Railer football team moves to 2-0 with 41-20 win over Southeast

 

[September 09, 2024] 

SPRINGFIELD – Perhaps the administration at Lincoln Community High School should consider revising the football schedule.

Last season, the Railers opening game was postponed from a Friday evening to Saturday afternoon, and the Railers beat Lanphier 41-8.

This year, due to renovations to Southeast’s home field, Lincoln’s game was moved to Saturday, September 7 since that was when Memorial Stadium—Southeast’s home away from home this season—was available.

Not only did the Railers keep their perfect record on Saturdays over the last two years with the 41-20 win over Southeast, but the win also maintained Lincoln’s 2-0 record for this season as well.

Last week’s season opening win over Lanphier, in addition to being the first game of the year, was also Lincoln’s First Responders’ Bowl and the LCHS Cheerleaders clinic game. Although having a Saturday game day is not customary, Lincoln head coach Matt Silkowski mentioned last week that he was looking forward to the team getting back into more of its usual routine this week.

“I thought we had a really good game plan coming in,” said after the victory. “I thought our players had a really good week of practice implementing that plan.”

Tate Johnston

Lincoln seemed to implement its game plan in all facets of the contest. Tate Johnston hit Gabe Smith on a 51-yard touchdown pass play to open the scoring. Smith later reversed his field and scampered around the right end on a run play for 29 yards. The Railer defense was in the Southeast backfield much of the contest, making it difficult for the Spartans to get anything going offensively.

Gabe Smith

“Our defense is playing well,” Silkowski said. “I thought our run defense was really big again this afternoon.”

According to unofficial statistics for the game, the Railer defense allowed only 39 yards rushing along with 181 yards passing. Lincoln also had 8 sacks, 13 tackles for loss and 5 fumble recoveries.

“We felt like our interior run game [defense] could be a strength for us; as we get into the meat of our schedule, we’ll see how that holds up.”

The Railers raced out to a 28-0 halftime. Johnston and Smith opened the scoring on the 51-yard touchdown connection. Smith added a 2-yard touchdown run later in the first quarter to push the Railer lead to 14-0.

Johnston and Kyle Koehler ran for Railer touchdowns in the second quarter to widen Lincoln’s lead to 28-0 at intermission.

Johnston added another score when he made a 2-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Southeast then found some life as Spartan quarterback Tony Boyd hit Jae’Von Solomon with a 32-yard touchdown pass to break the shutout.

In the final quarter, Solomon intercepted a pass and ran it back 24 yards for another score. The Railers seemed back on their heels a bit, but the offense answered back when senior Paytan Bunner scored from 2 yards out to increase Lincoln’s advantage to 41-14.

Boyd found Solomon again, this time on a 62-yard touchdown pass play to close the scoring, and Lincoln won 41-20.
Silkowski said that Bunner’s fourth quarter touchdown came at a key time to help Lincoln stifle some of Southeast’s momentum.

“They [Southeast] made a couple really big plays and kind of got back into it,” he said. “But when we really needed a drive to answer back after they scored on that Pick 6, our guys really marched it down the field and we were able to put it in.”

Gabe Smith finished the game with 185 all-purpose yards, including 127 rushing and 58 receiving. Johnston ran for 65 yards, Bunner added 50 and Seth Durbin tallied 46.

Frank Sanders

On defense, Frank Sanders had a monster game, tying for the team lead with 9 tackles to go along with 5 sacks and 7 tackles for loss.

“We waited for that quarterback [Southeast’s Boyd] to come to us,” Sanders said. “We knew he was athletic and we knew he could make big plays if we ran too far inside. We knew he could get outside, so we kind of sat and waited for him to come to us.”
 

Frye also had 9 tackles along with 3 tackles for loss and 1 sack. Senior Tommy Braid recovered 2 fumbles for Lincoln.

Johnston completed 3 of 7 passes for 58 yards along with 1 touchdown and an interception.

“We were sloppy in the second half,” Johnston said. “But we fought hard and I think we’re ready to go next week.”
Lincoln’s next scheduled game is at home September 13 against Central State 8 foe Rochester. The Rockets beat Lincoln twice last season, the final time 59-14 to knock Lincoln out of the playoffs en route to the IHSA Class 4A state championship.

[Loyd Kirby]

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