By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
Over the last six years, Southeast of Saline has built a football dynasty in Gypsum, and unlike many, it’s one that’s come with guarantees.
In the team’s last six seasons, the Trojans have secured six undefeated regular seasons, six league titles, six district titles, six first-round playoff wins, and six second-round playoff wins.
All of those feats were accomplished in a span of 59 games, in which Southeast of Saline went 59-0, failing to win by at least two possessions only twice.
Guarantees are great, but here in the sectional round of the playoffs, they are extremely hard to come by, as every team still alive represents a real threat on any given Friday night.
Throughout this six-year run, the Trojans are 3-2 in the sectional round, and to avoid falling to .500 will need to find their way past a hungry ground and pound attack of the Phillipsburg Panthers.
Phillipsburg enters this game at 7-3 with wins over Beloit and Russell, and losses to Smith Center, Hays TMP and Pratt.
The Panthers steamrolled Minneapolis 49-0 in the opening round of the playoffs, and followed that up with a confident 52-22 victory over Haven in the second round.
“They have a very good run game,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “They run that flexbone efficiently and their guys are physically up front. Defensively, they’re athletic, they’re physical and they get a lot of hats to the football.”
For their part in getting here, the defending 2A state champs dismantled Southwestern Heights 74-0 before holding the line against a surging Russell program in a 44-12 victory last week.
“We got behind in that game and our kids responded well to that. We had a few kids in the wrong spots a few times and Russell did a great job of throwing the football but as the game progressed we did a better job of getting pressure on him and covering those lanky receivers.”
That win came on the back of three red-zone stops of the Bronco offense, including two from inside the five for a Trojan defense that doesn’t require much support to win football games even in November.
“We 100% feel like if we need to we can hang our hat on our defense,” Gebhardt said. “That group did an outstanding job of stopping Russell inside the red zone and that’s a group we trust.”
Much like Beloit, Phillipsburg is a team that wants to use it’s run game to shorten the contest and limit the number of possessions that both teams have, making early stops and a strong start offensively two big keys for the Trojans tonight.
“We have to take care of the football, pick up first downs, eliminate turnovers, and keep their offense off the field,” he said. “We need to play sound defense against their very disciplined offense and early on getting stops will be key against the slow pace that they want to run.”
There is a scheduling change for this game as kickoff in Gypsum will be held at 6:00. As always, the game can be streamed with live video on Salina Post and heard on KINA.