🏈 Trojans travel to Lyons as heavy favorites

By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post

There are many matchups that you can see going both ways, but for Southeast of Saline, tonight’s game with Lyons is not one of them.

The Trojans have eagerly swatted away challenges to their 2A state title this season from powerful programs, winning their first four games by a combined score of 214-34.

One of those wins came against a 4A squad in Clay Center, who is now 3-1. 

Of the Tigers' 68 points surrendered on the season, 46 of them were at the hands of Southeast.

Another victory came in a 50-0 shutout over the very Beloit team that nearly kept the Trojans out of the state championship game in 2024.

Southeast finished off what was supposed to be the most challenging stretch of their season with a 58-6 drubbing of Kingman, another team that just a few years back ended their bid for a state title.

“I felt like our kids were ready when that game started,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “Our defense was outstanding and put our offense in a good position. Kingman does a good job with what they do, but I thought our kids set the tone early.”

Perhaps most impressively of all, Southeast has dealt a majority of this damage in the first half, allowing starters to rest for the fourth quarter and sometimes, even the third.

“We’re building depth, and that’s a huge thing,” Gebhardt said. “We have a lot of kids who have been able to get into a varsity football game and we’ve rotated kids in at different times and feel really good about what they’re doing.”

Now, the Trojans travel to Lyons to battle the Lions, a team that, to put it mildly, has struggled again this season.

Lyons enters this matchup at 0-4, having been outscored 148-25 in just four games.

It’s been a tough road to hoe for the Lions, who haven’t had a winning season since 2013, and who have just five wins in 16 meetings with the Trojans.

Southeast has won the last four in a row against Lyons, and has won the last three by a combined score of 220-7.

Despite all that, the Trojans are focused on continuing to improve themselves throughout a three-game stretch that will see them enter each game as heavy favorites.

“Lyons has continued to improve this year,” he said. They’ve struggled, but we have to continue to improve ourselves again this week. We have to continue to play physical on defense and take care of the football on offense. We’re favored in this game, but we can’t give them extra possessions, and we have to be physical.”

Tonight’s game will be broadcast on KINA (910 AM/107.5 FM) and streamed on our Salina Post Sports Network.

You can tune in both live and on demand in the window below.