Valiant effort by Railers against Jersey Panthers 32-16

[September 12, 2021]  JERSEYVILLE -- What a difference a week made for the LCHS Railer football team.

Last week in Lincoln’s 14-6 home win over Charleston, a simple postgame sentence by coach Matt Silkowski summed the overarching theme of the Railers’ performance in that game: “When we needed a play, we made a play.”

Last night, however, a swarming Jersey Community High School defense, a strong Panther ground game and numerous inopportune penalties against the Railers proved to be too much to overcome as Lincoln never hit its stride on offense or defense and dropped from the unbeaten ranks with a 32-16 loss at Jerseyville.

“Obviously, it was a disappointing night,” SIlkowski said. “You want to win every game you play; that’s just kind of the nature of the game. It didn’t go our way tonight.”

Jersey wasted no time in getting on the board as the Panthers took the opening kickoff to Lincoln’s 46 yard line. Five plays and 92 seconds later, Jersey senior quarterback Logan Schultz ran the ball in from 13 yards out to give JCHS a 6-0 lead.

Lincoln looked to be up to the challenge as the Railers found the endzone on a 37-yard pass from Elijah Pollice to Scotty Battin. Pollice ran the ball in on the 2-point conversion to give Lincoln an 8-6 advantage.

Scotty-Battin

It may not have been obvious to the casual fan, but there were a few indications from each team’s first drive that would prove to be a fortuitous sign of things to come. On its first drive of the game, Jersey ran the ball on every play. In addition, when Lincoln was on offense for its first possession, the Railers amassed three penalties during the 3-minute span they had the ball.

Lincoln appeared to be poised to move farther ahead of Jersey, but the Railers did not take advantage of the opportunity. Jersey had the ball deep in Railer territory, but Lincoln’s defense rose to the occasion with a sack by Tony Gandolfi and then a fumble recovery by Isaac Decker.

Isaac-Decker

With 5:07 remaining in the first quarter, Lincoln opened its drive with a motion penalty. Two plays later, another Lincoln penalty negated a run of nearly 20 yards by Pollice, taking the Railers from a first-down-approaching-midfield situation to a second down and 27 on their own 8-yard line. On fourth down two plays later, Jersey appeared to return Lincoln’s punt from its own endzone back for a touchdown, but the Panther defense was whistled for roughing the kicker.

Elijah-Pollice

The Railers caught a huge break in retaining possession but again could not capitalize. Lincoln moved the ball 20 yards to around midfield, but the Railer drive stalled following a 14-yard gain on a pass play from Pollice to Ki’on Carson. Lincoln was called for a motion penalty before three plays that went nowhere (a run for no gain and two incomplete passes). Railer punter Jaden Leadley unleashed a great punt that bounced to the Lincoln 16-line. As time expired in the first quarter, Lincoln led 8-6.

Ki'on-Carson

Jersey, however, dominated the second quarter thanks to the strong running of Aiden Talley. The 6-foot-1 sophomore essentially put the Panthers on his back, carrying the ball roughly 66 yards in an 84-yard touchdown drive capped off by a Talley 5-yard TD run. Talley also ran for the 2-point conversion to give Jersey a 14-8 lead with 6:54 left in the second quarter.

Lincoln took the ensuing kickoff but netted negative yardage thanks to a big 15-yard penalty. With 5:31 left in the quarter, the Railers punted when facing a fourth-and-26 situation from their own 14-yard line.
 

Working with a short field, the Panthers increased their lead as Talley tallied his second TD of the game on a 4-yard run with just over 3 minutes left in the first half. Jersey succeeded on the 2-point conversion to give the Panthers a 22-8 lead.

Battin returned the kickoff 10 yards as the Railers looked to cut into Jersey’s lead before halftime. Lincoln did move the ball, earning big gains on a 29-yard pass play from Pollice to Decker and a 19-yard gain on a reverse by Decker. As the end of the quarter approached, however, the Jersey defense tightened up, forcing Lincoln into a fourth-and-6 situation 20 yards from the endzone with 32.4 seconds left. Lincoln went with a halfback option play, but the ball fell incomplete just beyond the Railer receiver. Jersey took possession and maintained it through the remainder of the quarter, holding a 22-8 advantage at halftime.

