By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
For the first time all season, the Southeast of Saline Trojans were given a real challenge on the gridiron, but overcame it to walk away with a 24-0 win over Halstead.
The Trojan's undefeated regular season streak continues as Southeast moves to 4-0, meanwhile, the Dragons fall to 2-2.
Halstead came into this contest fresh off a huge come-from-behind win over Pratt, with an offense averaging 386 yards of total offense per game.
The Trojans held them to just 123 yards in this one, and kept the Dragons off the board despite two trips to the red zone.
“I thought our defense played well against a really good football team,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “They’ve got some athletes and they made some big plays but when we needed to be good we were good.”
The defenses were on full display in a scoreless first quarter, as Cameron Witte picked off Braxton Creedonly for the Halstead defense to force a fumble on the ensuing drive.
In the second, SES would open the scoring, capping a lengthy 13-play drive with a Daniel Kejr touchdown run, and replicating that on their next drive to take a 16-0 lead into the half.
Out of the intermission, both defenses got to work once again, with Halstead collecting a second loose fumble, but it would be the Trojans who had the last laugh on a 23-yard hookup from Kejr to Tucker Thaxton to put the game out of reach at 24-0.
Very quietly, Southeast amassed 381 yards of total offense, including 219 on the ground led by Kejr, who accounted for 184 of those total yards and was involved in all three scores.
The Trojans will spend three of their final four weeks on the road, including a trip to a ranked 3A power in Clay Center next week.
Photo courtesy of Lori Blake