Free State High senior Daniel Bryant (4) is congratulated by teammates after scoring a touchdown during the Firebirds' game against Lawrence High Friday night at FSHS.

All you needed to know about how this year’s high school football city showdown went came on back-to-back plays by Free State High senior Daniel Bryant.

First, he intercepted a pass. No time to rest. Bryant starts at both defensive back and wide receiver. The very next play, Bryant burned behind the Lawrence High secondary and ran under Dallas Crittenden’s pass for a 30-yard touchdown.

“You can’t get tired after that,” Bryant said of the interception. “You just have so much adrenaline.”

Bryant packed a season’s worth of highlights into the first quarter and was not alone in that regard for Free State, 56-7 victors on their home field.

Bryant’s first touchdown reception, covering 46 yards, gave the Firebirds a 14-0 lead with 7:42 left in the first quarter. His second one made it 28-0 with 1:57 left in the quarter.

That’s where the score remained until 22 seconds into the second quarter, when the Firebirds went up 35-7, putting them on a pace to win 135-27, making a prophet of Lawrence High coach Dirk Wedd, who said in the leadup to the game that if Las Vegas had a spread on the game it would have been 100 points.

“Coach Lisher was telling us about that this morning,” Bryant said of Wedd’s quote, published in the Friday edition Journal-World. “He just said it was interesting and we needed to come out and play well. “

Bryant smiled, but didn’t make a big deal of it.

“It was funny,” said Bryant, an outfielder for the Free State baseball team. “We were joking about it. It was funny how he would say that and it was all in good fun.”

The Firebirds ran their winning streak to five games after starting the season 1-2, sticking to a pattern they have followed in recent seasons. Start slow, learn, finish fast.

Last season, Free State started 0-3 and reeled off eight victories in a row. In 2014, the Firebirds started 2-3 and then won six in a row.

“We have great coaching and we all buy into what he says,” Bryant said of coach Bob Lisher. “He’s a great coach and he knows how to get us better. He knows how to pick us up and get us to play better.”

Lisher had good things to say about Bryant as well.

“Daniel is athletic and is a quality kid who works hard and you get what you deserve and he deserved that because he earned it,” Lisher said. “He works so hard every day in practice.”

That has translated to steady improvement and a big finish to his senior year. Heading into last week, Bryant was seeking his first touchdown of the season. Now he has three.