By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
Southeast of Saline’s hunt for a true challenger continues after the Trojans dispatched Hoisington 44-21 in the quarterfinal round of this year’s 2A playoffs.
The Cardinal season comes to a close at 8-3 while Southeast advances to their second consecutive state semifinal to take on a fellow undefeated in 11-0 Kingman next week.
Entering this game, Hoisington had the right concepts to defeat the Trojans, holding a great run game and a rock-solid defense.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals SES had prepared for a team like this through an underrated schedule and went to work right out of the gates.
It took the Trojan offense just eight plays after taking the field to punch in a Luke Gebhardt touchdown run from six yards out, as SES took an 8-0 lead early in the first quarter.
Hoisington responded with a big drive of their own to cut the lead to one, but that was as close as the Cardinals would ever get as Southeast outscored their 2A foe 30-0 from that point until the start of the fourth quarter.
“Hoisington is a good football team with a huge front,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “They play physically, they’re coached well and their kids play awfully hard, hats off to them. I thought our guys up front battled and fought to create lanes and buy time for other people to make plays.”
After back-t0-back monster weeks for Nathan Friesen, it was Luke Gebhardt’s time to shine once more as the Southeast senior completed 19-27 for 276 yards and two TDs through the air, adding four scores and 100 yards on the ground.
“Luke ended up with the touchdowns tonight but someone else could very well end up with those on another night,” Gebhardt said. “Those guys kept blocking up front and our guys kept blocking downfield. We played good team football again tonight.”
Defensively the Trojans in the trenches came to play once again as Trever Keller, Josiah Monday, and Slade Johnson ate up blocks and hassled the Hoisington signal caller, creating chaos and helping Southeast silence the Cardinals in the middle quarters.
“Our front three are going to be sore tomorrow but I’m awfully proud of how they played tonight,” Gebhardt said. “They did their job taking up blocks so other guys could make tackles. You know you’ve got a good group of boys when they understand what their job is and don’t worry about their stats.”
The Trojans will now turn their attention to a Kingman team that hasn’t lost a game since falling to Beloit in the state semifinals last year.
The Eagles got their revenge over Beloit in this year’s quarterfinals to join Southeast of Saline, Nemaha Central, and Sabetha in this year’s final four.
Next week’s semifinal matchup will be held in Kingman, with the winner punching a ticket to the 2A state championship game.