photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Lawrence junior Tahj Edwards avoids Gardner Edgerton defense in the fourth game of the season on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. The Lions lost to the Blazers 35-21.

After a 2-0 start, the Lawrence High School football team has dropped two straight to fall to 2-2 at the halfway mark of the regular season. Despite the hiccup in the record, the Lions are confident and prepared to get back in the win column on Friday.

The Lions will host the Shawnee Mission West Vikings, who are 1-3 and are also on a two-game losing streak.

The Vikings have had a rough recent history. The team’s week two win over Lincoln College Prep was their first win since 2021, when they went 3-6. The Vikings’ last winning season came in 2016 with a 6-4 record.

LHS coach Clint Bowen believes his team learned the unfortunate but necessary lesson about overlooking a team during the week three loss to Olathe North. Even though the Lions have had success against this team before, Bowen expects his group to come out ready and fighting on Friday.

“They’ve rallied back, and I think it’s helped them grasp the big picture better,” Bowen said. “High school football is so much about improvement from week to week.”

Bowen said that he’s seen the team change its mindset over the past few weeks in how it approaches practices, and that despite being a 2-2 team, the Lions are going to be a tough opponent for anyone in the state going forward.

The Vikings have a quarterback in Steven King with a dangerous ability to run the ball. Once again, the LHS front seven will be tested and will need to make negative-yardage plays to keep the Shawnee Mission West offense off-balance. The Lions will rely on its speed on the edge and its defensive pass rush to accomplish that.

“He does a really good job of scrambling, staying alive and making a play,” Bowen said.

Last week, outside linebacker Josh Galbreath moved from outside linebacker to inside linebacker to match up against Gardner Edgerton’s wishbone offense. This week, he will return to his usual spot on the outside where it will be critical for him, senior defensive end Larney Finney and junior defensive end Devin Foster, among others, to get to the quarterback. Tackling will be important as ever, as the Lions will need to avoid allowing the play to break down where the Vikings can take advantage on the run.

As for the Shawnee Mission West defense, the Lions will have to account for safety Brandon Wilson, who is a three-star recruit with offers from Kansas and Kansas State. To avoid throwing the ball where Wilson can make a play, Bowen is hoping to have a strong run game to take the safety out of it.

“He plays all over the secondary for them,” Bowen said. “He’s an athletic kid back there that can cover and do some things.”

Tahj Edwards has had a good season for the Lions, but Bowen said that the run game overall hasn’t quite worked as well as he expected at the start of the year. In the past two games, the Lions struggled at getting off their blocks and creating holes for the run game.

“Granted, we played good teams, but we made it harder than it needed to be,” he said.

Even without a strong rush attack so far, Edwards has gotten involved in the pass game, both as a receiver and a pass blocker. The pass protection has been a major bright spot overall, and Edwards has played a key part in that by picking up on blitzers and allowing quarterback Banks Bowen to be able to maneuver the pocket.

There are four games left in the regular season, meaning the Lions are at the midway point. So far, the Lions have undergone a few changes to their roster as they’ve learned what works. The Lions also have been relatively healthy with only a couple of injuries that have altered the season.

All of that leads to the expectation from the team that the Lions should continue to get better. That starts with getting a win on Friday at home.

Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. at Lawrence High School.