Southeast of Saline continues playoff march with win over Hoisington
Another playoff game, another win and another plaque for the Southeast of Saline Trojans as they defeated the Hoisington Cardinals 44-21 on Friday evening in the 2022 Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) 2A Football Playoffs.
The home game in Gypsum for the Trojans became the coldest of the season so far, with the temperature being 31 degrees at kickoff.
However, that didn’t bother the Trojans.
“The cold didn’t bother us much,” head coach Mitch Gebhardt said. “Our kids were prepared for it. We went from 105 degrees to start the season to whatever the temperature was tonight, our kids just seemed to adapt to it.”
Here are three takeaways from Friday evening’s game.
Luke Gebhardt and Michael Murray’s spectacular performances
Just about every player on this season’s undefeated Trojan team has had a performance in a game worth mentioning, and this game seemed to be dominated by performances from seniors.
Quarterback Luke Gebhardt had 86 rushing yards, 212 passing yards, four rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns to finish off his successful night.
Wide receiver Michael Murray ended his night with 122 receiving yards, two receiving touchdowns and two successful two-point conversion receptions.
“The line blocked for me, they always do,” Murray said. “Luke got me the ball, I got a lot of good passes. There was also a lot of good play calling, it all worked out.”
Murray and Luke Gebhardt currently sit at 17 total rushing touchdowns each on the season.
“Murray is a great football player. Our expectations for him are for him to have a good night, every night,” Mitch Gebhardt said. “He’s been doing an outstanding job at doing that.”
Trojan offensive line and defensive line
Perhaps the most underrated part of any winning football team are their offensive and defensive lines, but the Trojans’ O-line and D-line didn’t go unappreciated tonight.
“I feel like this was a really great team win for us,” Mitch Gebhardt said. “Both offensive and defensive lines were outstanding. The defensive line was eating up a lot of blocks so other guys could make tackles.
“To score that many points against (Hoisington), our offensive line did a great job protecting guys who were running the football, and a great job when (Luke Gebhardt) would throw the football so he could get to the people he needed to.”
The run-heavy Cardinals were stifled by the Trojans’ defensive line. The 21 points scored by Hoisington tonight is their third lowest point total in a game this season, and they did not win a game where they scored less than 28 this year.
Flag trouble won’t stop Southeast of Saline, but it can slow them down
Even though the flags seemed to stack in favor of Hoisington, the Trojans managed to play as if the opposite was true.
“We stayed strong after we got those flags,” Murray said. “We didn’t let them get out heads down, and we kept it up.”After a series of flags in the third quarter, Luke Gebhardt was able to turn a first down and 25 to-go at the 38-yard line into a touchdown in just two drives.
"We don’t want to get penalties. I thought that we were a little antsy, especially to start out with,” Mitch Gebhardt said. “That caused a couple problems when we would jump offsides there. We need to clean up the penalties, because it can put us in a bad position.”
Southeast of Saline will travel to Kingman next Friday to take on the Eagles in the sub-state round. The Eagles defeated Beloit 35-6 in their previous game.
The winner of the Southeast of Saline/Kingman game will go on to play the winner of Sabetha/Nemaha Central.
This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Southeast of Saline continues playoff march with win over Hoisington
