The Lawrence school district announced Saturday morning that the Lawrence High School football game originally scheduled for Friday night and then delayed until noon Saturday has now been delayed again and moved out of Lawrence.

The LHS football team now will play at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Shawnee Mission South District Stadium.

LHS athletic director Ron Commons said the heavy rain the city received in the past 24 hours made the move necessary.

“There’s just so much more rain that we got through the night, and it’s still raining now,” Commons said Saturday morning. “It just seemed to be in everyone’s best interest that we move it over there.”

SM South District Stadium has artificial turf and therefore is better equipped to handle the drenching.

The team the Lions are playing might not have been, but the Lancers are treating tonight’s contest like a home game and will be the home team on the scoreboard. Commons said LHS was making arrangements to help staff the game with ticket takers, concession stand workers and crowd control. The bulk of those positions will be handled by people from SM East.

“It takes a lot of coordination and extra effort to move a game one time,” Commons said. “Let alone twice.”

Since the contest will be a home game for the Lancers, Commons said SM East officials have agreed to play at Lawrence in 2009.