By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Trojans haven’t lost a regular-season football game since October of 2019.
The last time a team was supposed to give them a run for their money the Trojans hopped on a bus, made the drive to Colby, and handed the Eagles their first loss of the season 32-8.
Colby will have a chance at revenge this week as they make the trip to Southeast, but the teams are in much different places ahead of this game.
Like last year, SES is on a roll to begin 2021. The Trojans are an undefeated 4-0 and have outscored opponents 229-12 this season.
After losing a big senior class, Colby has come back to earth and will enter this week’s contest at 2-2.
Offensively, this is an Eagles team that prefers the run, but is capable of airing it out from time to time, something the Southeast secondary must remain conscious of.
“Colby is still finding what they want to do,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “We’re going to have to be very good against the run but we can’t get lulled to sleep because they do still pass quite a bit.”
Defensively, the Eagles will have to find an answer for a Southeast offense that is averaging 427 yards per game, split evenly between the pass and the run.
“Their defense is very physical,” Gebhardt said. “They have a good front and we’re going to have to match that if we’re going to compete with what I believe is a very good defensive group.”
That Eagles defense has looked good in stretches, but still allows 19 points per game through the first half of the season, and will have to find another gear to slow SES.
This is also the seventh time in the last nine seasons under Mitch Gebhardt that the Trojans have started a season 4-0.
“Our kids have always been willing to work and our assistant coaches are always working to make sure we’re doing things the right way,” he said. “The kids have bought into what we’re doing, if we have weights, they’re there, if we have a camp, they’re there.”
SES will look to extend their regular-season win streak to 14 over the course of three seasons when they kick off with Colby tonight at 7pm.
The game will be played at Southeast of Saline high school and as always can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) courtesy of Eagle Radio.