What started as a promising night ended in an all-too-familiar manner.

Despite jumping out to a 15-0 lead — and taking a 15-14 lead into halftime — the Lawrence High football team fell to Olathe South, 26-23.

The Lions, who ran for 280 yards on the night, were in the game until the end. Despite falling behind 26-15 early in the fourth quarter, LHS rallied and had possession, down by three, with two minutes to play. The Lions’ final drive, which began at their own 1-yard line, went nowhere, as penalties and incompletions kept LHS from advancing into field goal range.

The loss dropped LHS to 0-5 on the season. Olathe South improved to 3-2.

Next week, the Lions will travel to Shawnee Mission West.

LHS 15, Olathe South 14, halftime

Ball control has been the story of the night for Lawrence High, which owns a 15-14 lead over Olathe South at halftime at LHS.

The Lions took the opening kickoff, drove 71 yards in 19 plays and 11 minutes and jumped out to an 8-0 lead over the Falcons. On the next possession, the Falcons, with their spread offense, drove the ball into LHS territory but stalled on a fourth-down play and turned the ball back over to the Lions.

Seven minutes and 12 plays later, LHS took its first two-touchdown lead of the season when Chris Gaston scored from seven yards out on a bootleg that completely fooled the Falcons. After marching up and down the field between the tackles all half, South plugged the middle but failed to account for Gaston on the outside.

The extra point made it 15-0 Lions.

From there, South put together two separate scoring drives to get back into it. The first score came on a 34-yard TD run by Kendal Harland. The second came with 20 seconds to play in the half when Tanner Dutton hit Marquis Addison with a 22-yard TD pass late in the half.

Tyrae Jenkins scored the Lions’ first TD from a yard out.

LHS has owned time of possession thus far, out-possessing the Falcons 19 minutes to 5 minutes with the ball-control offense.

Olathe South won the coin toss and deferred its choice to the second half, which means the Falcons likely will open the second half with the ball.