It was the Nemaha County rivalry to kick off the 2019 high school football season Friday night and although it wasn’t pretty, the Sabetha Bluejays pushed their current win streak to 21 with a 13-6 win over Nemaha Central.

The game and season couldn’t have started any better for the Thunder as Tyler Gerety opened 2019 by taking opening kick 90 yards to the house to give Nemaha a 6-0 lead just 14 seconds into the game.

Sabetha responded with a picture-perfect opening drive which lasted seven plays and took just over three minutes off the clock resulting in 3-yard rushing touchdown from senior Gabe Garber.

From there though the rest of the first half was a defensive struggle, as the two teams combined for three turnovers, four punts and two turnovers on down. Nemaha Central even started three drives inside of the Sabetha 35-yard line but came away with nothing to show for it.

The second half was basically the same story for the Thunder, but Sabetha was able to put together two scoring drives in the fourth quarter with one ending on a 21-yard field goal from Linus Krauss and another ended on a 34-yard strike from Krauss.

Nemaha Central actually had a chance to tie the game after the field goal driving inside of the Sabetha 10-yard line on the ensuing drive, but with 1:29 to play Noah Nonnest iced the game picking off a pass in the end zone.

Both teams combined to finish with under 230 total yards so it’s safe to say the defenses dominated.

Sabetha was led on the ground by Gabe Garber who rushed for 79 yards on 20 carries and one touchdown while Andrew Frazee added 10 carries for 59 yards.

Nemaha Central finished with 109 yards through the air and 93 on the ground with Dylan Schultejans completing 6 of 9 passes for 62 yards.

Sabetha (1-0) will now get set for their home opener Friday night hosting Riverside, while Nemaha Central (0-1) travels to Hiawatha.