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

Lawrence High junior Jaxon Becker celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown against Lawrence Free State Friday, October 25, 2024, in Lawrence.

The football regular season didn’t end the way the Lawrence Lions hoped, but the Lions have a chance to turn it all around in the playoffs, starting with Shawnee Mission East on Friday.

Once playoffs start, all bets are off. Anyone can win the state championship.

“Everyone has a chance,” coach Clint Bowen said. “No matter what happened in the regular season, it all resets. Everyone gets their seat at the table, and I think this week our kids have been able to focus in on that.”

The Lancers also finished the regular season with a 4-4 record. The Lancers finished with the eighth seed in the 6A East over the Lions because of tiebreakers. The Lancers’ average point differential was 2.50, which was higher than the Lions’ 1.13.

Shawnee Mission East is another run-heavy offensive team, similar to the Olathe East team that the Lions faced and beat 42-28 early in October. The Lions have some confidence knowing that they’ve seen this style of offense, and they’ve played well against it in a win.

“They do a really good job of understanding their run schemes and getting off the block,” Bowen said.

Bowen and the Lions have talked about the mentality that the team had going into the Olathe East game. It was a physical, run-heavy game for both teams, and the Lions were able to get the road win by having a tough mindset. They’ll need more of that going into Friday’s game against the Lancers.

Defensively, the Lancers are led by a familiar face to Bowen. DeMontie Cross, the Shawnee Mission East defensive coordinator, worked with Bowen on the Kansas coaching staff. Cross, who has also coached at the NFL level, lets his defense move around and attack in multiple ways.

Bowen said that the team will have to make plays in the pass game. The Lancers will play a lot of man coverage, so it will be up to the Lions to win one-on-one matchups to make plays. On the offensive line, because the Lancers will send blitzes often, the linemen will have to hold their blocks one-on-one.

“His defensive players play hard, they play sound,” Bowen said. “When teams come out and challenge you man-to-man and load the box and create a whole lot of havoc in the run game with stunts and by bringing linebackers from different spots, you have to win those one-on-one matchups.”

In this game — and likely through much of the postseason — the Lions are going to rely on some of their younger players with injuries naturally starting to add up. Of the few that played against Free State last week, Bowen said that those sophomores improved and fought back through the duration of the game, which was an encouraging sight.

One of those players is sophomore Malakai Chrismon, who stepped in after injuries to left guard Bailey Johnson.

“Early on in the game against Free State, he was getting knocked back,” Bowen said. “Nothing can replace that game experience and going against a guy who has been there and done that. I’ve been happy with our kids who have (stepped in) because they’ve all fought back. They’ve accepted the challenge, and you can see the progress in the course of a game.”

The older veterans on the team have helped the younger guys prepare for their moment. Banks Bowen has helped offensive players understand what he sees as a quarterback, while Noah Richardson and Ben Marker have been helpful from the linebacker position in coaching up their fellow position players. Ty Silvers has done so with the offensive linemen that have seen larger roles.

The Lions have had plenty of underclassmen step up in big roles. To beat Shawnee Mission East and get some momentum further into the playoffs, the team will need those players to continue to improve and make a difference.