By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
Three weeks into the regular season, any doubts about Southeast of Saline’s ability to run things back have been harshly dashed, as the Trojans have sprinted out to a 3-0 start.
Along the way, SES has outscored their opponents by a combined 119 points, punctuated by a 60-6 mincing of Minneapolis last week.
“Our defense continues to play together and we’re in the right spots and helping each other out,” Trojan head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “We’re bought into playing team defense and offensively our guys up front do a great job of blocking and our run game has been really good.”
Much of that success has come on the back of a brand of clean, but incredibly violent football, that has become Southeast’s moniker throughout this six-year run of demoralizing victories.
Simply put, if you’re not prepared to match the Southeast’s physicality, you’re going to be in for a long night, and that nature has been passed down from one generation of Trojans to the next.
“We’ve continued to get more physical as the year has gone on,” Gebhardt said. “Our older guys did a really good job of showing our younger kids what it means to play on a Friday night and those kids have continued to get more physical every week.”
Every ounce of that toughness will be required on Friday night, when the Trojans welcome in a familiar foe in the Halstead Dragons (2-1) to open district play.
Halstead enters this contest fresh off a win over a 3A powerhouse in Pratt, after pulling off an unthinkable comeback down 24-0.
“Their coaches do an outstanding job with them and they play a really physical brand of football too,” he said. “Their offensive line play is very good. They’re big up front, they have some kids with nice speed and they’ve got a quarterback that can really get those guys the ball.”
That quarterback comes in the form of junior Braxton Creed, who through three games is completing 66% of his passes for 547 yards and five touchdowns, with an additional 126 yards and four more scores on the ground.
On the other side of the matchup, Danny Kejr has come into his own as the engineer of the Trojan offense, completing 68% of his throws for 421 yards and four passing TDs, but with 290 rushing yards and six huge rushing touchdowns.
“Dan has done a really good job at quarterback for us and that hasn’t been a surprise,” Gebhardt said. “He understands the game and works hard to get better, we were excited for him to take over the reins there.”
Through three games, Tucker Thaxton has emerged as a favorite target of Kejr, and the junior is averaging 23 yards per catch, leading the team with 300 receiving yards and hauling in all four of Kejr’s end zone bombs.
While this challenge will be the biggest of the season for Southeast, the same could have been said a year ago, and on the road, SES still collected a 49-17 victory.
“Taking care of the football and understanding that not every play is going to be a big play will be big keys for us tonight,” Gebhardt said. “We need to work to keep picking up first downs to keep their offense off the field and when they are out there we need to play good team defense.”
Kickoff between the Trojans and Dragons is set for 7:00 at “The Fritz” on the campus of Southeast of Saline and the game can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) courtesy of Eagle Radio.
As always, the game will also be streamed with live audio and video HERE.