bobby Davis, who recently moved up to midfield from defender to replace the injured Tor Fornelli, charged hard on a ball played into the box. Davis and the ONW keeper arrived at the ball at the same time and Davis plowed into him, earning a foul but no goal.

Olathe Northwest took a 1-0 lead into halftime and added two goals in the second half to secure the victory.

Anderson said all three goals could have been prevented.

The first came on a beautiful corner kick off the foot of Austin Cook. As the ball bent toward the net while traveling through the air, it flew above the outstretched hands of LHS goalie Sam Wessels and spun off into the back of the net behind him.

The second goal came on a rocket shot off the post with 24 minutes to play, and the third after a rebound of a save by LHS goalie Sean Simmons. In both cases, Anderson said the Lions made mistakes in positioning that allowed the goals.

Although disappointed by the latest loss, Anderson was not ready to pull the plug on the season. Far from it, in fact.

“Until we’re willing to lock in and clean up some of those little mistakes, we’re going to have results like this,” he said. “The rest of our journey, the rest of the season is mental.”