photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Free State's Wesley Edison (7) looks for a receiver Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at Shawnee Mission South High School.

The Free State football team kept its undefeated season intact Friday night, earning its fifth straight win and beating Shawnee Mission South 49-24 on the road.

The Firebirds (5-0) scored 42 points in the first half to pull away from the Raiders (1-4), who could not keep up with the explosive Free State offense. The visitors finished with 474 total yards of offense compared to the home team’s 388 yards.

“I felt like the offense played great tonight but I felt like the defense did not play really good at all,” FSHS coach Kevin Stewart said. “Hopefully it’s a wake-up for our guys on defense. We have to come prepared every week.”

Free State started off the scoring right away thanks in large part due to a 62-yard run from Grant Lincoln on the first play from scrimmage. The drive was finished off courtesy of a 1-yard run, also from Lincoln. This put Free State up 7-0 less than two minutes into the game with Shawnee Mission South yet to touch the football.

After the Firebirds forced a three-and-out on the Raiders’ first drive, Free State tacked on more points less than three minutes later, with Wesley Edison finding Landon Leipold all alone in the end zone to make it a 14-0 game, with still eight minutes left in the opening quarter.

The Raiders proceeded to take nearly six minutes left off the clock on their next drive, capping it off with a 32-yard field goal from Adam Olson, trimming the Free State lead to 14-3 nearing the end of the first quarter.

Edison recorded a 71-yard touchdown run to finish the first quarter strong, and proceeded to score his second rushing touchdown of the night midway through the second quarter, with the second score coming from 15 yards out.

With those two touchdowns making it a 28-3 game at the 5:50 mark of the second quarter, Grant Jennings of SMS trimmed the deficit once again with a 45-yard run, making it a 28-10 game with three minutes left in the first half.

However, Free State responded with two more scores before the end of the opening half with a 53-yard touchdown pass from Edison to Leipold, and a 15-yard run from Devon Hamilton, pushing Free State’s lead to 42-10 heading into the halftime locker room.

“Wesley is on a different level than some of these guys and that showed tonight,” Stewart said. “Grant had a nice run at the beginning and the receivers had some nice catches. The offense took care of business.”

Each team traded touchdowns to begin the second half with a 60-yard run for Shawnee Mission South’s Ben Johnson and an 11-yard pass from Edison to Hamilton for Free State. Those two scores made it 49-17 about halfway through the third quarter.

Shawnee Mission South ran out the rest of the third quarter and had the ball inside of the Free State 20-yard line, but the Firebirds’ defense stuffed the Raiders on a fourth-and-1 to force a turnover on downs, giving the ball back to Free State’s offense early in the fourth quarter.

From there, the Raiders scored once more on a 8-yard run from Johnson, but the Firebirds ran the clock out the rest of the way ending with a 49-24 victory.

Free State travels to Shawnee Mission again next week, where the Firebirds will face Shawnee Mission North. Kickoff against the Bison is set for 7 p.m.

“We’re just going to tell them that we need to focus on our fundamentals,” Stewart said. “Next week is going to be harder than this week and every week after this will get harder. We’ll see how it looks on film and then get ready to go next week.”

GAME STATS

Free State 49, Shawnee Mission South 24

FS | SMS

First downs 11 | 9

Rushes-yards 31-329 | 35-239

Passing yards 145 | 149

Total offense 474 | 388

Fumbles-lost 0-0 | 0-0

Interceptions 0 | 1

Penalties-yards 6-45 | 5-45

Score by quarters

Shawnee Mission South 3 7 7 7 – 24

Free State 21 21 7 0 – 49

HOW THEY SCORED

1st Quarter:

10:37 – Grant Lincoln 1 yard run. Yusef Iskandrani kick good. (FS 7 SMS 0)

08:01 – Landon Leipold 36 yard pass from Wesley Edison. Iskandrani kick good. (FS 14 SMS 0)

02:30- Adam Olson 32 yard field goal. (FS 14 SMS 3)

01:44 – Edison 71 yard run. Iskandrani kick good. (FS 21 SMS 3)

2nd Quarter:

05:50 – Edison 15 yard run. Iskandrani kick good. (FS 28 SMS 3)

03:07 – Grant Jennings 45 yard run. Olson kick good. (FS 28 SMS 10)

02:23 – Leipold 53 yard pass from Edison. Iskandrani kick good. (FS 35 SMS 10)

00:05 – Devon Hamilton 15 yard run. Iskandrani kick good. (FS 42 SMS 10)

3rd Quarter:

10:56 – Ben Johnson 60 yard run. Olson kick good. (FS 42 SMS 17)

08:26 – Hamilton 11 yard pass from Edison. (FS 49 SMS 17)

4th Quarter:

05:59 – Johnson 8-yard run. Olson kick good. (FS 49 SMS 24)

Individual statistics

Rushing:

FS: Wesley Edison 10-166; Ryan Weishaar 6-27; Grant Lincoln 7-92; Justice McAleese 2-10; Antario Lattimore-Douglas 3-9; Devon Hamilton 2-21; Bralin Preston 1-4

SMS: Ben Johnson 20-114; Jake Johnson 1-15; Grant Jennings 14-110

Passing

FS: Wesley Edison 7-14-137; Zane Shaw 1-3-11

SMS: Grant Jennings 11-24-149

Receiving

FS: Bralin Preston 1-7; Devon Hamilton 2-16; Landon Leipold 4-111; Braiden Blanchard 1-11

SMS: Jake Johnson 2-13; Ben Johnson 4-56; Carter Cox 4-65; Gregory Pearl 1-15

photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Free State’s Devon Hamilton (2) celebrates Landon Leipold’s (3) touchdown Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at Shawnee Mission South High School.

photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Free State’s Tristan Tran (69) reach to make an tackle on Shawnee Mission South’s Grant Jennings (4) Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at Shawnee Mission South High School.

photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Free State’s Tristan Tran (69) makes a tackle on Shawnee Mission South’s Ben Johnson (3) Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at Shawnee Mission South High School.

photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Free State’s Coby Ochsner (5) makes a tackle on Shawnee Mission South’s Jake Johnson (1) Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at Shawnee Mission South High School.

photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Free State’s Wesley Edison (7) runs for a touchdown Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at Shawnee Mission South High School.

photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Free State’s Johnnie Williams (23) jumps to defend a catch against Shawnee Mission South’s Jake Johnson (1) Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at Shawnee Mission South High School.

photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Free State’s Wesley Edison (7) is set to throw the football Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at Shawnee Mission South High School.

photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Free State’s Wesley Edison (7) runs in for a touchdown around Shawnee Mission South’s Mikai Hill (21) and Grant Jennings (4) late in the second quarter Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at Shawnee Mission South High School.

photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Free State’s Wesley Edison (7) stretch for the first down in the second quarter Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at Shawnee Mission South High School.

photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Free State’s Devon Hamilton (2) puts a shoulder down to drive through Shawnee Mission South’s Adam Olson (16) and JD Martin (34) Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at Shawnee Mission South High School.