On Friday, Southeast of Saline took to the highway and paid a visit to Seneca where another tradition strong team in Nemaha Central was waiting for a first round Class 2A State Playoff match-up. On the first play of the game, the Trojan defense intercepted a Thunder pass as Seth Eklund jumped up and snagged the ball out of the air. On the following drive, the Trojans would score on an highlight catch from Tyler Breeding from 20 yards out. Aaron Kitchener added the PAT kick and the Trojans led 7-0 right out of the gate.
About four minutes later, SES would score on a Bryant Banks 8 yard touchdown run. Kitchener would add another PAT kick and the Trojans would lead 14-0 with 6:15 left in the first quarter. Banks was seeing his first action in 3 weeks after missing time with a shoulder injury.
With 11:05 left in the second quarter, Quarterback Jaxson Gebhardt would use a fake to Banks to freeze the defense and run up the middle for a 25 yard touchdown. A bad snap exchange on the extra point would cause the conversion to fail, but Southeast led 20-0.
That lead would continue to grow when Banks found the end zone for the second time, making the score 26-0 with 7:45 left in the first half. Nemaha Central would get their first points with 3:29 left in the second quarter and have a chance to add more. The Thunder had first and goal and after running two unsuccessful plays, threw to the end zone where it was intercepted by Daelan McKnight, his first of the season. Halftime score in favor of SES, 26-7.
The goal in the second half was clear. Grind it out, run the clock and play great defense. That’s exactly what the Trojans did. Leaning heavily on the run game, the Trojans only threw four passes in the second half. Meanwhile, Nemaha Central threw it 28 times, only completing 11 passes. The only score of the second half was a Thunder touchdown pass with just 40.7 seconds left in the game.
The 26-13 victory is the first playoff victory for Mitch Gebhardt as the Trojan Head Coach and it comes with his son leading the offense. Sophomore Jaxson Gebhardt went 12 of 16 for 153 yards. He also rushed 13 times for 54 yards and a touchdown.
The Southeast defense was physical up front and played their best game of the season in the secondary, collecting three interceptions, helping the Trojans move to 8-1 on the season.
Now Southeast of Saline will head to Riley County for the second time this month. Back on October 12th, the Falcons led SES 21-0 at halftime. The Trojans would rally and score 23 unanswered points in the second half for the victory. Riley County advanced by defeating Riverside on Friday 45-0.