Railers compete early, fall to Mahomet-Seymour 53-22

Send a link to a friend  Share

[September 18, 2021]  MAHOMET, Ill. -- The LCHS Apollo Conference football game Friday night at Mahomet against the Bulldogs might have been a bit of a gut check for the Railers.

Lincoln opened the 2021 season 2-0--the first Railer football team to do so since 2003--with a shellacking of Clinton and a hard-fought win against Charleston. LCHS then was outmuscled by Jersey High School in a Week 3 32-16 Railer loss.

Mahomet-Seymour is perennially a top football team in the Apollo Conference, so the Railers knew they’d need to execute their game plan and clean up some problem areas from previous weeks in order to compete with the Bulldogs. Unfortunately, Lincoln came up short in its effort as Mahomet-Seymour wore down the Railers en route to a 53-22 victory by the Bulldogs.

Initially, Lincoln competed. Although Lincoln trailed most of the first half, it felt as if the Railers were within striking distance, but a big momentum-shifting play near the end of the first half took the wind out of Lincoln’s sails and turned the game in favor of Mahomet-Seymour.

Mahomet-Seymour scored on a 3-yard touchdown run and extra point with 3:03 left in the half to take a 21-8 lead. Lincoln started from its own 22-yard line after receiving the ensuing kickoff, and the Railers moved the ball to their own 48-yard line. On a first down play, Railer quarterback Elijah Pollice was intercepted with 53 seconds left. Two plays later, the Bulldogs connected for a touchdown on a 42-yard pass play to take a 27-8 lead they would never relinquish.

“It was disappointing, obviously,” Railer head coach Matt Silkowski said after the game. “I thought we played really hard for most of the first half. The turning point there was the interception. I think it was just a miscommunication a little bit. That was just a bad play for us; that was really the turning point. In that situation, we’d been moving the football fairly well, the defense had been playing tough, we get the ball coming out of the half again.

“I thought we were managing the clock very well, trying not to give them much time; it was kind of like, ‘whatever we do, don’t give them the ball back with enough time to score,’ and it was just a bad turn of events for us.”

To open the game, the Bulldogs went 3-and-out on their first possession, keyed for the Railer defense by a quarterback sack for an 8-yard loss by linebacker Darren Stevens. But Lincoln could do no better on its first offensive series, unable to achieve a first down and punting the ball back to the Bulldogs with 8:34 left in the first quarter.

Mahomet-Seymour had an incompletion on the first play in the next series, but then gained positive yards on next two plays (three if a 5-yard Lincoln penalty for offsides is included). Facing a second-and-16 situation from their own 41-yard line, Bulldog quarterback Wyatt Bohm hit receiver Quenton Rogers on a slant across the middle for a 62-yard touchdown. Mahomet-Seymour hit the extra point to go up 7-0.

Lincoln’s offense see-sawed back and forth, gaining yardage on a run by and pass to Tony Gandolfi along with a Bulldog penalty mixed with a penalty and quarterback sack on third-and-5. Junior punter Jaden Leadley, who averaged 40 yards per punt for the contest, kicked the ball back to the Bulldogs with 4:32 remaining in the first stanza.

The Bulldog offense moved the ball downfield against Lincoln, although the Railer defense wasn’t without some highlight reel plays. Senior linebacker Nathan Ladage registered a sack for a 6-yard loss, Freshman linebacker Tate Johnston made a nice tackle on a Bulldog runner to stop a potential touchdown, instead giving Mahomet-Seymour 1st-and-goal from the Railer 8-yard line. The Bulldogs found the end zone on the next play, and the PAT made the score 14-0 with 1:52 left in the first quarter.

Lincoln’s offense advanced the ball to the 11-yard line of Mahomet-Seymour before turning the ball over on downs. The Bulldogs moved the ball to midfield on a screen pass on the second play of the series, a play ending with a powerful tackle by Railer defender Justin Wachendorf.

[to top of second column]

Mahomet-Seymour appeared to have all the momentum and poised to advance the ball at will, but senior defensive back Scotty Battin intercepted a Bulldog pass with 9:22 left in the first half. Lincoln failed to advance the ball, going 3-and-out before punting. The Railer defense gave up a 15-yard run on the Bulldogs’ first play of the series but then asserted itself in forcing Mahomet to go 3-and-out on the next series, which ended with a tackle by Wachendorf for a Bulldog loss.

On its first play of the next series, Lincoln scored on a 72-yard pass play from quarterback Pollice to Ki’on Carson. Pollice then found Leadley for a 2-point conversion to make the score 14-8.

 

 

Lincoln’s other touchdowns came on a 10-yard run by Gandolfi with 9:48 left in the game and a 6-yard run by Carson with 2:09 left. Wachendorf scored on the 2-point conversion to round out the scoring.

Wachendorf unofficially led the Railer defense with 7 tackles and also added 4 carries for 30 yards on offense, including a 12-yard run.

“I don’t know how many tackles he had; I felt like he had a lot of tackles though,” Silkowski said of the senior linebacker and running back. “He played very well defensively, and he got an opportunity in the run game and made some big plays. He’s just very explosive. He’s just kind of a really hard downhill runner; at times we kind of needed to get back to that a little bit tonight. We turned to him and he was able to do that for us.”

Unofficially, the Railer offense matched Mahomet-Seymour in most categories. Lincoln gained 407 total yards to the Bulldogs' 435. The Railers outrushed Mahomet-Seymour 205 to 143 while the Bulldogs gained more aerial yardage, 308 to 202.

Overall, Silkowski had a mixed assessment of the Railers’ performance for the game.

“Pass protection was good at times, but not so good at other times, so you’ve got to be more consistent there,” the sixth-year Lincoln coach said. “You’ve got to be able to throw the ball to kind of force them out of that, which we did hit some big plays in the passing game over the middle, which is kind of where we knew there were yards to be gained. So, I’m happy that part of the game plan came through.”

Unofficial statistics showed Railer QB Pollice was 9 for 19 passing with 202 yards. Leading receivers for Lincoln were Isaac Decker with 105 yards, Carson with 76 and Battin with 15. In rushing, Gandolfi had 14 carries for 79 yards while Carson added 6 carries for 72 yards. Other contributors were Wachendorf (4 carries, 30 yards), Decker (4/23) and Pollice (2/17).

Other than the Railers being whistled for too many penalties, Silkowski generally seemed pleased with Lincoln’s effort.
“We’ve just got to make plays. We’ve just got to learn to overcome adversity. And they started wearing us down at the end there, too, in the first half with the run game. That’s just a sheer numbers game there; they’re big and strong too. Mahomet’s probably going to go 9 and 0 and win the conference. We’ll take a deep breath, and hopefully get some things figured out. We’ve got Mt. Zion next week and we’ll try to give them our best shot.”

 

Lincoln returns home for its next two contests, facing Mt. Zion Friday and then squaring off against Mattoon on Oct. 1. The Mattoon game is also homecoming and senior recognition night. Both contests begin at 7 PM.

[Loyd Kirby]
 

Back to top