MacArthur Takes Command, Marches
Past Lincoln 62-0
[September 05, 2026]
LINCOLN, Ill. -- The start time of the Railer football game Friday
night was pushed back by 30 minutes due to the extreme heat advisory
for the area. Kudos to the LCHS administration in looking out for
the welfare of all participants by heeding the advisory, but perhaps
someone should have put out an advisory about the MacArthur football
team. The potent offense of the Generals scored four first-quarter
touchdowns and never looked back in shutting out the Railers, 62-0.
The Railers didn’t do much to help themselves in the early going.
Lincoln had trouble handling the opening kickoff and opened on
offense deep in its own territory. Two plays later, LCHS had trouble
with a snap, and the Generals pounced on the ball to gain possession
just 1 yard from their goal line. On their first offensive play from
scrimmage, Cayden Brown took the ball into the endzone for
MacArthur’s first score. Just 56 seconds elapsed in the game and the
Generals led 7-0 following the made extra point.
“Even on film when MacArthur looked really good, in person, I
thought we matched up decently well size-wise with them,” said LCHS
head coach Aaron Fricke. “But you could give coach clichés all you
want; the little details are big details and we didn't execute any
of those little details.”
Lincoln went 3-and-out on its next possession, punting the ball back
to MacArthur, which took over on its own 48-yard line. Two plays
later, Damonte Phillips caught a pass in the right flat and
scampered down the sideline for a 43-yard touchdown.
The Railers began moving the ball offensively on their next
possession. A short run by Colby Merriman and a 13-yard pass from
Logan White to Riley Eilertson gave Lincoln its first first down of
the game. Three plays later, LCHS punted and Phillips returned the
ball 100 yards for an apparent Generals touchdown. However, the
Railers got bailed out by a MacArthur holding penalty, negating the
touchdown and calling the play back. The reprieve was short-lived
for Lincoln though, as the Generals struck on an 88-yard pass three
plays later to extend their lead over Lincoln.
MacArthur added another score on a 35-yard screen pass with 1.5
seconds left in the opening period to extend its lead to 27-0.
Since scoring a fourth quarter touchdown in their Week 1 game
against Peoria Manual, the Railers have been outscored 122-0. While
Fricke knew MacArthur was a good team, he said he did not expect the
outcome that took place.
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“There's a lot of frustration,” he said. “Marion was a really good
football team last week, and MacArthur is good too. But they were
not on the same level as Marion, so I think that was the frustrating
part.”
Following last week’s loss at Marion, Fricke expressed concern at
seeing what he called “reverting back to the old ways” as far as
player attitudes being less than positive as frustration set in.
Following the loss to MacArthur, he indicated that trying some new
tactics might help spark the Railers and help Lincoln be more
competitive.
“I think you definitely have to come out and show them [the Railer
players] like, ‘We're going to try something different.’ We're not
going to run the same punt formation and do the same things; like,
we'll switch, but we're going to try to actually see if alignment
might change some things, or if we start rugby punting if that would
help us.”
A silver lining for Lincoln were the late-game performances by Kane
Komnick and Paxton Lara. The pair went at defenders with an energy
Fricke would like to see more of from his squad. The two connected
on a 47-yard pass play near the end of the game, and quarterback
Komnick tried to will the Railers to a score on the final play of
the game as he scrambled out of the pocket and initiated contact,
diving at a MacArthur defender in the hopes of running through him
to the end zone.
Fricke said the performance by the pair was the kind of hard-nosed
play he’d like to see more of from his team.
“In the second half, we got a couple new faces in there that I feel
like added a little physicality and ‘chip on their shoulder,’”
Fricke said. “I think when you have a quarterback who was willing to
try to truck people, you know kids want to play behind that. Lara
came in and did a really good job, and those guys are not afraid to
hit.”
Fricke said he holds himself accountable for the team’s performance,
and he and the staff will stress improvement in upcoming practices.
“The message in practice--it's on all of us; especially, you know,
it starts at the top,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure that all
week this week it's: focus on getting better. And that's the message
the next two weeks.
The loss drops Lincoln’s record to 1-2. The Railers travel to
Chatham Glenwood for a 7 PM game on September 11 and return home
September 18 to face Rochester.
Railer Football vs
MacArthur highlights video
[Loyd Kirby]
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