Lawrence High senior midfielder Sam Stephens, center, pushes past Shawnee Mission North defender Daniel Zolotor, right, in pursuit of the ball during the Lion's 2-0 victory in their soccer match Thursday at LHS. Also pictured is Kyler Zielsdorf (9).

Lawrence High’s boys soccer players were happy with the result but not with how they got there.

Though the Lions didn’t need to sweat much in their 2-0 victory over Shawnee Mission North on Thursday at LHS, they were disappointed with their effort.

“Well, I’m certainly happy that we got the win,” senior defenseman Ellis Springe said. “But overall, we’ve still got a lot of work to do. We didn’t play our best. We really played down today. The first half was just not very good.”

The Lions (2-1-1) scored the only goal they would need in the 11th minute, when senior Jakob Burdett shook a defender away from him on the left side of the box and shot past SM North senior goalkeeper Kenny Herron for a goal.

But the Lions didn’t build on any of that momentum, while the Indians had a few counter chances from freshman Oscar Aguilar and sophomore Bravlio Zarate.

“After we scored that first goal pretty quickly, a lot of people wanted their own piece of the pie, so to speak, and they tried to take it themselves,” Springe said. “So we stopped playing as a team, and we started losing the ball more often.”

With a lot of misplayed attacks, LHS coach Mike Murphy didn’t waste a chance to tell his team about it afterward.

“I chewed their butts a little bit at halftime because I thought we were a little lackadaisical in our movement,” Murphy said. “We’ve preached and preached about when you’re between these white lines, you can’t play any different.”

The second half was a different story, as the Lions played with more energy and also had strong contributions from their substitutes.

In the 64th minute, senior midfielder Sam Stephens slid a pass to Matt Mantooth just inside of the 18-yard box, and Mantooth fired a shot over a leaping Herron that bounced on the underside of the crossbar and into the net.

“Sam played a great ball. I’m glad he heard me. I called for it,” Mantooth said. “Once I hit it, I looked up. I saw it hit cross bar. I’ve never scored for my high school before, especially on varsity, and it’s just the greatest feeling.”

For all of the mistakes throughout the game, the Lions are just happy it didn’t cost them anything bigger than hearing it from their coach at halftime.

“At least this is all happening in the (fourth) game of the season and not midseason when games are really, really important,” Burdett said. “We’re just still getting everything worked out, and we’ll get it soon.”

The Lions will face Manhattan in a makeup game at 11 a.m. Saturday at LHS.