The wind whipped around on a cold spring night at Lawrence High, and sophomore Skylar Drum thought nothing of it.

She knew the Lions, coming off back-to-back losses, had plenty of improvements to make. So although she and her teammates would’ve preferred more temperate conditions Thursday, the task at hand helped them tune out the elements and focus on competing.

Drum scored a goal in each half, and LHS won its first Sunflower League game of the season, 2-0, against Shawnee Mission North.

Plays by the sophomore’s teammates made both scores possible. Senior captain Keeli Billings worked a give-and-go with Drum in the 17th minute for the go-ahead goal. In the 54th minute, Billings again set things in motion. She played a free kick from near the right corner, into the box. Freshman Katelyn McIntire attacked on the set, and when she misfired, Drum got to the rebound and padded the LHS lead.

“We’ve been making some really good passes and finding the open person,” Drum said following her two-goal night, “and we showed signs during the game several times of getting good combinations and going to the goal.”

LHS coach Justin Young felt just as satisfied with the chemistry the Lions (3-2) are beginning to show.

“The younger girls are really starting to understand where the older girls are gonna be,” Young said. “I think the expectations for how we need to play the game are rising for every player on the field.”

That of course includes Lawrence’s defenders, who teamed to register its second shutout of the season. Junior goalkeeper Katie Murrish came through with a critical save on a SMN free kick taken from just outside the box in the 49th minute. North senior Jenna Armstrong fired a perfectly placed shot at the upper right corner and Murrish swatted it away with the Lions up just a goal.

“That was big,” Drum said. “It would’ve been kind of devastating for them to get a goal, because that would’ve given them the momentum.”

Young complimented the first-year keeper for reading the kick (taken with the wind at North’s back) well, and he thought the entire defensive unit showed composure.

An injury forced LHS to move senior Sadie Keller onto the back line, where she, sophomore April Hodges and freshman Bess Davison supported the rest of the team.