Three And Out's Doom Railers Against Effingham

[September 15, 2018]  By Benjamin Yount

LINCOLN – For every third down that the Lincoln Railer defense forced Friday night, it seemed that Lincoln's offense responded with a three and out.

Lincoln welcomed Effingham High School for Friday night's homecoming game, and played a tough first half.

“We made some plays,” Lincoln head coach Matt Silkowski said Friday. “But then we got some penalties, and they all got called back.”

The bright spot for the Railer offense came at the start of the second quarter, when quarterback Noah Funk tossed a 54 yard touchdown strike to Colton Holliday. But a holding penalty erased the score.

After that, Lincoln didn't get close enough to sniff the end zone.
 

“We didn't score,” Funk said. Funk started at quarterback, once again replacing Drayden Pozsgei under center. “Our defense was making plays early, and getting stops. But our offense couldn't punch it in.”

Lincoln held Effingham to just three points in the first quarter. But several three and outs set Effingham up for two touchdowns in the second quarter.

At halftime, it was 16-0 Effingham.

In the second half, Lincoln's bend-but-not-break defense shattered.

“To win ballgames, we gotta punch it in,” senior Andrew Schmidt said. “Defensively we stopped the run game. That's what we focused on all week. But we had trouble with the pass.”

Lincoln's Shane Shumard stretches out a cramp Friday night in the Railsplitter's loss to Effingham High School. 

Effingham threw for three touchdowns Friday night, and eventually won 36-0.

Coach Silkowski said that score cannot be entirely laid at the feet of his defense.

“They played really hard for most of the game,” Silkowski said about his defense. “They did a really good job of stopping the run. I thought early on, we did a really good job on first down. It was second down that we have troubles with.”

Lincoln needs to figure out it's offensive struggles. Next week the Railers will welcome Taylorville.

The Tornadoes beat Mahomet-Seymour 38-20 Friday night. Taylorville is 4-0 on the season.

Lincoln falls to 1-3 with the loss, all of those losses are within the Apollo Conference.

[by Benjamin Yount; photos by Sherri Sparrow]