Railer football team drops to 1-1
with 60 - 0 loss at Marion
[August 31, 2026]
Marion, Ill. -- For a couple reasons, the LCHS football team
could have billed its game Friday at Marion as “Retro Night.”
For starters, the three-plus hour trip to Marion was reminiscent of
the days when the Railers were members of the Apollo Conference,
which included lengthy trips to some league member schools such as
Effingham and Charleston.
Additionally, the outcome on the scoreboard was similar to past
football games in which Lincoln did not fare well. The Wildcats of
Marion beat Lincoln 60-0.
“Unfortunately, some of the things that you see on film the last
couple years reared it's ugly head again,” Railer head coach Aaron
Fricke said after the game. “We made a lot of progress over the
summer, and I think the message in there [the locker room after the
game] was like, ‘Everything that you guys did, in one instance, we
kind of reverted back to the old ways of just heads dropping and
attitudes.’”
The returnees on the Railer football team had seen games like this
before. Last season, Lincoln gave up 50 or more points in five of
its nine games, including a season-ending 77-0 loss to Jacksonville
Fricke said that, not only is he coaching football tactics and
skills to players, he is also trying to reform the mental outlook of
the Railers.
“I love our kids; they battle hard,” Fricke said. “But we needed to
toughen up mentally in that second half. Mentally, that's really
where this program's got to change is the expectations when things
go wrong. Life is full of adversity and, tonight, that game was
absolutely full of it, and we did not come out ready to play.”
Marion got on the board early with its first touchdown after only 76
seconds had elapsed in the game. The Wildcats pushed the lead to
21-0 after the first quarter and held a 53-0 advantage at half time.
With limited possessions in the second half due to a running clock,
Marion only scored once for the final 60-0 margin of victory.
Fricke knew the Wildcats would be a formidable opponent. The
enrollment at Marion is almost 50 percent higher than at LCHS (1,071
to 732). The Wildcats posted identical 6-4 records the past two
seasons, advancing to the Class 5A quarterfinals each year.
“I did not have them prepared as well as I should have,” Fricke said
of his Railer squad. If I counted on offense the number of times we
ran plays exactly correct, it was probably less than 10 percent,
which also falls on me.
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“We knew this game and the next couple were going to be tough, but
they just have to keep fighting and that message will never change.”
Fricke added that, as the season is progressing, he is moving
players into different positions due to roster numbers as well as
injuries. While the flexibility of being able to do so gives him
additional options as a coach, he said it also comes with some
growing pains as the players learn the nuances of those positions.
“We're starting to shuffle some guys into spots they're not used to,
which is not their fault. We don't have some guys in some spots that
we're getting hurt, and I thought a few of them did a good job.
“But if it's not a wrong route, then it's a missed block. And when
it's not that, then it's a missed throw or a bad play call. So I
think all of us at one time definitely made mistakes, and
unfortunately, it was somebody ever every single play.”
After their first game last week, the Railers were riding high
following a 40-20 win over Manual. While the vibe of the team after
this week’s shutout loss was understandably markedly different, the
first-year LCHS head coach said in both cases, the Railers need to
focus on the task ahead rather than rehash the past.
“It's always going to be to move forward because you're teaching
them life lessons. In the whole the conversation about adversity,
you don't have time to sit and dwell on it. And especially us this
year; the goal was never to go undefeated. We knew that that was not
realistic, but you can't let this be something that sets you back
because the end of the season, we keep looking at that schedule one
week at a time.
“This was some humble pie that probably was needed; we were riding
kind of high off of Week 1 and it brought us back down to reality
that there's a ton of work that we need to get after at practice.”
The Railers return home on September 4 to host Decatur MacArthur in
a 7 PM game.
Railer Football vs Marion
highlights video
[Loyd Kirby]
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