SARATOGA – After Friday’s 47-14 win over Saratoga, Southeast coach Mark Bullington said his team is finally starting to believe in themselves.
The win was the sixth straight victory for the Cyclones.
“Early in the season, I don’t think we really believed we were that good,” he said. “We are starting to believe in ourselves and have confidence in what we are doing.”
During Friday’s 33-point victory, Southeast did all of their damage through the air.
Southeast racked up 264 yards of offense through the air, and sophomore quarterback Ayden Desmond was 14-of-17 passing.
“We did nothing on the ground,” Bullington said.
The Cyclones only had six yards rushing on 18 attempts.
In all, Southeast only had the ball for 35 plays for the entire game.
“They were all big plays,” Bullington said.
The Cyclones had scoring plays of 18, 75, 16, six, 24 and 35 yards.
Southeast also had a punt returned for a 75-yard touchdown by senior Austin Short.
On the defensive side of the ball, Bullington thought they played well.
“I don’t know what their yardage was,” Bullington said. “We had one blown coverage and one on short yardage. They slipped someone behind us. Outside of that, they didn’t do a whole lot.”
Despite the win, Bullington says the team hasn’t played their best football yet.
“We still haven’t put a really good game together yet,” Bullington said. “It was good to beat Lingle, but we made a lot of mistakes we shouldn’t have made.”
The win setup a showdown with Pine Bluffs on Friday evening with the winner having home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
“It will be a big task,” Bullington said. “They hammered Lingle. They ran. They threw. They did a little bit of everything.”
Bullington said they are going to have to keep a close eye on quarterback Stu Lerwick.
“We are going to have to keep the Lerwick kid in the pocket. When he starts rolling and running around, he’s dangerous. He keeps his eyes downfield so well, and their kids come back to the ball. Now, he’s starting to run the ball.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday in Pine Bluffs.
