By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
For the first time all season, the Southeast of Saline football team found itself in a real battle on Friday night.
The Trojans stuck to Plan A.
In a game that required everyone to step up and perform on the biggest stage, the Trojans prevailed, eliminating Hoisington 22-12 to punch their ticket back to the 2A state championship game.
“We knew Hoisington had a good football team and we knew we were going to have to work the whole night,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “Our kids did a good job of making plays when we needed to especially defensively to slow down their run game. They did an outstanding job playing good team defense.”
Hoisington was a worthy opponent, and they proved it on the opening drive, punching in a four-yard touchdown run by Mason Martin to take a 6-0 lead.
The Cardinal defense stood tall on Southeast’s first drive of the night, but a muffed punt found its way back to the Trojans, and Grady Gebhardt made Hoisington pay, running in his lone touchdown of the day from 17 yards out.
8-6 Trojans, game on.
Hoisington threatened to reclaim the lead late in the first, but with their backs to the wall as they so often do, the Trojan defense stood its ground, forcing a turnover on downs inside the five.
Critics of Southeast have asked when the Trojans would begin to really miss star QB/DB Gannon Jacobson, who has been out since the Hillsboro game with a Lisfranc injury.
The answer – not tonight.
Tiernan Ptacek the quarterback responded to the noise by throwing an absolute dot down the sideline, which Malachi Hopkins swiftly caught and took 56 yards to the house to extend the Trojan lead.
Hoisington answered back with what appeared to be the final score of the first half, but on the ensuing kickoff Kanyon Douglas turned a potential disaster into a masterpiece, recovering the ball at the two, and taking it the distance for an electric 98-yard touchdown return.
That return put the Trojans ahead 22-12 at halftime, a score that would remain unchanged until the final whistle.
“Our kids did a really good job of playing team defense and getting a lot of people to the ball; that’s something we did a better job of in the second half,” Gebhardt said. “Their kids run hard, and sometimes you need more than one guy to bring them down.”
In the second half, Southeast again turned the Cardinals over on downs inside the 10, and in the closing minute Tiernan Ptacek the DB got up for the game-sealing interception to officially punch a Trojan ticket to the state title match.
“Tiernan is outstanding,” he said. “We knew he was going to be good but he hadn’t had to go out and do some of these things because we had Gannon but for him to go out and play at this level, he’s been outstanding and it’s been great for our football program.”
For Hoisington, another incredible season comes to a close at the hands of Southeast, this time with a final record of 10-1.
For Southeast, it’ll be a rematch of last year’s state title match against Nemaha Central, who defeated Osage City 22-19 tonight to advance back to the final.
“It’s a great situation for us to get to play in the state championship game again,” Gebhardt said. “That was one of our goals at the beginning of the season and we really do try to stick to that 1-0 mantra, that’s what we’ll focus on again next week against a really good Nemaha Central team.”
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