Lawrence High’s football team was playing without three major pieces in its offense and trying to win a shootout against Shawnee Mission North.

Yet, the Lions still had a chance to win in the final minutes Friday.

In a battle of whoever-has-the-ball-last, the Lions dropped their heads when they saw SM North junior kicker Oscar Aguilar drill a 26-yard field goal with two seconds remaining for the game-winning score in a 52-49 thriller at LHS in the second round of the Class 6A state playoffs.

The Indians set up their game-winning field goal by forcing a punt at midfield and receiving the ball at their own 13-yard line with 2:02 left. It was Lawrence’s first punt of the night.

SM North senior quarterback Will Schneider converted on a 4th-and-1 at his team’s own 35, then threw a 38-yard pass to sophomore receiver Billy Conway on the next play to the 27-yard line.

Indians coach Ben Bartlett admitted he was ready to send out Aguilar for a field goal after the long catch — a fade pass down the left sideline — but he had all of his timeouts and 35 seconds left. The Indians ran the ball on four straight plays to set up Aguilar’s 26-yard attempt and the Lions called a timeout to try to freeze SM North’s kicker.

“When they froze him, it didn’t bother me because Oscar is a soccer kid up until this year so he didn’t know what that means,” Bartlett said. “He was confident.”

The third-seeded Lions led by eight points with 3:52 remaining following a one-yard touchdown run by junior Angel Garcia.

On the next play, Schneider found sophomore receiver Noah Laird wide open for an 80-yard catch-and-run score. Schneider threw for 385 yards and two touchdowns, including 219 yards and two scores to Laird — his favorite target Friday.

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