Railer football team hosts season opener again Lanphier, sets sights on return to playoffs

 

[August 30, 2024] 

LINCOLN -- The LCHS football team broke a 40-year drought in making its way to the postseason last year, but the team doesn’t seem content to rest on its laurels and instead is taking aim at a return to the playoffs.

The Railers look to continue rewriting the LCHS football history book when Lincoln hosts Lanphier in the season opener both teams on Friday in a 7 PM contest.

LCHS advanced to the postseason last year with a number of seniors handling skill positions, including running backs Ki’on and Kani Carson and quarterback Darren Stevens. And while outsiders might view the loss of key seniors as an insurmountable step backwards, to revise the LL Cool J lyric, don’t call it a rebuild, because this year’s seniors were here last year.

“They view it as, ‘Now we have our chance to make history,’ because no team has gone back-to-back in school history,” said Railer head coach Matt Silkowski.

Last year’s squad went 5-4 in the regular season to make the playoffs, but the Railers lost in the first round when they hit a buzzsaw named Rochester, the eventual Class 4A champion.

“It’s not like someone purposely did that to us,” Silkowski said of the Railers’ draw against Rochester in the opening round. “That’s just how it goes. But I think they [Railer players] thought, ‘Oh, what if it had been somebody else…what might have been?’”

While a group of key seniors did move on following last year, this year’s roster sports 16 seniors, most of whom were along for the ride last season and bring that experience into this year’s campaign.

“Those guys played big roles for us, there’s no doubt about that,” Silkowski said. “But the guys coming up are just as ready to go and just as good players as those kids were.

“There’s a lot of kids coming back that played big roles, even if they weren’t starters. Like Kyle Koehler, for example, wasn’t necessarily a full-time starter, but he played a lot of snaps for us.”

Even with many returnees on the roster, Silkowski said the team will play a slightly different style of football because of the change in personnel.

“Last year, everything was ‘speed speed speed’ and ‘how fast can we get to the edge,’ because that was the personnel we had,” he said. “Like I told the kids [this year], yeah we have some speed, but primarily our strength is our strength up front. I think we’re more of a physical team.”

Railer quarterback Tate Johnston

Head coach Matt Silkowski

And under the heading of “changes in personnel,” the Railers will have a new quarterback running the offense this season. Following the departure of last year’s starter, Silkowski will use senior Tate Johnston at quarterback. Silkowski said Johnston has the skills and composure to handle the duties.

“That decision was made probably Week 6 or Week 7 of last year,” Silkowski said. “When we looked at who we have, we looked at ‘who’s got the best football IQ? Who’s going to not make a risky throw or put us in a position to fail?’ And it just kept going back to Tate.”

Silkowski said he understands that Johnston, chosen to the CS8 second team all-conference defensive team last season--won’t play a perfect game every time he takes the field. But Silkowski added that he feels using the 6-foot, 205-pound senior at quarterback gives the Railers the best chance for success.

“Obviously, you look at your quarterback as a leader, and that’s Tate right there,” Silkowski said. “Even in the summer, he missed throws and overthrew throws and underthrew throws; that’s going to happen. But, not one time all summer did he throw a ball where he shouldn’t have thrown it or tried to fit it in a window or threw it across the field across his body.”
Following the August 30 game, Lincoln’s has a Saturday contest against Springfield Southeast at Memorial Stadium starting at 1 PM. To see the full season schedule click here.

All the Railer football games also will once again be covered by WLCN radio. Fans can listen at 96.3 FM or using the Mixlr app, and WLCN will provide live YouTube videostream coverage; simply visit WLCNOnline.com and click the Watch live badge on the home page just before game time. Through a joint venture between WLCN and Lincoln Daily News, LDN will once again provide video segments along with game stories as LDN follows the team throughout the regular season with writeups on the games and other team-related newsworthy subjects.

[Loyd Kirby]