By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After steamrolling their way through the regular season, Southeast of Saline will turn their attention to a playoff push, where the #1 ranked Trojans find themselves in rare company atop Class 2A.
SES enters this year’s bracket with the top total offense (448 yds/g), and total defense (135 yds/g) in their class, as well as the #2 scoring offense and #3 scoring defense.
The Trojans are coming off their third consecutive 8-0 season, with over 1,100 days separating Southeast from their last regular-season loss back in 2019.
With a league championship, a district championship and wins over the #3 team in 3A and #5 team in 2A behind them, Southeast will fix their gaze on 4-4 Haven as the Wildcats make the trip to Gypsum for a week nine bout.
“Our kids understand that we want to continue to get better so we can go 1-0 every week,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “I want to continue to be efficient on offense, last week was as good as we’ve been, we didn’t turn the ball over, we made good reads and our line did an outstanding job and took a big step forward.”
This year’s Wildcat team is hard to pin down statistically, as the opponents in Haven’s four wins posted a combined record of 22-9, while the four teams they’ve beaten ended the season a collective 6-26.
On film, Haven’s strength appears to be in their size, and the Wildcats will need to milk all the clock they can against a ruthlessly efficient Trojan defense.
“Haven is big,” Gebhardt said. “They’ve got a big quarterback, a big line and they’re about 50/50 run-pass offensively so we have to make sure we can defend all that. Defensively they do a pretty good job of running to the football so we need to do our jobs.”
The Wildcat’s offense has risen and fallen with their towering dual-threat quarterback Brant Sipe, who averages 6.4 yards per carry on the ground while completing 63% of his passes for just over 750 yards this season.
In Haven’s four wins they have outscored their opponents 154-60 while being outscored 164-31 in losses.
Two common opponents exist between the two squads as each handed Hillsboro and Lyons a loss, with Hillsboro keeping their contest with the Wildcats respectable at 21-14.
Regardless of all of this, SES remains focused on doing what they need to do to go 1-0 for the ninth time this season as their success on the field continues to build belief in the Trojan locker room.
“I really feel like we’re confident but not overconfident,” Gebhardt said. “It takes a heck of a lot of work to win football games and our kids have put in the time and the work to be able to do that. We’ve done a really good job on third downs this year and that’s boosted our confidence and defensively we’ve done a really good job against the run which forces teams to do things that they don’t want to do.”
The Trojans will also have the luxury of playing their first two playoff games at home this season, and will receive a big boost from the Gypsum faithful before a sea of purple on Friday night.
“Having these games at home is awesome, there’s no two ways about it,” he said. “The bleachers were full for the last game and our fans are always really good. At home or on the road they fill the stands for us but it’s a great thing to be able to play at home.”
While many in the Southeast of Saline community have their thoughts deeper into this playoff run, those inside the Trojan locker room have only one thing on their mind. Finding a way to go 1-0 against Haven.
“We don’t talk about championships a lot right now,” Gebhardt said. “We really do want to take things week by week. We talk about taking steps up the ladder and we want to take another step this Friday.”
Kickoff between the Trojans and Wildcats is set for 7 pm at Southeast of Saline High School with the winner advancing to the round of 16 to take on either 6-1 Chaparral or 3-5 Halstead.
Photo courtesy of Lori Blake