Tony Friends played foe to Olathe Northwest on Thursday night leading Shawnee Mission East to its first win of the season as he scored four touchdowns in the 33-8 victory.
After a scoreless first quarter, Friends opened the scoring three minutes into the second quarter with a six-yard run that he set up with a 27-yard run of his own. Friends then added a 44-yard catch and run from Ryan Bolin midway through the second quarter that came a play after Diego Harvey picked off Olathe Northwest quarterback Mason Sadler, who threw three interceptions in the half.
Shawnee Mission East head coach Justin Hoover said his team was a little tight in the first quarter.
“You start off 0-2, for us it’s – I don’t know if it’s unfamiliar territory or if it’s just a little bit of nobody likes to lose, so when you have your back against the wall and you haven’t played up to your standard, you automatically put a little more pressure on you,” Hoover said. “We tried this week to lighten it up, to loosen up a bit and we knew the only way to loosen up was to have some success. We came out a little tight feeling like we had to do too much. Once we settled down, we got into a little rhythm.”
Friends provided the initial spark, but it came on defense when he picked off Sadler. The Lancers turned the ball right back over on a bad snap but got the ball right back when Olathe Northwest fumbled two plays later.
That fumble was one of the few mistakes the Lancers had on the evening to go along with two missed extra point attempts. They went into the locker room up 12-0 and made a few adjustments and even installed a new play that Hoover said played a key role in keeping drives alive.
"We say all the time if we have the ability to do the study the week of and they make an adjustment, do we have something to counter punch with," Hoover said. "Tonight we were able to draw it up and have one tonight."
Friends added two more scores – one in the third and fourth quarters, respectively – that were separated by Olathe Northwest’s lone score of the night – a Logan Evans run from 18 yards out.
Cole Young capped the scoring for Shawnee Mission East with a run from inside the 10 with 2:30 left in the game.
