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 But for the Railers, the truly destructive downpour came in the
first half, in the form of the Crimson passing attack.
For the second year in a row, quarterback Nick Lonergan picked apart
the Lincoln defense, leading the Crimsons to a 63-31 victory on an
altogether dreary night for the Railers and their fans.
Lonergan completed 23 of 28 passes, finishing with 387 yards and
four passing touchdowns. He also ran for 52 yards and two
touchdowns.
All six of Lonergan's touchdowns came in a first half in which the
Lincoln defense failed to stop the Crimson offense on any
possessions.
"Frustrating" was Railer coach Jared Shaner's choice of word in
describing his team's first half defensively.
"I can't even put into words how frustrating it is to teach or
attempt to teach the kids something, and some of the mistakes we
made, there's no other way to say it, but they're on-the-field
mistakes," said Shaner. "You learn how to call the strength of an
offensive formation in fifth- or sixth-grade football.
"(Jacksonville) had two touchdowns that were directly the result of
us calling the wrong strength and them having guys run by us.
There's no excuses for that. There's no explanation for that."
Shaner attributed at least some of the mistakes to an inability to
mimic Jacksonville's offense in practice during preparation for the
game.
The Crimsons run a spread offense out of a shotgun formation,
typically with four wide receivers spread along the line of
scrimmage.
"We struggled to play in space against a spread offense, against
very good receivers, and then there were a lot of errors
defensively," said Shaner. "On offense, you can line up and go over
a play 20 times in a row if you need to (in practice).
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"On defense, you can line up and go against some guys, but like
we've talked about before, we're never going to be able to put
Jacksonville's offense out there to run against. Then you go out
there on game night, and guys don't respond, and you give up 50
or 60 points."
The defensive struggles overshadowed a solid showing for the
Railer offense.
Lincoln running back Jordan Sandrolini finished the game with
131 yards on 15 carries. Sandrolini ran for two touchdowns,
including a 60-yard scamper, and also caught a touchdown pass
from quarterback James Leisinger.
Railer receiver Darvez Stancle also had a big night, catching
seven passes for 164 yards and a touchdown. Leisinger completed
12 of 21 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns, while also
throwing two interceptions.
Lincoln's rushing offense had a combined total of 246 yards on
34 attempts.
While the pain of the loss was still fresh in his mind, Shaner
was cautiously optimistic when asked if he felt his team would
respond over the next week before next Friday's home contest
with Springfield Lanphier.
"I hope so," said Shaner. "And I've said it from the beginning
of the year, and it's sort of tough to say right now, but this
is a fun group to coach because they have some heart, some
character and a little attitude to them.
"We'll watch film tomorrow, look at all the mistakes and feel
bad for a day. But then with football, you only get so many
opportunities. We better get going and come at it on Monday."
[By JUSTIN TIERNEY] |
