Lincoln Learns To Win Against Charleston

[September 30, 2017]  By Benjamin Yount

LINCOLN – With about three minutes left in Friday night's game against Charleston, a pair of Lincoln defenders started dancing on the sidelines.

They got maybe two or three shakes into their moves before before coaches and staffers told them they hadn't won enough games to be dancing at that point.

Lincoln had to learn how to win Friday night.

The game against Charleston was never really in doubt.

Senior Titus Cannon ran for two touchdowns in the first nine minutes of the first quarter, and Lincoln cruised from there.

“I was going, the offensive line would make hole,” Cannon said. “That's like waking up on Christmas morning.”

Cannon would end the night with five touchdowns and a new Lincoln High School, single game rushing record of 283 yards. The Railsplitters would end the night with a 40-14 victory.

“I knew after the first half that I had 160 or so yards,” Cannon said. “I figured, I would definitely break the record in the second half.”

Cannon's 283 yards is just one of the numbers that stands out from Friday night's win.

Lincoln's 40 points is the first time since 2011 since the team scored that much in a single game.

Lincoln's second win of the season is the first time since 2012 that the Railers have won more than one game in a season.

That Lincoln won at home is just the second time in 51 weeks that the Railers won a game at Handlin Field.

Lincoln head football coach Matt Silkowski said there's another number that jumps out at him.

“One. One team,” Silkowski said. “It was a total team effort.”

The coach is not wrong.

Lincoln's defense held Charleston's strong rushing attack to under 100 yards on the ground.

Quarterback Dreyden Pozsgai threw the ball for almost 93 yards and one touchdown.

Lincoln's special teams recovered two fumbled punts and an on-side kick.

Junior Andrew Schmidt had a sack and a tackle for loss.

Senior Titus Cannon ran for a school record 283 yards Friday night. Cannon also finished with five touchdowns as part of Lincolns 40-14 win over Charleston High School. 

And senior Braiden Tisdale lead all Railsplitter defenders with seven tackles, one assist, and two near-interceptions.

“We all came out here and did our job, we all did our part,” Tisdale said. “The defense finally stopped the run like we practiced. We just needed to focus.”

Fellow senior Isaiah Bowers said the offense put points on the board, but the defense did something it hadn't done all year. Lincoln stopped Charleston, drive after drive.

“We've been allowing 7.7 yards per carry. That's not who we want to be,” Bowers explained. “We changed some people around. We know we're a better team.”

Coach Silkowski said that 'better team' showed up on Friday.

“Thomas Morris, he only practiced a couple of times this week. He'd been out for a few weeks, but he stepped up” the coach said. “Again, a total team effort. And you can't leave out our offensive line. With two sophomores, two juniors, and one senior.”

The coach also said his team had to learn how to win.

“I talked with the coaches before we talked with the kids at halftime. We realized that our kids had never been in this situation before,” Silkowski said. “We told them 'We play hard, we play 48 minutes around here'. Tonight was a great example of that.”

Lincoln gets another winless team again next week, Urbana High School will come to town for the homecoming game.

Silkowski though said he's already preaching to his team that Urbana's zero wins do not mean that team isn't solid. And that Lincioln's two wins do not mean that the outcome is certain.

“Urbana is a very good, athletic zero win team,” Silkowski said. Urbana will play Saturday afternoon and could get their first win of the season. “Hopefully these kids have a hunger. I know I won't let our kids be complacent with (just two wins), but hopefully they get a little momentum going here.”

Lincoln improves to 2-4 on the season, and will look to get their third win of the season next week at the annual homecoming game.

[by Ben Yount, picture by Sherri Sparrow]