Railer football team earns first playoff berth since 1984, faces No. 1-seeded Rochester in first round
 

[October 23, 2023] 

For the first time since 1984, the LCHS Railsplitter football team is heading to the IHSA playoffs. Lincoln was the No. 16 seed in the south region of Class 4A. The Railers will travel to Rochester to take on the No. 1-seeded Rockets in their first round game.

LCHS hosted Rochester on October 6, with the Rockets beating Lincoln 55-0 en route to an undefeated 9-0 season.

“Obviously, it’s a very tough challenge for us,” said Railer head coach Matt Silkowski. “We realize that. Our goal is to try to be better against them this week than we were three weeks ago, and just enjoy the moment with the kids.”

While the first round game will match up the Central State 8 Conference foes for the second time this season, Silkowski said that, prior to the games this past weekend, it appeared the Railers might face a different opponent.

“Obviously, we were hoping for a different draw,” he said. “We kind of figured we’d be a sixteen seed. Murphysboro was kind of who we were eyeing up, but Murphysboro lost last night. So that put Rochester as the No. 1 seed.”

While the IHSA web site indicates that the dates and times of first round games will be released on Octoner 23 at 3 PM, the Lincoln Railsplitter Football page on Facebook indicates Lincoln will play at Rochester on October 27 at 7 p.m.

Silkowski said the team understands it will face challenging odds as it squares off in the first round against the Rockets. However, he added that the team was happy to extend the season an additional week.

“We get one more week together, and that’s kind of the most important thing to us,” Silkowski said. “We’re just glad to be playing Week 10.”

The victorious team from the Lincoln-Rochester game will play the following week against the winner of the game between No. 8-seeded Coal City (7-2) and No. 9-seeded Normal U-High (7-2). While Lincoln has not faced Coal City, the Railers did lose to Central State 8 opponent U-High 49-28 on October 13.

[Loyd Kirby]