Although Friday night was the first game of the 2018 season for both teams, the result was awfully familiar; Southeast of Saline walking away from the Saline County rivalry with a win–their fifth-in-a-row over Sacred Heart, 39-0.

After a slow start in the first quarter from both teams, the Trojans got things going midway through. SES split time between two QBs: Jaxson Gebhardt and Seth Eklund, however, Eklund sparked the Trojans with a 21-yard TD to Tyler Breeding to take a 6-0 lead after the missed two-point conversion.

Sacred Heart-very much still in the game-had the ball next, unfortunately the Knights’ top receiver from a year ago, Charlie Skidmore, went up for a jump-ball pass and sustained a big hit from a Trojan defender that knocked Skidmore out of the game.

From that point, Sacred Heart struggled to move the ball offensively.

Southeast of Saline started off the second quarter with another long TD pass, this time from QB, Gebhardt to WR, Breeding for 75 yards to make the score 12-0.

The Trojans would score again before halftime when Bryant Bank caught a pass from Eklund and bounced off of Knights on his way to a 69 yard score. For the third time, the Trojans failed to convert the two-point conversion, leading 18-0.

Sacred Heart had the ball with one minute to go in the first half and tried to move the ball downfield, however, their drive ended when QB, David Anderson threw an interception which put SES up at halftime, 18-0.

Southeast of Saline would continue to clamp down on defense in the second half, as Anderson was just 7-20 throwing the ball on the day for 33 total yards.

The Trojans tacked on three more scores-one by Banks and another by Breeding-to pave the way to a shut out win.

Southeast of Saline (1-0, 1-0 NCAA) dominated the game to win their fifth-in-a-row in the rivalry. Next up for SES, they get Beloit for their first home game next week.

Sacred Heart (0-1, 0-1 NCAA) will hope to get Skidmore back healthy for next week when the team travels to Minneapolis to take on the Lions. The Sacred Heart/Minneapolis game will be simulcast on two Rocking M Media stations next Friday: FM 104.9 & 92.7 The New Zoo.

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