By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Trojans and Chapman Fighting Irish could have played anyone in the state for a chance to advance to the 3A quarterfinals. Instead, the two will meet in Gypsum, looking to knock each other out in the round of 16.
SES comes into this game riding their second undefeated regular season in as many years, with their closest win coming by a margin of 30 points.
Chapman comes in with two losses on their resume, both to undefeated teams, but aside from that have been perfect themselves, and look like a force to be reckoned with this postseason.
While neither team knows how good they truly are coming into this game, each will have a chance to find out when the two go head-to-head in Gypsum.
“We’re excited for the opportunity to show what kind of football team we are and to be quite honest we don’t know how good we really are,” Chapman head coach Kurt Webster said. “What we do know is that Southeast of Saline has a good football team and we’re going to have to play really well to get a win.”
That sentiment was echoed by SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt as well as both coaches spent the week preparing their teams for a physical battle.
“We know Chapman is going to be physical but we’re hopeful that all of our hard work this season has prepared us to play a good game against them this week,” he said.
Offensively, Chapman will look to impose their will on SES through one of the best rushing attacks in class 3A.
Fullback Eli Riegel has averaged 7 yards per carry and just under 200 yards per game as part of an offense that gets over 350 rushing yards every time they take the field.
“It all starts with their offensive line,” Gebhardt said. “They set the tone to allow Riegel to succeed. Their offense is always looking for you to make mistakes so we have to make sure we stay fundamentally sound this week.”
Those long drives will be a huge key for the Irish, who would love nothing more than to keep the Trojan offense, which averages 53 points per game off the field.
“The best defense we can play is probably keeping our offense on the field for long, sustained drives,” Webster said. “We try to do that every game but we’ll have to do it this week to be successful.”
That SES offense has slowly but surely returned to full strength and will feature the full squad of quarterback Luke Gebhardt, running back Matthew Rodriguez, and wideouts Chase Poague and Michael Murray, who have combined for just under 4,500 yards of total offense this year.
“We had some guys step up for us but it’s been nice to get back to 100% and that’s allowed us to get back to doing some of the things that we like to do,” Gebhardt said.
Defensively, both teams have been tough to move the ball on this season, with Chapman holding seven of their nine opponents under 25 points, and Southeast pitching six shutouts on the season.
The two met six times between 2012-2017 before moving classes, with Chapman winning the last contest 28-20 at home.
The winner of this game will advance to the 3A quarterfinals to await either 9-0 Cheney, or 8-1 Wichita Collegiate, who eliminated SES last season.
Kickoff between the Trojans and Irish is set for 7pm at Southeast of Saline High School and as always, the game can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) courtesy of Eagle Radio.