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

Lawrence High School players celebrate a touchdown during a game against Shawnee Mission South on Friday, Sept 6, 2024, in Lawrence. The Lions were up 14-0.

Junction City — About halfway through the third quarter, the Lions were unstoppable running the ball.

“It’s a great feeling to score 69 points like that,” quarterback Banks Bowen said. “For our offense to execute like that, it’s nice. We just have to make some plays on defense, and we definitely can.”

The first half of the Thursday night football game between Lawrence High School and Junction City High School in Junction City was an intense back-and-forth highlight reel. If someone in the stands missed a touchdown, they’d only have to wait a couple of minutes before another opportunity came.

The Blue Jays held the momentum halfway through the third. A couple of turnovers gave Junction City a lead. But the Lions kept pushing. They kept feeding Tahj Edwards the rock, and he kept moving downfield. For the fourth quarter, the momentum was all Lawrence and they came away with the 69-56 win.

The game was exciting from the start. The Lions recovered a fumble on defense in the first drive of the game and proceeded to score five plays later on a short run by Tahj Edwards. Lawrence forced a three-and-out and scored on its next offensive drive.

LHS started to drive but slowed down to bring up a fourth down. Banks Bowen threw a deep post to Jaylen Parks in the end zone that Parks couldn’t hold onto for a turnover on downs. However, for the third straight drive, the Lions defense held strong and forced the Blue Jays to punt.

Six minutes of game clock after the first score, the Lions found the end zone again, thanks in large part to a long run by Edwards to get the team to the 1-yard line. Jaxon Becker took a touch pass the final yard and the Lions took a 14-0 lead.

The Lawrence defense seemed to be set up for another three-and-out in the next drive with a big tackle for loss on second down, but the Blue Jays scored on a long touchdown pass to get on the board.

Forty-four seconds later and the Lions scored again. Bowen hit Becker on a 38-yard touchdown throw, and the Lions took a 21-7 lead that they held through the rest of the first quarter.

The Bowen-to-Becker connection worked like a charm once again. The two have such good chemistry from their relationship off the field as much as on the field.

“We are great friends,” Bowen said. “I’m kind of playing ‘throw it up, Jaxon’s down there somewhere.’ He’s making the plays so I’m not going to stop anytime soon.”

The next 12 minutes were all Blue Jays. Offensively, they pushed the ball down the middle with the run game and took timely shots outside the numbers in the pass game. No matter what defensive look the Lions gave them, the Blue Jays had an answer.

Junction City converted on a crucial fourth down on its first drive of the second quarter which led to the first of three touchdowns for the team.

The Lions responded with some magic from their quarterback. Bowen started to look to scramble but kept his eyes downfield and floated the ball just beyond the defense to Becker to get to the 3-yard line. He took the ball the rest of the way to get a 28-14 lead.

The Lawrence offense went cold for the final five minutes of the half, while the Blue Jays scored twice to tie the game. With 1:20 left in the half, Bowen threw off his back foot and the defense picked it off and returned it for a touchdown for the third Junction City touchdown of the quarter.

The start of the second half wasn’t much better for the Lions. A fumble on their first offensive drive that the Blue Jays scooped up and scored on led to Junction City’s lead of the night.

That was where the Lions turned it on. A switch flipped for the team and the physicality changed for the Lions. They never looked back. Josh Galbreath got a big sack on second down and the secondary made sure the third-down throw was incomplete.

When the Lions got the ball back, they dominated.

“We were incredibly disappointed with how we played defensively in the first half,” head coach Clint Bowen said. “We definitely challenged them to go out there and be the more physical team, and they took that to heart in the third quarter.”

Edwards broke off a big run to start the momentum shift, and the Lions continued to emphasize the run. In the red zone, Banks Bowen threw a wheel route to Edwards for a game-tying touchdown.

A minute of game play later, cornerback Adric Webb plucked the ball from the air and returned it for a pick-6, giving the Lions back the lead. To keep the momentum going, the Lions went for an onside kick and recovered. A couple of rushes by Ethan Curry and Edwards led to the third touchdown run for Edwards of the night.

The Blue Jays finally got the ball back, but by that time the momentum was all with the visitors. The Blue Jays went for it on fourth down deep in their own territory and came up short, leading to a quick touchdown pass from Bowen to Becker.

In the span of five minutes, the Lions had scored four times for a 21-point lead. There was still an entire quarter to play, but the game effectively ended there.

“They did what we asked,” Clint Bowen said. “(The players) said, ‘Alright, let’s start imposing our will on them, let’s start big boy-ing them,’ so that was encouraging to see.”

Lawrence’s defense continued to hold strong in the fourth quarter, while the offense drained the clock with the run game. With just over five minutes left in the game, Bowen threw his sixth touchdown pass to Josh Galbreath in the back of the endzone, to go up 63-35.

The Blue Jays didn’t give up, as they scored on a 35-yard touchdown pass with over three-and-a-half minutes left, followed by a second 35-yard touchdown pass with under a minute left. They then recovered the following kickoff and scored on an 18-yard rushing touchdown with 14 seconds left in the game to add some late intrigue.

The Lions didn’t mess it up a second time. They controlled the kickoff, and with three seconds left, Bowen kept it for a final 80-yard touchdown run to give the final score 69-56.

It wasn’t as pretty as a home shutout, but it was a good win for the team.

“When you have a team that’s willing to fight and work through the difficult times, you’ve always got a chance,” Clint Bowen said. “Tonight we proved that we have guys that come to fight and not quit.”

LHS, which improved to 2-0, will travel to face Olathe North at the Olathe District Athletic Complex on Sept. 20.

Score by quarters

LHS: 21 7 28 13 69

JCHS: 7 21 7 21 56