Railers fly high to open season in 58-6 rout of Clinton

[August 28, 2021]  LINCOLN -- While residents of Lincoln looked to the sky in the hopes of seeing hot air balloons soaring into the air Friday evening, it was the point total of the Lincoln Community High School football team that was flying high in rarefied air as the Railers opened their season by beating Clinton 58-6.

“It was a great team win tonight,” Railer head coach Matt Silkowski said. “To finally get to play that game at home in front of our fans, when they weren’t allowed to all be here last spring..it was a special night.”

Playing their first contest under new coach Ron Bass, the Maroons started the game by receiving the opening kickoff, but on the third play Lincoln’s Kani Carson intercepted a Clinton pass to give the Railers the ball on the 48 yard line. On the ensuing possession, Lincoln junior running back Isaac Decker opened the scoring with a 2-yard touchdown run with 7:04 left in the first quarter. Elijah Pollice hit Jaden Leadley on the 2-point conversion to put the Railers up 8-0, and Lincoln never looked back.

On its next possession, Clinton was unable to move the ball thanks to the overall stingy Lincoln defense and a key sack by Lincoln senior Scott Battin which gave the Maroons an 11-yard loss. Needing 5 yards on fourth down, the Maroons had problems on the snap to the punter, allowing Lincoln to recover the ball at the Clinton 6-yard line. A few plays and a motion penalty later, Ki’on Carson scampered in from 10 yards out for the first of his 2 TDs on the night. Pollice ran the ball in for the 2-point conversion to give Lincoln a 16-0 lead.

Other TDs for Lincoln on the night came on a Leadley 5-yard rushing TD, a Tony Gandolfi 5-yard TD run, a 70-yard pass play from Pollice to Leadley, a Ki’on Carson TD run of 3 yards, a Pollice-to-Decker TD pass play of 26 yards and a 5-yard TD run by Payton Johnson.
Clinton got a 2-yard TD run from Ethan Boyer with 2:40 remaining in the game to avert the shutout with the final score of 58-6.

Pollice, the senior quarterback of the Railers, finished the game completing 6 of 7 passes for 139 yards with 2 touchdowns. Pollice said he was pleased with the win, but he added that he was just as happy for his teammates.
“It’s a great feeling; much deserved, I feel like, for this team,” he said. “We’ve been battling for two years and haven’t won a game, and it just feels great.
“It’s great starting 1 and 0; I’m just happy we won.”

While it’s natural for the players and coaches of a team to be in a celebratory mood following a victory, Silkowski said that this win was particularly satisfying given the circumstances of the last academic year and the impact of Covid-19 on activities, including its impact on high school football.

“We wanted this game for like 14 months now,” he said. “Last June, when we got some stuff going when the state let us, we were just looking forward to ‘Clinton-Week 1, Clinton-Week 1.’ And then, with everything that happened, that got put on hold, obviously. I’m just so happy; I’m happy with the way the kids persevered and made plays when we needed to. Some guys really stepped up.”

Railer defenders Wyatt Mammen (69) and Nathan Ladage (4) sack the Clinton quarterback for a loss in first quarter action.

Among those stepping up for the Railers were Ki’on Carson, who totally 102 yards rushing on 5 carries with 2 touchdowns rushing. The sophomore running back also broke off a 69-yard run near the end of the first quarter to set up Lincoln’s fourth TD of the game.
Other leading rushers for the Railers were Gandolfi (6 carries for 43 yards and a TD), Johnson (7 carries, 36 yards, 1 TD), Decker (4 carries, 18 yards, 1 TD), Pollice (2 carries, 15 yards), Justin Wachendorf (1 carry, 5 yards, 1 TD) and Gabriel Smith (2 carries, 2 yards).
As a team, Lincoln averaged 7.3 yards per carry, netting 214 yards on 29 carries.

In the air, the Railers notched more than 20 yards per completion, earning 136 yards on 6 completed passes.
Pollice said that, since the Railers’ running game was so strong throughout the contest, that negated the need for Lincoln to rely on its aerial attack.

“The run game worked really well,” Pollice said. “We passed when we needed to, but we didn’t really need to pass when the run is working that well.
“Last year, we struggled with the run game; we relied on the passing game a lot. But it takes a little pressure off me when the run game is working that well.”
On the defensive side of the ball, Lincoln’s defense was consistently in the Clinton backfield and disrupted the Maroons’ ability to establish any kind of momentum offensively.

Leading the way for the Lincoln defense was Battin (5 tackles, 1 sack), Justin Wachendorf (4 and 2), Darren Stevens (4 and 1), Tate Johnston (4 and 1), Wyatt Mammen (4 tackles), Gandolfi (3 and 1), Decker (1 tackle) and Evan Maynard (1 tackle).

The victory moves the Railers to 1-0 on the season. Lincoln opens play in the Apollo Conference on September 3 when the Railers host Charleston in a 7 pm game at Handlin Field.

After amassing double digits in penalties against Clinton, Silkowski said Lincoln needs to work on a few things if the Railers are going to be competitive against Charleston.

“We know it’s only going to get tougher for us,” he said. “We’re not blind to that; we know it’s going to get harder. We start Apollo Conference play next week and that’s been tough.

“We were sloppy [against Clinton]. It was just minor stuff, just leaning and guys just not holding their water. We’re going to have to be tougher up front. We know Charleston is going to be very physical up front. They have been every time we’ve seen them, so we’ve got to be better at that.”

[Loyd Kirby]