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

Lawrence High's Elijah Gray (76) and team line up for a play against Free State's defense Friday night, Oct. 13, 2023, for the City Showdown at Free State.

At the end of the whirlwind that was Friday’s football City Showdown, Lawrence High ended up besting then-unbeaten Free State by a matter of inches. A game-sealing tackle by senior Zander Thomas put the finishing touches on LHS’s late comeback to beat the Firebirds.

Rallying back late in the second half, LHS (5-2) made its first case for overtime with a short-range field goal by Andrei Lefort, tying the game at 17-17, with just under two minutes to go in the fourth quarter.

But FSHS quarterback Wesley Edison had other plans, finding senior target Bralin Preston for a 38-yard touchdown over the middle and reclaiming the lead at 24-17 with little over a minute remaining.

Then LHS junior quarterback Banks Bowen got cooking.

Not wasting any time, the starting QB executed a play call Bowen’s father, the Lions’ head coach Clint Bowen, said was 14 weeks in the making – a scramble to his left and a wheel route on fourth-and-long that, somehow, ended up in senior tailback Malcolm Paul’s hands for a 60-yard touchdown pass, tying the game right back at 24-a-piece.

“I have no idea where (Paul) came from,” Banks Bowen said. “I just saw him from the corner of my eye and scrambled and got it out there to him.”

Alongside the big night from senior tailback Tony Jacobsen (16 carries, 101 yards), Bowen completed 12 of 23 passes for 154 yards through the air and added another 99 yards on the ground. While those numbers don’t jump off the page, it was enough to get the Lions a shot at overtime – where Bowen’s arm and senior receiver Mason Mosiman’s hands came up big.

LHS had possession first and came out with two runs to the outside, neither of which set up Jacobsen, or fellow tailback Tahj Edwards (eight carries, 40 yards), for an easy shot at the end zone on the ground. Instead, Bowen took a shot to the back of the end zone, finding Mosiman just inside the paint for six.

Now, the hard part — stopping Edison. FSHS, now down 31-24, inched its way up to the LHS 6-yard line but was forced to make a last-ditch effort on fourth-and-6 to tie the ballgame. Rolling left, Edison fired off a short pass to senior running back Grant Lincoln, who caught the ball inside the 1-yard line and was met by the man of the hour, Thomas, with the game-winning hit.

“In my head, I was like, ‘They’re going to run something tricky,'” Thomas said. “(Lincoln) hasn’t run a vertical route all year, so I just picked up on that subtle clue that (Lincoln)’s in a spot he never is … especially that motion, they were trying to get my eyes on someone I needed to be on but I didn’t bite.”

Had Thomas fallen for FSHS head coach Kevin Stewart’s tricks, it could’ve very well been a different story. Instead, LHS kept its postseason dreams alive and the Firebirds chalked up a loss for the first time this season.

LHS travels to Shawnee Mission West next Friday; FSHS hosts Olathe North on Friday.