Free State High's Paul Bittinger (7) celebrates with teammates after he ran an interception in for a TD as Free State played Washburn Rural on Friday, Oct. 17, 2014, at FSHS.

It wasn’t that Free State High’s football players felt disappointed about opening district play with a victory Friday night at home.

The Firebirds just knew their 42-14 victory over Washburn Rural wouldn’t exactly have coach Bob Lisher scheduling a parade for them.

FSHS (4-3) racked up 457 yards, 23 first downs and five touchdowns on offense, but the players realized after dominating the Blues (2-5) in many facets of the game, they didn’t ever meet their full potential.

First, the Firebirds muffed a first-quarter punt, which Rural recovered. Then, junior running back Khaury El-Amin, trying to pick up more ground on a 21-yard run for a first down, lost a fumble in the second quarter.

Early in the third, junior quarterback Bryce Torneden had a throw deep down the middle of the field intercepted by Rural senior Nathan Miller when his pass bounced off the extended hands of FSHS receiver Joel Spain.

Less than three minutes into the fourth quarter, Torneden fumbled the exchange on a handoff, and Blues senior Chase Frederick secured the ball.

A turnover per quarter does not make for a happy Lisher — not at this time of year, especially.

“The coaches still think we have a lot of work to do,” junior linebacker Paul Bittinger said, “and I agree. But with what we put up tonight, I feel like we’re off to a good start.”

Lisher conceded Free State at least began its three-week district run, which will determine whether the Firebirds get a playoff berth, with the kind of margin they needed. But the coach demands even more out of his team, because he wants the Firebirds to realize the next two Fridays — at Manhattan and at Topeka — will be a lot more difficult than this particular win.

“We didn’t finish enough drives. We finished a few, but quite honestly we should’ve finished every one, and we didn’t,” Lisher said. “From turnovers, to some of the penalties we got (seven flags for 53 yards), they were very frustrating. It was a little more intense at halftime tonight than it has been, but I’m trying to get a message across to these guys, for what they need to do to finish the season and finish it right.”

A block in the back during an interception return by FSHS senior defensive lineman Shane Hofer early in the fourth quarter negated what would have been the Firebirds’ second defensive touchdown of the night and an even wider margin of victory.

It turns out the culprit was Bittinger, who scored a pick-six for the Free State defense with 1:49 left in the first half. The Firebirds’ front assured Rural senior quarterback Blake Peterson of a long and frustrating night, as he completed just 14 of his 33 passes for 125 yards and a pair of scores — both of which came with his team trailing by 28 points.

“I saw he was under a lot of pressure,” Bittinger said of his interception and score, “and I realized the ball had been hit and the pass had gone off wrong.”

Once he picked it off, he just had to beat Peterson one-on-one to reach the end zone.

Free State’s rushing attack, with Torneden and El-Amin doing the bulk of the damage, kept the home team rolling. Torneden averaged 8.9 yards a carry on his way to 160 yards and two touchdowns, while El-Amin ran 80 yards on just eight carries, two of which he took to the house.

“Our coaches stay on us 100 percent at practice,” El-Amin said. “Even when we go shells, it’s 100 percent. So when we get out here, all we know is 100 percent. We see the hole, we attack it. It’s just normal for us.”

Meanwhile, Torneden completed nine of 14 passes for 138 yards and a TD, caught by Tye Carter.

“Bryce is a freak of nature,” El-Amin said. “You just can’t describe it. That’s just Bryce.”

Those types of plays put Free State in a favorable spot entering the final two weeks of the regular season.

“A win’s a win,” Lisher said. “But we’ve got to do a better job of executing, not making silly, silly mistakes, getting the silly penalties and turnovers — the things that shouldn’t happen this time of year, and we’re still doing them. And that’s the frustrating part.”