Lawrence Free State running back Jax Dineen, center, breaks past Garden City's Zeke Herrera (32) and Cristhian Coreas (31) to pick up 20-yards on a run Friday during a 6A state playoff game at Buffalo Stadium in Garden City.

Garden City ? For the first time in his 20 years of coaching the Lawrence-Free State Firebirds, Bob Lisher had to come up with a new pre-game plan for his team as they prepared for week 2 of the Class 6A playoffs.

It required Lisher to load one chartered bus on Thursday and bring his top players and coaches for an overnight stay before Friday’s regional title game against the unbeaten Garden City Buffaloes.

The trip covered 335 miles in distance and took nearly 5.5 hours, arriving in western Kansas just past 11 p.m. Thursday.

The 670-mile round-trip excursion proved to be worth every mile, every hour of the two-day excursion to the western edge of the state after the Firebirds had rolled to a 42-7 triumph in a game that was decided early and was never in doubt in the second half.

Friday’s victory keeps the locomotive rolling as the Firebirds (8-2) will now get to play at home Friday in the quarterfinals after Topeka-Washburn Rural upset No. 2-seeded Manhattan, 24-21.

For Lisher and his squad, the game really had its tone set in the first five minutes of the game.

A turnover on their first play of the game put the Firebirds on the defensive and the once porous defense that has now steadily improved all season, came up big with a 3-and-out against the Buffaloes.

“I thought the kids really came out and played well from the start and still played pretty well in the second half,” Lisher said afterward. “The last three games we’ve played well, but I think our kids up front set the tone for the game.”

What has become the trademark for the Firebirds was once again evident as big plays simply were too much for the host Buffs to overcome.

It didn’t take the Firebirds long to establish control despite coughing up the ball on a fumble on their first play from scrimmage in their own territory.

Giving the ball away to the Buffs at their own 42, the Firebirds’ defense stiffenend and forced a Garden City punt on a quick 3-and-out.

That set the wheels in motion for what would become a dominating first 24 minutes.

Free State went to work offensively, mixing up short pass plays and a tough running game sparked by Jax Dineen.

The first scoring march went 92 yards in 10 plays, capped off by a 13-yard pass from Dallas Crittenden to Bo Miller on a quick out pattern. Kameron Lake booted the PAT, and it was 7-0 with 7:00 left in the first.

Another 3-and-out by Garden and a 27-yard punt return by Zion Bowlin put the Firebirds in business at the Garden 31.

It took only four plays to find the end zone when Dineen bulled his way in from 4-yards out. Crittenden hit Zack Sanders with a 15-yard pass on the first play of the short drive. It was 14-0 on Lake’s PAT, and there was 4:17 on the clock in the first.

The score stayed that way until just past the mid-point of the second period when the quick-strike Firebirds were back in business.

On a second-and-6, Bowlin got hit in the backfield, broke a tackle, and then found an opening in the right side of the Buffs’ defense and raced untouched for the end zone. Lake made it 21-0 with still 5:31 to go before the break.

The teams traded three punts, but on the final punt by Garden’s Peyton Hill, Keenan Garber took it on the Lawrence sideline and raced 61 yards for a gut-punching TD with 1:00 left on the clock. Lake drilled his fourth extra point, spiraling the Firebird lead to 28-0 at halftime.

Free State’s defense was everything it had been cracked up to be over the previous six game winning streak.

In the first 24 minutes, they grudgingly gave up only 46 total yards to Garden City’s offense. In all, they gave up 237 yards to a team that had averaged 35 points and nearly 400 yards a game.

Garden coach Brian Hill gave credit to the Firebirds’ front on both sides of the ball.

“We just lost to a better team and they were dominant at the line of scrimmage,” Hill said of Free State’s line play. “That was the difference. They’re well-coached. You can’t make those kind of mistakes against a team that is that good, and it just snowballed from there.”

With the game well in hand for the start of the second half, Garden City finally showed some signs of life, scoring on a 1-yard dive by quarterback Jesse Nunez that capped off a 75-yard, 11-play drive that consumed 4 minutes, 46 seconds.

“Once we saw that they weren’t going to lay down we knew we had to pick it back up,” said senior running back Zion Bowlin. “We just knew we had to play hard and not let them back in.”

If any doubt existed as to the outcome, it was snuffed out by the big-play ‘Birds when Bowlin broke through and raced 57 yards on the first play of the fourth quarter. Lake’s PAT boot made it 35-7 and for the most part that was it.

“We wanted to come out and wear them down,” Bowlin said of the Firebirds’ offensive plan. “We threw some passes around, wanted to get their big linemen running around and tire them out. That worked pretty well for us.”

The Firebirds scored once more with 6:51 left in the game when Jax Dineen rumbled 22 yards, with Lake making it 42-7 on his sixth perfect kick.

For the Firebirds, who will be arriving back in Lawrence at approximately 4 a.m., it will be home sweet home for the next round.

“The trip home will be much better and I’ll sleep a lot better,” Lisher said of the longest trip of his lengthy coaching career. “Garden City’s got a good team. We just happened to be on our game tonight. Our guys executed and did some good things.”

Garden City ended its season at 9-1.

Free State 42, Garden City 7

LFS | GC

First downs 17 | 9

Rushes-yards 36-259 | 39-127

Passing yards 112 | 110

Total offense 371 | 237

Fumbles-lost 3-1 | 1-0

Score by quarters

Free State 14 14 0 14 — 42

Garden City 0 0 7 0 — 7

Individual Statistics

RUSHING

Free State: Zion Bowlin 7-113 2 TD, Dallas Crittenden 11-(-15), Jax Dineen 10-115 2 TD, Jalen Nash 5-29, Keenan Garber 2-16, Tanner Cobb 1-1.

Garden City: Nunez 25-98 TD, LaPointe 6-11, Hill 8-18.

PASSING

Free State: Crittenden 11-14-0–112 TD.

Garden City: Nunez 7-22-0–110, Winter 0-1-0–0, Hill 0-1-0–0.

RECEIVING

Free State: Bowlin 1-1, Bo Miller 1-9, Zack Sanders 6-53, Daniel Bryant 2-45, Noah Kema 1-13.

Garden City: Herrman 1-5, Kreutzer 1-7, Yi 3-36, Hill 2-62.

HOW THEY SCORED

First quarter

7:00 — Bo Miller 9 pass from Crittenden. Kameron Lake kick. (FS 7, GC 0.)

4:17 — Jax Dineen 4 run. Lake kick (FS 14, GC 0.)

Second quarter

5:31 — Zion Bowlin 47 run. Lake kick. (FS 21, GC 0.)

1:00 — Keenan Garber 61 punt return. Lake kick. (FS 28, GC 0.)

Third quarter

3:11 — Jesse Nunez 1 run. Ezequiel Herrera kick. (FS 28, GC 7.)

Fourth Quarter

11:49 — Bowlin 57 run. Lake kick. (FS 35, GC 7.)

6:51 — Jax Dineen 22 run. Lake kick (FS 42, GC 7.)