Lincoln defeats Mattoon 29-28 in overtime on Senior Night

[October 21, 2019]  The Lincoln Railsplitters added to the excitement of Senior Night and won a thriller in Week 8 at Handlin Field on Friday night.

With the score tied 21-21 at the end of the fourth quarter horn, Lincoln and Mattoon headed to overtime.

In overtime, Lincoln won the coin toss and elected to play defense. In overtime each team gets the opportunity to score from the 10-yard line. Mattoon overcame Lincoln's defense quickly and scored on a 10-yard pass. The kick for the extra point was good and the Green Wave took a short-lived 28-21 lead. With

Lincoln's offense still pumped up coming off an exciting fourth quarter, Dreyden Pozsgai and company took the field for their chance. Making quick work of things was Alex Bogdanic with the 10-yard run for Lincoln. What happened next made the crowd go wild. Instead of kicking for another tie, the Railers' Jayden Pollice ran the ball in for the 2-point conversion and Lincoln celebrated the 29-28 victory over Mattoon. A great win on Senior Night for all.

Lincoln Head Coach Matt Silkowski was cold in the post-game interview, but only because he had been drenched with the water cooler following the win by seniors Dreyden Pozsgai and T. J. Merriman. Nonetheless the coach was beaming after the overtime thriller as the crowd around him continued celebrating.

"I am just so happy for these guys," said Silkowski. "That was a tough game. That fourth quarter was not good to us. They put together one heck of a drive, one of the best drives I've ever seen in person in a high school football game, but they came away empty-handed. We blocked that field goal and that was a huge play.

"And coming right off of that Dreyden did a really nice job extending play with his legs, eyes down field and he found Whiteman. Whiteman made a few guys miss and finished well. That 2-point play, that's not even close to how we drew that thing up. We've been running that 2-point play since July. We always said when we were going for two that's the 2-point play we'd run and that's the first time we've gone for two all year.

"That one didn't go our way, but Dreyden made a play. That's all you can ask, is for the guys to make plays when something breaks down. That's what makes a great athlete a great quarterback. Dreyden was able to extend the play with his legs and make those things happen. Our defense came up big tonight. I really like the way we managed the clock there to get the overtime. We tried taking a few shots, didn't get the look we wanted, so we figured we'd sit on it and go to overtime. They scored on their first play, we scored on our first play and then we just decided we were going to end that thing right there. We were ready to celebrate."

On a night that began in celebration and extended all evening long, LCHS also recognized seniors from Tennis, Dance, Cheer and Football prior to kickoff. A complete photo album of those athletes and their parents and action shots from the game will be posted in Monday's edition.

As for the action on the football field that counted on the scoreboard, the Railers struck first offensively with a 47-yard touchdown run by Alex Bogdanic.

The kick was off and the Railers lead was 6-0 with 1:08 showing on the first quarter clock.

Mattoon tied the game 6-6 in the second quarter with 10:43 on the clock on a 37-yard touchdown pass to Lane Roley.

Just shy of a minute later Lincoln regained the lead. Austin Prater's phenomenal 57-yard touchdown on the pass from Dreyden Pozsgai put Lincoln on top 12-6.

After the kick was good by Bogdanic the Railers led 13-6 as 9:42 remained in the second quarter.

The Green Wave then went to work quickly and pulled the lead right from under Lincoln. An incredible 68-yard touchdown pass to Abraham Baker allowed the Green Wave to edge closer to the Railers with the score 13-12.

Mattoon then made good on the 2-point conversion to Roley and with 9:23 left to play in the first half the Green Wave were on top 14-13.

Halftime status

With 39.6 seconds remaining until halftime the Green Wave extended their lead on a 13-yard touchdown pass to Caden Price. The extra point on the kick was good and the teams headed to the locker room with Mattoon leading 21-13.

Third quarter

There was no scoring in the third quarter for either team and the fourth quarter never heated up until around 2:22 left in the game. That's when Pozsgai spied Kameron Whiteman nearby and just kept his eye on him. With Whiteman pumped up and ready to go, things escalated quickly on the drive.

This time it was Whiteman with the 54-yard touchdown pass from Pozsgai that sent fans into a frenzy.
 

But that was just the tip of the iceberg. With 1:40 showing on the clock and the score 21-19, the Railers went for the 2-point conversion. It paid off. Pozsgai scrambled and even dodged, dipped and dived pretty much for the tie. It was unscripted and yet so beautiful.

With the score now tied 21-21 the crowd everywhere around Handlin Field was simply going nuts. Senior J.T. Guzzardo even ran off the field with a big smile, asking, "What was that play?" Maybe it wasn't designed that way, but it worked and Lincoln was headed to overtime with Mattoon.

And the rest you know from the start of this story. Nice work, guys.

The 29-28 overtime victory was sweet for the Railsplitters on Senior Night and the team improves to a 3-5 record overall.

Lincoln will play their last regular season game next Friday night at Macomb.

Congratulations, Railers, on an exciting win on Senior Night!!

[Teena Lowery]
Sports Reporter/Feature Writer | Lincoln Daily News
217.454.6419 | [e-mail]