Editor’s Note: The first Football Playoff game for the L-N Raiders will be held beginning at 5:30 p.m.,in Lawrence today (Thursday).

Both the Lawrence and Nelson communities have long and honorable histories in their schools, the combined effort of the merged football teams is only 24 years old. And that is counting 2022.

Well, the L-N Raiders have qualified and played in 22 of those 24 years. Again counting 2022.

The victory over Deshler Friday insured the playoff spot. The win gave L-N a 7-1 season record. A few facts about the 2022 Playoffs and a little history of the school.

For Class D-1 and D-2 schools, the playoffs have nine district winners and 23 other schools with the highest point totals for a total of 32 teams.

For the first round of play, the teams will be divided into 16 team East and West brackets. The 16 winning teams will then be in a state-wide bracket for the remainder of the playoffs.

L-N is seeded number 7 in the East bracket for the first game. They will play number 10 seed, Nebraska City Lourdes Central Catholic for the first game. L-N record is 7-1; Lourdes’ record is 4-4.

In Class D-2, four teams have 8-0 records; ten teams have 7-1 records; eight teams have 6-2 records; five teams have 5-3 records.

2022 entry into the playoffs has generated quite a little excitement among residents with hope of having some great games coming up. The history of the last five years goes something like this:

2021: lost first playoff game to Sandhill-Thedford; season: 3-6

2020: No playoff; season: 1-6.

2019: Won first playoff game over Allen; lost 2nd round to Humphrey St. Francis; season 5-5.

2018: Won three playoff games over Wauneta/Palisade; Clearwater-Orchard and Kenesaw; lost to Mullen; season 8-4.

2017: Won two playoff games over Crawford and Garden County; lost to Mullen; season 8-3.

Over the 24 years, the Raiders have won two state championships and were runners-up in two years.