LCHS football team outscores opponent 22-12 in second half but falls 46-28 to Triad

Railer QB Pollice sets single-season passing yardage record in defeat

[October 23, 2021] If it does turn out to be the end of the season for the Lincoln Community High School football team, members of this Railer squad can certainly keep their heads held high.

Triad High School beat Lincoln 46-28 Friday night, dropping Lincoln’s overall record to 4-5. In addition, the loss put a severe damper of the Railers’ hopes of reaching the IHSA playoffs for the first time since 1984.

Teams that win their conference titles or which compile at least 6 victories during the season automatically qualify for the IHSA playoffs field of 256 schools. According to the IHSA web site, there are 68 conference champions which get playoff bids, leaving 188 at-large entries. After bids are given to teams with at least 6 wins, the IHSA uses a point system formula based on teams’ schedules which takes into account the number of games won by teams’ opponents as well as the number of wins opponents’ teams defeated to determine which schools receive the remaining spots.

According to the IHSA web site, a total of 151 teams had clinched playoff berths prior to Friday’s games, leaving 105 spots for at-large bids. Prior to Friday’s games, 64 teams already had 5 wins for the season, leaving 41 playoff spots remaining. Before Friday’s results were factored in, Lincoln ranked No. 54 of those 4-wins vying for the playoffs.

While some of those teams with 4 wins prior to Friday’s games may have lost, other teams which entered Friday with 3 wins may have won and impacted where the Railers rank. Suffice it to say that, with only 4 wins on the season, it is theoretically possible Lincoln could sneak into the playoffs, but an awful lot would have to break the Railers’ way for that to happen.

Coach Matt Silkowsk

“In my personal opinion, I don’t think so,” Lincoln coach Matt Silkowski said about the Railers’ chance of making the playoffs following the loss to Triad. “The last thing I was reading showed the playoff point number needed to be 50, and I think we’ll probably be in the high 30s after tonight.”

Regardless of whether Lincoln breaks its playoff drought, the team has an awful lot to be proud of following the 2021-22 campaign. The Railers went the entire season without ever being shutout in a game. In addition, the team showed resilience time and time again, never giving up during games and playing until the final whistle no matter what the score was. All in all, it was another step forward in building a football program at LCHS.

“We were just happy to be in this situation,” Silkowski said of the Railers sniffing playoff eligibility for the first time since 1984. “To be 4-4 heading into Week 9, that’s a good step for our program. We’ll try to recover for a little bit, get back to work and try to get over that hump.

“We’re 4-5 in back-to-back fall seasons. Our kids played hard, and to go 4-5 in back-to-back fall seasons is a really good accomplishment. It’s been a long time since we’ve done that, [not since] the early 2000s, I think.”

Players on the Lincoln squad were understandably disheartened with the loss to Triad. Even through the disappointment, they could see the bigger picture and the steps forward the football program has taken.

Elijah Pollice

“It’s been going higher and higher since my freshman year,” said senior quarterback Elijah Pollice. “Coach Silky’s done a great job along with Coach Harnacke, Coach Kendall and all of the coaches just making this program better than what it was and really bringing football back to the town.”
“My freshman year, it was very physical, going up against all the seniors,” said junior Isaac Decker in reflecting on his time in the Railer football program. “That was our good run, our 4-5. I miss those seniors, too. It’s a great program. Everyone’s tough and getting tougher as the years go on, and this year, I think we had our best chance at it and we just let it slip away.”

Isaac Decker

Things started well for the Railers on Friday evening, as Lincoln scored on its first possession when Pollice found Jaden Leadley on a 62-yard pass play with 9:39 left in the first quarter to give Lincoln a 6-0 lead.

Jaden Leadley

The Railer defense then stepped up to contribute. After the Knights of Triad took the ensuing kickoff and moved into Lincoln territory, the Railers forced a fumble and recovered on their own 33-yard line.

Triad’s defense then stepped up on the next play, as Lincoln ran the ball, but Knight defender Sam Wheeler snatched the ball from the Railer runner and took it into the endzone to knot the score at 6-6.
 

The Railer offense went 3-and-out on Lincoln’s next possession. On the first play from scrimmage following a Railer punt, Triad’s Jason Randoll ran 72 yards down the Lincoln sideline for a touchdown. The extra point put the Knights up 13-6, which remained the score through the end of the first quarter.

Triad scored 21 unanswered points in the second quarter on a 37-yard TD pass play from Nic Funk to Juliano Cigliana plus PAT, a 9-yard TD run by Ryan Hazelwood plus PAT and a 2-yard touchdown run by Funk on a quarterback keeper plus PAT with 17.5 seconds remaining in the first half.

Facing its largest halftime deficit all season with the score at 34-6, Lincoln appeared to lose some of the fire and enthusiasm it displayed earlier in the game. The Railer coaching staff recognized that and addressed it at halftime.

“Their attitude wasn’t good,” Silkowski said of the message he conveyed to the Railers during the halftime break. “Effort wasn’t great at times and [the players needed] just to finish. They owed it to the seniors to finish for them and play 24 minutes the right way. Some of them needed to change their attitude, and they did.

“They played hard for those seniors in the way that those seniors deserved to go out.”

Triad scored first in the third quarter with 7:55 left on a 21-yard TD run by Hazelwood to give the Knights a 40-6 advantage Lincoln could not overcome.

Ki'on Carson

True to their form all year, however, the Railers displayed their never-say-die attitude and outscored Triad 22-6 from that point on in the game. Lincoln got touchdowns on a 25-yard pass from Pollice to Scotty Battin, a 46-yard pass play from Pollice to Ki’on Carson and a 54-yard pass play from Pollice to Carson.

Randoll had a 5-yard TD run for Triad early in the fourth quarter for the Knights other score, giving Triad its seventh win of the season with the 46-28 victory.
 

“They were just better than us tonight,” Silkowski said. “They were big and really strong up front, and they just wore us down. I thought, if that’s how they were going to get us, that was how it was going to go down, and that’s what happened.”
The game did have one silver lining for the Railers, however, as Pollice set the Lincoln single-season passing yardage record when he completed a 6-yard pass late in the fourth quarter. The completion unofficially gave Pollice 271 passing yards for the game and moved his season yardage total above the previous record holder, Railer offensive coordinator Jacob Harnacke.

“It means a lot, especially since my offensive coordinator held it, so I get to rub that in his face,” Pollice said. “It meant a lot, especially for something good to come out of this game when everyone was down.”

[Loyd Kirby]