By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Trojans have officially passed two of the three biggest tests on their regular-season schedule after defeating #5 Rock Creek (3A) in week one and Clay Center (3A) last week.
Before the Trojans host the #5 and currently undefeated Ellsworth Bearcats in week eight, SES will play a pair of district games starting with the Hillsboro Trojans this Friday.
Hillsboro has had a tough time of it in 2022, and will carry a record of 1-4 into Gypsum for this week six matchup with a season point differential of -58.
The one common opponent thus far for the two Trojan teams is Halstead, who defeated Hillsboro 55-21 in week five and fell to SES 49-17 the week prior.
Hillsboro’s one win of the season came against a 1-4 Nickerson team who made headlines last week after a sweeping 108-0 loss at the hands of the Andale Indians.
Despite the odds tilting heavily in Southeast’s favor, the Trojans are still affording Hillsboro the utmost respect and attention this week in practice, and don’t expect anything to come easy on Friday night.
“They’ve got some big guys up front and those guys play hard on both sides of the ball and everything starts with them,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. They have some good skill guys and they balance the run and the pass well.”
Defensively, Southeast will be in search of another big performance after holding a fourth straight opponent to under three scores.
“They keep things 50-50 on offense which can make it hard on a defense when you can’t fully commit to stopping one or the other,” Gebhardt said. “We have to make sure that we’re fundamentally sound and that we’re getting to where we need to be on every single play.”
On offense, SES will look to cut down on turnovers, the one Achilles heel to the third-best passing offense (210 yds/g) and second-best total offense (430 yds/g) in Class 3A.
To get into a rhythm early, the Trojans will need to clear lanes for Nate Friesen and buy time for Luke Gebhardt against a strong Hillsboro front.
“Their defensive line is where it all starts for them and we’ve got to make sure that we take care of those guys first,” he said. “We try to be as even as we can on offense and we have to continue to do that to keep people off balance.”
For the first time all season, Southeast will be the host in back-to-back weeks, and SES is elated to play in front of the Trojan faithful once again.
“We love to play at home and we always have,” Gebhardt said. We had a three-game road stretch that was tough on us but we were excited to play at home last week and we’re very excited to play in such a great atmosphere again this week.”
Kickoff between the two Trojans is set for 7 pm at Steve Fritz Field. As always the game can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) or streamed live with video on the Salina Post.