 Lincoln prevailed over Springfield Lanphier, winning by a final
tally of 22-14 in their home opener at Handlin Field and continuing
a lengthy streak of entertaining football games between the two
teams. For the second year in a row, Lincoln emerged with the
victory.With what's left of Hurricane Isaac making a seemingly
happy home over Handlin Field for much of the evening, most would
have said conditions were somewhere between miserable and
undesirable.
Just not the Railers.
Nope. Not at all.
For them, the night -- the win -- was perfect.
"This is the greatest feeling there is," said a clearly emotional
Dane Eimer, Lincoln‘s senior safety and a team captain. "That's why
we play the game. It's why we play the game. That's all I can really
say about it."
Railer coach Andy McDonald enjoyed the win as well, saying
hard-fought victories are what makes all the hard work pay off for
his players and assistant coaches.
"With our tough conference, every win is a major win for us,"
said McDonald. "I'm very excited for our guys. A win like this is a
reward for the hard work that they've put in during the offseason,
this summer and preseason. The guys played their hearts out.
"We battled past adverse situations with fumbles, dropped snaps
and bad timing on some penalties. But we kept our heads up and kept
playing hard."
Indeed, the sloppy weather created issues for both teams. Slick
footballs made simply carrying the ball a sometimes difficult task,
let alone passing downfield.
Lincoln finished the game with two lost fumbles, but given the
nasty conditions, it was a satisfactory performance.
"It was hard," said senior running back Cody Heidbreder, whose
19-yard fourth-quarter touchdown extended Lincoln's one-point lead
into a far more comfortable eight-point advantage. "Handoffs were
quite hard, and holding on to the ball was the hardest part, but,
you've just got to do it."
Aside from limiting their turnovers, the key to the Railer
victory was a shutout performance by the defense in the second half,
after a first half of struggling to contain crafty Lion quarterback
Freddie Lomprez.
Lomprez led Lanphier's spread option attack to two first-half
touchdowns, bewildering Lincoln defenders with a variety of fake
handoffs, cutbacks and spin moves. With the Railers struggling to
wrap up Lomprez, the Lions led 14-7 at halftime.
But, after some adjustments at intermission, the second half
belonged to Lincoln.
"(At halftime) we emphasized some of the things we've worked on
all year as far as tackling, getting to the ball and breaking down,
being athletic, and not running by him," said McDonald of the
second-half performance. "We made some adjustments with our
linebackers a little bit, focusing them more on the quarterback, and
that helped.
"In the first half, the quarterback was tearing us up. We knew we
had to do something in the second half, and we ended up shutting him
out the second half."
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"The quarterback was very slippery," said Eimer, who intercepted
a Lomprez pass late in the fourth quarter to effectively secure a
Railer victory. "It just took me, personally, the whole first
quarter to realize that. I have to break down every time I try to
tackle somebody. He was just very slippery."
Lincoln also benefited greatly from outstanding special teams
play from sophomore Chris Duong.
Duong boots kickoffs for the varsity and, in that role, serves as
the last line of defense on kickoff coverage. Not just once, but
twice, Duong made what appeared to be touchdown-saving tackles of
Lion kickoff returners.
McDonald was relieved that Duong came up big. Had he not, the
outcome could have been far different.
"He's only a sophomore. He's an athletic kid and a very tough kid
too," said McDonald of Duong. "It was great to see him step in and
play that role for us. He really saved us on a couple of those that
could have been big, big runbacks."
The Railer ground game rebounded from a slow start in the
season-opening loss to Jacksonville, combining for 228 yards on 49
attempts.
A trio of seniors were the primary ball carriers for Lincoln.
Heidbreder led Lincoln with 11 attempts for 89 yards and a
touchdown, while Anthony Cannon finished with 16 attempts and 78
yards. Conner Schmidt added 12 attempts for 60 yards while also
catching two passes for 41 yards, including hauling in a 37-yard
touchdown pass in the first quarter.
Junior quarterback Austin Krusz finished the game 3 for 4 with 55
passing yards. Krusz also scored a 1-yard go-ahead touchdown midway
through the third quarter on a quarterback sneak.
The aim now for the Railers is to build on this week's victory
and develop some momentum heading into next week's battle with
Springfield Southeast.
"We want to carry it on to next week," said Heidbreder. "Now we
want to keep a win streak going."
[By JUSTIN TIERNEY]
LCHS vs.
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Justin Tierney's Railer football reports
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