Free State High football players knew there wasn’t much room for error facing Olathe North on Friday night.

That didn’t make it any less painful when a few blown assignments led to a 14-7 loss in their home opener at FSHS.

With more than seven minutes remaining in the game, O-North quarterback Chaz Burgess broke a few tackles on a third down for a 24-yard gain, putting the Eagles inside the five-yard line. Two plays later, Eagles running back Venus Triplett dived past the pylon for a three-yard touchdown run, giving O-North its seven-point advantage.

“I thought defensively we played a great football game,” FSHS coach Bob Lisher said. “We gave up a couple of plays as inexperienced teams do sometimes, but our kids played hard. They were physical. They hit hard. They did everything we asked them to do.”

The Eagles (2-0) entered the game with a potent running game, led by Triplett. The Firebirds did as well as they hoped, limiting the Sunflower League’s leading rusher to 102 yards on 42 carries.

It wasn’t until Burgess, who was inserted at quarterback on the last drive of the first half, found senior receiver Jeighlon Cornell open down the middle of the field for a 26-yard touchdown toss to tie the game in the third quarter that the Eagles could complete a scoring drive.

“I was pretty happy up until the end when we blew the coverage, and it kind of kept in our heads,” FSHS senior lineman Shane Hofer said. “Then we didn’t wrap up on the next play, and they ended up scoring. We’ve got to just keep on building, get our defense to wrap up, and we’ll be good.”

Free State’s linebackers — playing in their first game without junior Sam Skwarlo, who was lost to a season-ending foot injury — flew around the field like missiles landing on their targets. Paul Bittinger forced a fumble on fourth down when the Eagles were in the red zone in the beginning of the second quarter, and sophomore Jay Dineen made more than 10 tackles, including several in the backfield.

“I was very happy,” the free-flying Dineen said. “Our (defensive) line really contributed to that. They kept everyone off us. They helped our linebackers out and filled (their gaps). It was fun. It was a good game.”

The Firebirds (1-1) had two defensive stops inside of their own 10-yard line. Hofer, who is already earning a reputation for making big plays in the backfield during clutch situations, brought down Triplett on fourth down at the one-yard line late in the second quarter.

“All of our seniors, we step up when it counts,” said Hofer, deflecting credit. “We have a lot of veteran leadership, so it’s not just me, it’s everybody.”

The defense also gave the offense a chance at the end of the game when it kept Triplett from finding the end zone on three straight attempts with three minutes remaining. On fourth-and-goal from the two-yard line, Triplett leapt for the end zone before Dineen popped the ball out, and senior lineman Josiah LeBrun recovered the fumble at Free State’s one-yard line.

“Yeah, I saw him fly through the air, and it was either he was going to score or he was going to fumble,” Dineen said. “I tried to hit the ball, and I got lucky, and I got it.”

Free State went into halftime with a 7-0 lead.

During the entire 15-minute halftime, O-North coach Gene Wier opted against sending his players to the locker room. They stood huddled up just outside of the track by the north end zone. The Eagles limited the Firebirds to just 17 total yards of offense in the second half.