No. 3-ranked Mahomet-Seymour dominates Railer homecoming game with 63-14 win over LCHS

[September 17, 2022]  Lincoln–With perennial Apollo Conference-favorite Mahomet-Seymour traveling to Lincoln for the Railers’ homecoming game Friday night, the Railer faithful knew Lincoln would have its hands full.

Ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press Week 4 IHSA Class 5A poll, the Bulldogs scored its first touchdown on a 50-yard pass play just 17 seconds into the game and never looked back as Mahomet-Seymour ran its record to 4-0, handing Lincoln a 63-14 defeat.

The loss dropped the Railers to 2-2 on the season and 1-1 in the Apollo Conference.

Railer coach Matt Silkowski

In game planning for the contest, Railer coach Matt Silkowski said that in order for Lincoln to compete with the Bulldogs, he thought the Railers would need to utilize ball control and maintain possession to keep the ball away from the potent Mahomet-Seymour offensive attack.

“We needed to be able to run the ball and be able to sustain some drives,” he said. “That was what we wanted to be able to do and limit their possessions and time of possession as much as we could. At times, we did that; we had some drives in the first quarter that were pretty good. We had some other opportunities other times as well where things went pretty good for us. They were just better than us.”

Following the initial Mahomet-Seymour score on the pass play from senior quarterback Wyatt Bohm to Quenton Rogers, Lincoln drove the ball to the Bulldogs’ 28-yard line before Railer quarterback Darren Stevens was sacked on fourth down to give the ball back to Mahomet-Seymour.

Frank Sanders

Unable to find an open receiver on the next play, Bohm scrambled for 25 yards for the Bulldogs to move the ball into Railer territory. It felt as if Mahomet-Seymour was poised to march the ball downfield for another score again, but the Railer defense held, thanks in large part to a quarterback sack for a loss by sophomore Frank Sanders. The Bulldogs turned the ball over on downs as Lincoln tried to establish something offensively to build some momentum. It wasn’t to be, however, as Lincoln went 3-and-out and punted the ball back to the Bulldogs.

Mahomet-Seymour found its rhythm offensively, as the Bulldogs mixed in a few running plays by Luke Johnson with three completed passes on the drive by Bohm, the last of which was a 34-yard touchdown strike to Rogers with 2:31 remaining in the first quarter.

Isaac Decker

Railer QB Darren Stevens

The Bulldogs regained possession and added another touchdown before the first quarter ended to lead 21-0.

Lincoln got on the board in the second quarter when Ki’on Carson ran the ball into the end zone from the 6-yard line for his first of two touchdowns in the game. Angel Haro kicked the extra point and the Railers trailed 21-7.

Ki’on Carson

Colbie Glenn

Lincoln’s other points did not come until the fourth quarter on the final touchdown of the game for both teams when Carson found the end zone on a 69-yard running play. Haro converted the PAT and the final score was 63-14.

Despite the deficit on the scoreboard, Silkowski said he was proud of the team’s effort against Mahomet-Seymour following Lincoln’s 26-14 loss to Jersey High School from Jerseyville a week ago.

“We played with good effort,” he said. “At times, we didn’t play with the best effort last week, especially defensively, so we really wanted to see improvements in that tonight. And I thought we played with better effort. We just got beat tonight by better players at times, and you can’t coach that.”

In addition, Silkowski said he liked what he saw in terms of the Railers handling themselves in the game and how players conducted themselves on the field in the heat of battle during the contest against Mahomet-Seymour.

“I’m very happy with how we held our composure,” Silkowski said. “I think they [Mahomet-Seymour] played a very chirpy game, and our kids did a very good job of keeping their cool and not playing the way they’re not coached to play. They [Mahomey-Seymour] had a player ejected, and I think our kids did a very good job of not retaliating. That’s all I asked them to do: play with good effort, play the game the right way and don’t do something that’s going to embarrass our program.

“Our kids played the game the right way tonight, and I’m very happy for that.”

[Loyd Kirby]

Note: all statistics in this story are unofficial.