By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Southeast of Saline football team will look to continue its title defense on Friday night when the 2A field of 16 is whittled down to 8.
The Trojans made short work of Southwestern Heights, sending the Mustangs packing in a 74-0 drubbing in the opening round last week.
“I was proud of our team effort in that game,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “Our older guys came out of the gate and set the tone, and I was really proud of the way our younger guys competed in the second half. They’ve shown a lot of improvement this year.”
Much like last year, the Trojans have held massive leads early in games, and have been able to rest their starters for the majority of the second half.
“This time of year, it’s vital that you stay as healthy as possible,” Gebhardt said. “No team is fully healthy this time of year, but we’ve been blessed to be able to rest some kids and those early leads have been big for us.”
To advance to a sixth-straight state quarterfinal appearance, the Trojans will have to go through an old league foe in the Russell Broncos, who have put together one of their best seasons at 7-2, and enter this game fresh off a 25-14 win over Cimmaron.
“Russell is definitely on an upswing as a football program,” he said. “They’ve won some close games this year and they have a lot of things going for them. They’re very athletic across the board, and they have a power run game and a quarterback that can extend plays with his legs. Defensively, they’ve got a lot of athletes that you have to deal with, and their defensive line has nice size so overall they have the full package.”
Offensively, Russell is led by senior quarterback Trey Zorn, who has completed 67% of his passes this season for over 1,800 yards, 17 touchdowns, and just 2 picks.
Zorn has been backed up by a rotating backfield of Walker Middleton, Wyatt Harmon and Kolton Jones, who have combined to tote the rock 204 times for 1,159 yards and 16 touchdowns.
That rushing attack will look to unite to match the increasingly unstoppable-looking Grady Gebhardt, who himself has 112 carries, 1,266 rushing yards and 34 total touchdowns on the season.
While the Trojans will enter this second-round matchup as favorites, the Broncos are not a team to be overlooked, and will be eager to assert themselves against a team they have not beaten in four straight meetings since 2017.
“Russell has good size and they play physical in the trenches,” Gebhardt said. “They can attack you in a lot of different ways. They’ve scored a lot of points so hanging onto the football and preventing turnovers will be keys, they have a lot of weapons so we’ll have to defend soundly as well.”
Kickoff for this game is scheduled for 7:00 on Friday night at Steve Fritz Field in Gypsum, as always the game can be heard on KINA, and will be streamed live on Salina Post at the link below.