Lawrence High senior Skylar Drum fends off Shawnee Mission Northwest junior Eden Fridlington in the second half of the Lions' 1-0 loss to the Cougars on Thursday at LHS.

After not being able to generate much offense in its first two full matches of the season and Tuesday’s suspended contest against Olathe Northwest, the Lawrence High girls soccer team changed up its formation in hopes of getting better scoring chances and putting the ball in the back of the net.

The scoring chances were there for the Lions on Thursday night against Shawnee Mission Northwest, but the goals were not, as they fell to the Cougars, 1-0.

The Lions (0-3) came out as the aggressors, and nearly grabbed an early lead on a couple of occasions. In the third minute, Lawrence senior Skylar Drum almost capitalized on a ball got behind the SM Northwest back line, but her shot sailed over crossbar. Drum drilled another shot from the top of the 18-yard box just two minutes later, but it missed wide.

“We’re definitely working together better,” Drum said. “We tried a new formation where we have a triangle up top, and it really worked. We just got off to a better start than we have in past games.”

Drum felt the formation change benefited the Lions at each level of the field, too, and not just in the attacking third.

“Before it was a little gappy,” Drum said. “There was too much space in the middle, and the other team was getting too many shots off. Tonight we just tried to clog it up and distribute better.”

The Cougars (4-1-1) were able to weather the storm in the first 10 minutes, and started to get a few good scoring chances of their own late in the first half. Northwest eventually broke through when Alaina DeVolder ripped a shot into the back of the net with 5:33 to play before halftime.

While Lawrence was unable to find an equalizer, Drum believes the goals will come if the Lions can build on the improved continuity that they had against the Cougars.

“It definitely is a good sign of progress because we had just as many shots as they did,” Drum said. “We just didn’t quite finish on ours.”

The Lions will play next against SM West at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Shawnee Mission Soccer Complex.