🏈 Southeast looks to maintain dominance over Beloit in Trojan War

By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post

While Southeast of Saline does hold the state of Kansas’ longest active regular-season winning streak, their most impressive win may have come last week, in a 46-7 thumping of a historically strong 3A opponent in Clay Center.

“I thought our kids did a good job of being patient with what Clay Center does,” SES head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “It was 16-0 at halftime but I thought our kids did a great job of taking care of business in the second half.”

This win moves the Trojan title defense to 2-0, and to go 1-0 again this week, they’ll have to tangle with an opponent that almost took their place in the state championship game.

The Trojan War between Southeast and Beloit has produced some instant classics over the years, but none better than a thrilling back-and-forth 2A state semifinal last season that resulted in a narrow 34-30 victory for the purple and white.

“Beloit is always big, physical and well coached,” Gebhardt said. “They’re massive up front and they have some pretty talented kids in a lot of spots. We’ll have to play a good game to go up there and do what we need to do.”

While Southeast returns the lion's share of key players from last year’s squad, Beloit graduated a small army of stars, bringing back just two total starters on both sides of the ball.

That inexperience was on display last week as Concordia, a team that finished 1-8, including a 28-0 loss to Beloit last season, rattled off a landslide of unanswered points, coming back to beat Beloit 27-26.

That loss may have set off alarm bells around Class 2A, but Southeast knows better than to look past a program of Beloit’s caliber and will be eager to maintain their dominance over the rival Trojans tonight.

“We need to make sure we take care of the football tonight,” he said. “They’re a good football team, and we can’t give them free opportunities tonight. They’re doing some things differently and we need to be able to adapt to what they’re doing and get a lot of hats to the football defensively.”

Kickoff in Beloit is scheduled for 7:00, with pregame coverage on KINA beginning at 6:30. This game will also be streamed for free on Salina Post, and available live and on-demand at the link below.