By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Trojans kicked off their postseason in style with a 60-7 beatdown of the Marysville Bulldogs.
SES will advance to play Chapman in the round of 16 after the Irish knocked off the Smoky Valley Vikings 50-20 earlier tonight.
The Trojans once again dominated on both sides of the ball, racking up just shy of 500 yards of total offense while holding Marysville to just 70 on the day.
Every yard Marysville earned tonight came through the air as the Southeast defense completely removed the rushing attack, holding the Bulldogs to negative yardage on the day.
The totals don’t show just how dominant this win was for SES, who led 48-7 heading into the locker room at halftime.
“Marysville has a good football team,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “They continue to improve but I feel we played well in all three parts of the game and our offense was explosive tonight.”
It was a triumphant return for Chase Poague who wasted no time reinserting himself into the Southeast air attack, housing a pass from 77 yards out on the first play of the game and hauling in the two-point conversion to put SES up 8-0.
By the final whistle, Poague had racked up 128 yards and two touchdowns as part of a monster effort by the Southeast offense.
“We’ve been banged up for three or four weeks but we’re getting some guys back,” Gebhardt said. “That’s helped us to get back into the rhythm of what we want to do.”
It was another dynamic day for the backfield of Luke Gebhardt and Matthew Rodriguez who have continued to baffle opposing defenses with one of the most balanced attacks in the state.
Gebhardt completed 15-20 for 200 yards and three touchdowns while Rodriguez thrived in the red zone, punching in three scores for the Trojans.
In addition to allowing negative yardage on the ground, the defense added two takeaways and while their streak of five shutouts did come to an end tonight, the Trojan defense has allowed just 21 points in 36 quarters of play this season.
“Our defense has picked us up all year,” Gebhardt said. “We’ve had some times where we’ve bent a little bit but our defense always responds.”
The Trojans will welcome in the 7-2 Chapman Fighting Irish next week looking to punch their ticket to the quarter-finals next week.
Chapman’s only two losses have come to undefeated teams this season and the Irish will present Southeast with their biggest challenge yet.
“The Irish have a good football team,” he said. “We scrimmaged them earlier this year so it’s kind of funny that we have them here next week but they’re a good team and they’re well-coached so we’re going to have to be ready to go.”