By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Trojans have won some games in truly impressive fashion this season, but a 50-14 round of 16 victory over Chaparral may have been some of their best work.
Offensively, SES posted another 400-yard performance, highlighted by a second consecutive 100-yard rushing night for Nathan Friesen.
Chaparral also had no answer for the Trojan passing attack despite cold and damp conditions at Kansas Wesleyan, as Luke Gebhardt completed 8-15 for 148 yards and two touchdowns through the air to go with two more on the ground.
“We did a good job of getting the ball downfield tonight,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “I thought we had a good combination of pass and run and we did a good job of taking what their defense was giving us.”
Defensively, SES held a Roadrunner team that entered the second round of the playoffs with one loss, to just a single offensive touchdown and just over 120 yards of total offense.
Much of that success was achieved in quite keeping the Chaparral offense off the field for much of the second half.
Southeast ran 45 plays in the third and fourth quarters while the Roadrunners ran ten, all of which came in the fourth.
A 7-1 football team in a win-or-go-home contest didn’t send take a single offensive snap in the third quarter.
“There were a lot of guys that ran the football tonight,” Gebhard said. “Our guys ran hard and it all starts with our offensive line. If those guys aren’t getting the blocks up front we don’t get down the field and as we’ve continued to progress throughout the season our guys have been blocking better downfield.”
Chaparral showed good fight early in this contest, but as they have with so many of their previous opponents, SES took the wind out of the Roadrunner sails quickly.
On their first offensive drive, Luke Gebhardt took to the ground and put a hesitation move on two-way quarterback Austin Clark, to give Southeast their first touchdown of the evening.
Perhaps looking to make up for his defensive error, Clark tried to force a ball to a receiver on a slant route on the very next drive where he was promptly picked by Daniel Kejr.
The Trojans wasted no time putting up six more and this game, like so many before it, felt decided before halftime.
Chaparrals season will come to a close at 7-2 while the Trojans advance to the quarterfinal round for a second consecutive year to take on 8-2 Hoisington.
“Surviving and advancing, that's what we do this for,” Gebhardt said. “The kids are excited and we have to get ready to go 1-0 again next week.”