By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
Under head coach Mitch Gebhardt, the Southeast of Saline Trojans have accomplished some pretty incredible feats.
In six of the last seven seasons, SES has won at least a piece of the league title. In each of the last three seasons, they have started the year 4-0 and in each of the last two seasons they have won a playoff game.
Through all of these years of excellence however, Gebhardts Trojans have never finished the regular season undefeated, something Southeast will have a chance to change when they face the 5-2 Scott City Beavers on Friday night.
Scott City will be the toughest task the Trojans have faced in 2020. The Beavers have posted winning records in each of the last 34 seasons, and have lost just 14 games since 2012.
“Scott City is very good,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “We’ve watched plenty of film on them and they’ve gotten a lot better as the year has gone on. Their community expects to win and they’re gonna come in here expecting to do just that.”
This year's Beaver team however, has looked a bit more susceptible, dropping two of their first three games to Holcomb (6-1) and Cimmaron (4-3).
They also played much closer games against their common district opponents than Southeast did, with a point differential of +49 to the Trojans +129.
All of the stats go out the window at kickoff on Friday night, where both teams, undefeated so far in district play, will have a chance to emerge as outright district champions.
“Having a chance to win the district outright is big for us,” Gebhardt said. “It was one of our goals when the year started and we have a chance to meet that on Friday night.”
Scott City will rely on a run heavy offense with a backfield featuring Jace Thomas and Sawyer Stevens, who have combined to rush for just shy of 800 yards and ten touchdowns this year.
The Beavers are coming off of their best win of the season, a convincing 28-0 victory over Colby, and in SCHS head coach Jim Turner’s opinion, the team's only satisfying performance of the year.
“That game against Colby is the only game where we’ve played very well this season,” he said. “We made some mistakes but overall we played hard through that entire game.”
Turner and the rest of this Scott City team know what is at stake, as a win will mean not only a district title, but also a guaranteed home playoff game, something that is a hot commodity this time of year.
“We want to make sure we’re not loading up the bus to go to Riley County or Marysville next week,” he said. “I don’t think anyone wants to go that far.”
One of the best matchups to keep an eye on will be a Scott City offense that might be the first to really test the SES defense this season.
At this point in the year, the Trojan defense has allowed just 32 points all season, which is good enough for top marks in scoring defense in the state.
“We had better block well because they’re gonna blitz the tar out of us like they have everybody else,” Turner said. “They’re big, they’re fast and they have a lot of experience on that side of the ball.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 7pm on Friday night at Southeast of Saline high school. As always, Eagle radio is the home for Trojan football, and games can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) or streamed live on Salina Post.