Tony-Gandolfi

Lincoln received the kickoff to open the third quarter, opening the quarter with the ball at its own 33-yard line. The Jersey defense was solid, however, and Lincoln went 3-and-out, punting back to Jersey. The Panthers took possession at their own 37-yard line, moving the ball downfield before facing a fourth-and-3 situation. Gandolfi stepped up for the Railer defense, penetrating the backfield and throwing Talley for a 5-yard loss to give Lincoln possession on downs.

Lincoln’s offense could not move the ball against the staunch Jersey defense, so the Railers punted the ball back four plays later and Jersey took possession on Lincoln’s 29-yard line with just over 5 minutes left in the third quarter. Four plays later, Talley found the end zone for his third TD of the game. His run on the 2-point conversion gave Jersey a 30-8 advantage.

On the kickoff, the Railers were whistled for an illegal block, pushing them back to their own 6-yard line. Pollice was sacked for a safety three plays later to give Jersey a 32-8 lead with 2:38 remaining in the third quarter.

The following drive by Jersey was marred with five Panther penalties, and on a first-and-38 play as the quarter drew to a close, Lincoln recovered a fumble in Jersey territory to give the Railers some much-needed momentum entering the final stanza.

Justin-Wachindorf

The Railers moved the ball to Jersey’s 7-yard line, but a bad snap allowed Panther defender John Higgins to get possession for Jersey. The Panthers were forced to punt from their own 27-yard line when Lincoln senior linebacker Justin Wachendorf broke through the line and blocked the Jersey punt. Leadley scooped up the loose ball for Lincoln and ran it to the end zone for a touchdown. A Pollice run on the 2-point conversion cut into the Jersey lead, making the score 32-16 with 5:21 remaining.

Jaden-Leadley

Jersey fell on the onside kick by Lincoln and moved the ball downfield before running out the clock for the victory.

“We knew it was going to be a tough one, because Jerseyville is a very tough, physical football team with a lot of athleticism over there,” Silkowski said. “We fought punch for punch as long as we could, but we just shot ourselves in the foot in that first half with a lot of penalties. It felt like, in that first half, it was first and long on every drive. You’re just not going to be successful when that happens.”

SIlkowski added that the blocked punt and touchdown in the final quarter gave the Railers a little life.

“I knew that was something that Justin Wachendorf was capable of doing,” Silkowski said. “When he transferred here when his family moved, I went back and did some research on him and did some homework and I saw he had some ability to block some punts. He blocked that field goal Week 1. He was a little banged up last week, so he didn’t play very much.

“He had the opportunity and he did it, and that’s definitely something he brings to the table. And it was a heads up play by Jaden Leadley. He kind of lost his balance there, but he did a great job of taking it in for a touchdown to help keep us alive a little bit.”

Unofficially, Lincoln was whistled for 12 penalties for 64 yards in the contest. Silkowski said that having some members of the Railer offensive line were playing in different positions, and that may have contributed to some of the infractions.

“We had some guys playing in positions that they normally don’t play or haven’t played before,” he said, “and I think that contributed and they just weren’t really comfortable there yet. When they were in a bad spot, instead of using the technique they’ve been taught, they just reverted to bad habits and we got caught.”

Decker filled the unofficial stat sheet for the Railers, leading the Lincoln ground game with 21 yards on 7 carries and tallying 40 receiving yards on a pair of catches. He also led the Lincoln defense with 11 tackles.

Pollice passed for 112 yards on 7-for-20 passing.

Jersey ran the ball 55 times for 370 yards.

Both Lincoln and Jersey are now 2-1 on the season. The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Lincoln as the Railers travel to Mahomet-Seymour to take on the Bulldogs next week.

“Mahomet’s going to be tough; we know that,” Silkowski said. “We had some success in the spring when we played Mahomet, and the score didn’t really reflect it as much, but we kind of got on the board a few times in that game. So we had a little bit of success, but we’ve got to get better.

“We’ll hopefully get some guys back; we’ve got to get healthy this week and get them back. We’ve just got to keep getting better; it’s just not going to flip overnight.”

[Loyd Kirby]