It was one of the most anticipated match-ups in Class 2A and the game lived up to the billing. On October 18th, Riley County paid a visit to Southeast of Saline and escaped with a 33-29 victory. The re-match on Friday night was a classic high school football game.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Trojans scored on a 96 yard drive with 6:47 left in the first half. The scoring play was a pass from Junior quarterback Jaxson Gebhardt to Senior Seth Eklund. Gebhardt would run in the PAT to put SES in fron 8-0. Later in the quarter, Riley County would score for the first time on a 34 yard touchdown strike from Garrett Harmison to Avery Brokenicky. The Falcons would add a 2-point conversion to tie the game going into halftime, 8-8.

Another scoreless quarter in the third set up a tension filled final quarter. Riley County had a promising drive end when Bryant Banks stripped the football from Harmison and Matthew Rodriguez recovered the fumble. On the next possession however, Trey Harmison would make a highlight type interception with one hand and Riley County would take over with 7:30 left in the game. The Falcons would drive the ball into SES territory and score on a 13 yard touchdown pass from Garrett Harmison to Trey Harmison with 4:26 remaining. The two point conversion would fail and Riley County led 14-6.

On the ensuing kick, Southeast of Saline would mishandle the football and Riley County recovered. After taking two minutes off the clock, the Trojan defense would get the ball back for the SES offense with 2:30 left to play. On first down, a SES interception would be the Trojans third consecutive turnover and give Riley County the ball and the win, 14-8.

Riley County (8-2) will face Silver Lake next week while Southeast of Saline ends the season at 7-3.