photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Lawrence Free State head coach Kevin Stewart smiles after a play against Lawrence High Friday, October 25, 2024, in Lawrence.

After a 5-3 regular season finish that saw an abundance of highs and lows, the fifth-seeded Free State football team opens its playoff push on Friday night, hosting 12th-seeded Olathe West (3-5).

The Firebirds are coming off of a 24-14 win over Lawrence High in the City Showdown, one of many tough challenges that the Firebirds faced throughout the first eight weeks.

“I think we played some good competition this year,” head coach Kevin Stewart said. “We feel like we’re prepared based on the competition. It seemed to me like we played four or five teams that were really, really good football teams.”

The daunting schedule featured Lawrence High and Shawnee Mission East, which will face each other in the first round of the playoffs on Friday, along with league opponents Mill Valley, which finished 7-1, and Shawnee Mission Northwest, which is the No. 3 seed in the 6A East bracket at 6-2. Free State also elected to go on the road against Manhattan earlier in the year, falling 38-28 to the No. 2 seed in the 6A West bracket, which finished the regular season with an unblemished 8-0 record.

Even with the 5-3 record that the Firebirds currently hold, having faced stiff competition is a major benefit. They have seen what it will take to defeat tough teams, and know that to claim the state championship, you’re going to have to go through the best teams eventually.

“Let’s say we don’t schedule Manhattan, maybe we’re a little bit higher seed and that certainly sets you up even better for longer sustained runs,” Stewart said. “But at the same time, you haven’t seen that competition. Ultimately, you got to beat all the good teams, anyways. We would rather play them later than earlier (in the playoffs), but at the end of the day, you have to beat the good teams.”

The regular season for Free State saw a lot of uncertainty with the amount of injuries that seemed to keep piling on week in and week out. The Firebirds are now as close to full strength as they can get, and the play of Boston Baker and his receiving corps, coming off of a strong performance against Lawrence High, will need to remain successful in order to go on a deep playoff run.

“I thought Boston did a really good job of getting the ball out quick and making decisions,” Stewart said. “Boston’s going to have to have a really good game this week. We’re at that point in time where he’s still banged up, but he’s going to have to give us what he can give us and we’re going to have to make it work.”

As for Olathe West, the Owls finished the regular season 3-5, including defeats in two straight road games. The Firebirds defeated the Owls in week five, 30-13, so the knowledge of Owls’ tendencies has certainly been helpful for Stewart’s group in preparing for the round one matchup.

“We have a pretty good idea of Olathe West, we’ve seen their games, we played them and we’ve seen their last three games as well,” he said. “We understand what we’re up against, the guys are just going to have to bring it, and we just can’t let them beat us.”

In the week five win, Olathe West was very successful in getting to Baker early and often, forcing him to roll out and find targets. With the wrist injury still affecting Baker, the Free State offensive line will need to keep a clean pocket and allow Baker to get off passes, which was something the unit executed to near-perfection last Friday.

“I thought the offensive line did a really good job. I thought that was their best game of the year,” Stewart said.

The Firebirds’ offense will also need to constantly look ahead in order to put their very strong defensive unit in good spots to maintain leads, or keep deficits at bay.

“Ultimately, the offense has got to have all positive plays,” Stewart said. “If they can move the ball forward, and be positive, eliminate the penalties, holds, bad snaps, fumbles, if they can just continue to move the ball forward and put pressure (on the Owls), that’s what’s going to allow us to win the game. Our defense is going to do a good job, I have confidence that our defense is going to handle them.”

It’s win-or-go-home time for the Firebirds, and Stewart and his group of 30-plus seniors understand that and are ready to attack one play at a time.

“It’s a on- game season, we have to go 1-0 this week,” Stewart said. “At some point in the game Friday night, somebody’s going to quit, somebody’s season is going to be over and if we want to move on, it can’t be us. We’ve got to fight for our season.”

Kickoff at Free State’s stadium is set for 7 p.m.