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 The Railers, with a 3-5 record, are no longer playing for a
playoff berth. On the other side of Handlin Field, the Cyclones,
with a 7-1 record, will likely be treating the game as a tuneup for
what very well could be another lengthy playoff trip.
The thought of giving more valuable playing time to inexperienced
underclassmen -- who might learn from the extra time on the field in
a varsity game -- did cross Shaner's mind.
But by Monday, the coach had realized there was something he just
couldn't ignore: This is the 2010 Railers' last football game.
With Shaner's full approval, Lincoln fans can expect to see the
Railers go down fighting.
"When I thought about it over the weekend, I kind of looked at it
like (SH-G) has all the advantages," said Shaner. "They have size,
speed and frankly, more wins.
"But we have one thing that they don't: We know that this is our
last football game. They get at least one playoff game, probably a
lot of them. But we don't. For our kids, this is it. For some of
them, being Senior Night, this is the last time they'll ever play
football. And we will go out and play for that." In Shaner's
words, his team has to approach the game with a competitive edge if
they want to walk off the field with a sense of pride after the
game. "That's the way we really need to approach it, I feel like," said Shaner.
"There's a lot of teams this year and over the years that
have hung with them for a quarter or a quarter and a half.
"But, SH-G always finds a way -- I've seen it so many times -- to
make one mistake very costly. I went and watched them against Lanphier, who played with them pretty well for all of about three
minutes of the first half. But then, they made a mistake and you can
just see it coming (from the Cyclones). "The best thing we can do
is to move the ball, try to play keep away and keep their offense
off the field. If we can do that, we can make it interesting."
Fun still a priority in final week While the coach prepared as
usual for the majority of the week, Thursday's practice was an
exception. For the fourth straight year, Shaner's squad had a
"bowl game."
Teams were comprised of mostly underclassmen and sparingly used
seniors. Coaches picked the teams to be evenly matched and, for the
most part, the game is intended to be competitive.
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Shaner refereed the game. Railers who didn't participate in the
game took jobs as coaches and linesmen. Then there was the
loquacious senior duo of Jordan Sandrolini and Stephen Duncan; they
handled the play-by-play announcing of the game from the Handlin
Field press box. On multiple occasions, they drew laughter from
teammates and the coaching staff. "We call it our annual bowl
game," said Shaner. "It just gives the kids who maybe didn't get to
play a lot a chance to go out and have fun and really be
competitive. It's a lot of fun. It's a really fun way for us to have
our final practice of the year." And an appropriately fun sendoff
for what Shaner and junior quarterback James Leisinger both
described as a fun group of seniors.
 "They're a neat group," said Shaner.
"It's a small senior class, but the kids we've had all four
years are good kids. They've shown a lot of heart this year."
"They're a really fun group of guys," said Leisinger. "They've been
fun to play with, fun to have around. A lot of them have been really
good players for us this year. They've been awesome."
Kickoff for tonight's game is set for 7, with pregame
ceremonies starting in advance of kickoff.
[By JUSTIN TIERNEY]
(Justin
Tierney's Railer
articles)
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