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

Lawrence High sophomore quarterback Joey Dooley prepares to throw the ball against Shawnee Mission Northwest at Shawnee Mission District Stadium, North Location, on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025 in Overland Park.

Despite Shawnee Mission North football’s winless record, Lawrence coach Jason Thoren is under no illusions that Thursday’s game will be an easy one for the Lions.

“They’re a good team — I look at them and I see a little bit of us,” Thoren said. “They’ve got some good athletes on the field. Their quarterback can run around a bit. Guys do a good job, coaches do a good job with what they’re calling.

“They’ve got good things going on, so we’re going to have to be on point.”

Lawrence (0-6) will be back at the Shawnee Mission North District Stadium on Thursday for the second week in a row to face the Shawnee Mission North Bison (0-6).

Shawnee Mission North has had a lull as a program for a few years now. The Bison went 8-34 across the last five seasons and had a coaching change over the offseason. Danny Long, Shawnee Mission North’s defensive coordinator from 2020-24, took over the program in December.

The Bison have struggled on both ends of the field this season. They’ve allowed an average of 34 points per game, while averaging 18 points per game. In all six games, the Bison have lost by 13 points or more.

The Bison play an offensive style that is different from those of most teams the Lions have faced this season. The Lions have gone through a gauntlet of run-heavy, run-option style offenses. This week, the Lions will take on more of a spread offense.

The good news is that it’s a system similar to what the Lions run, so the defense will have had experience going up against the style of play, although it will be a different offense.

Lawrence’s cornerbacks have done well this season and haven’t given up many big plays when teams do pass the ball, but this week will be another challenge for the secondary.

“We’ve been going back to a lot of our base coverage stuff,” Thoren said. “They want to spread it out a little more than what we’ve seen, but (the Lawrence defense has) seen a lot of stuff (in practice). But it’s completely different than what we’ve seen the last few weeks.”

Last week, the offense struggled with ball security, an issue that hadn’t been prevalent through the first five weeks of the season. Still, Thoren and the team made it an emphasis in practice and expect to do better doing some of the little things like securing the ball.

“There was no excuse for that — we have to protect the ball, and they know that,” Thoren said. “That has to be corrected first and foremost, so we’ve been working on it this week, we’ve talked about it, we’ve done some drills on it to keep it at the top of their minds.”

Lawrence’s offense has found success with the run game. Senior running back Tahj Edwards carried the ball for 105 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown last week against Shawnee Mission Northwest. Thoren said after the game that he was happy with how the offense continued to get positive runs, even when the Cougars would load the box with eight defenders.

Big pass plays from sophomore quarterback Joey Dooley have helped open things up for the Lawrence offense. Dooley was able to connect with senior receiver Jaxon Becker for several key plays in the game, and the two have shown an ability to create momentum with long pass plays when the offense falls into a rut.

For much of the season, Thoren has preached to the team the importance of peaking at the end of the season. With the end of the regular season coming up quickly, the level of urgency for everyone to put it all together has increased.

“(The season) goes super fast, but you just have to keep pushing,” Thoren said. “You run out of time for improvement stuff. I’m seeing a lot of improvement, so they just keep pushing.”

As the season has progressed, the Lions have had to turn to more young players who are earning their first varsity playing time. While that has led to some early growing pains at times, it’s also brought out growth and development for those players, and that growth is noticeable to Thoren.

“You learn so much from the time you’re 15 years old to when you’re 18 years old,” Thoren said. “I see it every single day. Every day guys get better and start to figure it out. Things come up that maybe they just didn’t know, which is football. Experience is critical.”

With nearly a season of development and improvement, the Lions can attempt to put it all together on the field on Thursday for their first win of the season and build some momentum for the looming playoffs.