Jacksonville spoils Railer football team’s bid for back-to-back playoff-eligible seasons as Crimsons beat Lincoln 51-21

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[October 26, 2024] 

LINCOLN -- In a Week 9 game charged with emotion, the Railer football team came up short as Jacksonville’s triple-option offense gave Lincoln fits as the Crimsons prevented LCHS from again being eligible for the postseason with a 51-21 by Jacksonville.

Lincoln entered the game 4-4 overall and was looking for its fifth win of the season to be eligible for the IHSA postseason playoffs. In addition, the final home game for the year was senior night, which adds to the atmosphere of the evening.

Perhaps feeding off the charged environment, the Railer defense held on Jacksonville’s first possession, forcing the Crimsons to go 3-and-out. The Railers gained positive yardage on their first two offensive plays of the game, but unfortunately, Lincoln’s offense fumbled the ball on the third play of the series to give Jacksonville possession on Lincoln’s 30-yard line.

However, the Crimsons gave the ball back to Lincoln three plays later when Railer defender Frank Sanders stripped the ball and Ryne Metelko pounced on it to give Lincoln possession on its own 11-yard line.

Seven plays later, LCHS quarterback Tate Johnston put the first points on the scoreboard as he scored on a 30-yard touchdown run with 5:17 left in the opening quarter. Lucas Melton hit the extra point to give Lincoln a 7-0 lead. The Railers had one incomplete pass on the drive; all other plays were runs for positive yardage.

Then it was the Railer defense’s turn to keep the momentum going for Lincoln. The defense did its job in not giving up a touchdown and stopping the Jacksonville possession near midfield. However, the Crimsons have a potent weapon in kicker Brandon Sims. The 6-foot senior impressively nailed a 55-yard field goal for the Crimsons with 29.1 seconds left in the first quarter to make the score 7-3 in favor of Lincoln.

“We had some success moving the ball on the ground,” Lincoln head coach Matt Silkowski said of his team’s performance in the opening period. “The defense played really, really well in the first quarter.”

In the second quarter, Jacksonville seemed to build some momentum and turn the tide of the game in its favor. On the next possession following the Crimsons’ first quarter field goal, Lincoln moved the ball into Jacksonville territory before turning the ball over on downs with 10:10 left in the second period. The Crimsons marched the ball into Lincoln territory and appeared to take the lead on a 42-yard pass play, but it was called back for holding. The Crimsons couldn’t move the ball and punted to Lincoln with 5:58 remaining in the half. However, the Railers could not move the ball and turned it back over to the Crimsons at Lincoln’s 42-yard line after failing to convert on a 4th-and-2 situation. Three plays later, Jacksonville took its first lead at 10-7 with a 29-yard touchdown run and PAT.

The Railer offense still couldn’t get on track, and Lincoln punted the ball back to the Crimsons with 1:35 remaining in the first half. Jacksonville used a big play and a couple short runs to punch the ball into the endzone with 25.3 seconds remaining in the quarter to increase the lead to 17-7.

“We kind of started sputtering a little bit,” Silkowski said. “They had a couple big plays in the run game which definitely hurt us.”

With less than half a minute until intermission, Lincoln tried to cut into the Crimsons’ lead before halftime, A pair of incomplete passes and an 8-yard connection from Johnston to Paytan Bunner put Lincoln in a 4th-and-2 situation with 4.5 seconds left. Lincoln tried to run the ball but Gabe Smith was tackled for a loss in the backfield with 2 seconds left on the clock. After hitting the 55-yarder earlier, Jacksonville’s Sims made a 48-yard attempt as time expired to give the Crimsons a 20-7 halftime lead.

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Head Coach Matt Silkowski

“I thought we were good enough to get two yards there,” Silkowski said in explaining his decision to try to advance the ball before halftime rather than taking a knee and regrouping during intermission. “It was more of trying to create confidence in our O-line going into halftime, and kind of end on a positive note.

“We didn’t want to go 3-and-out and punt; in hindsight, that’s probably what we should have done, or ran our fake punt there maybe. But hindsight is always 20/20.”

Lincoln appeared to right the ship as the third quarter began, in large part due to the efforts of Gabe Smith. Smith opened the half by returning the kickoff 22 yards. After long runs by Seth Durbin and Bunner, Smith made a highlight-reel 22-yard catch for a first down while on his back, then followed that with an 18-yard touchdown run to pull the Railers closer at 20-14.

After the Railer defense forced a Crimson’s punt, Lincoln couldn’t capitalize and gave the ball back to Jacksonville near midfield following an incomplete pass on a fake punt by the Railers. On the following play, Jacksonville scored on a 53-yard touchdown run to widen its lead to 27-14.

Lincoln got a 4-yard touchdown run from Johnston and a PAT from Melton to cut into Jacksonville’s lead, but the Crimsons scored 24 unanswered points in the final quarter to put the game out of reach for Lincoln at 51-21, eliminating the Railers from playoff eligibility.

“I thought we came out really, really well in the third quarter, and then we couldn’t maintain that momentum,” Silkowski said. “I feel like we’d get a really big play, and they’d get one right back up. We’re not built to get into shootouts like that; when we got into that shootout, we just couldn’t play with them anymore.”

The Jacksonville victory avenged last season’s 41-28 loss to Railers, which gave Lincoln its fifth overall victory of 2023 and qualified LCHS for the playoffs for the first time since 1984.

The end of the game also marked the ends of the playing careers of 15 seniors on the Railer football team. Senior players on this year’s LCHS football team include William Bickel, Paytan Bunner, Alek Claudio, Aiden Crane, Aiden Frye. Jaedyn Gulley. Karter Hieser. Kade Huskins. Tate Johnston. Kyle Koehler. Cort Pentecost, Logan Riggs, Frank Sanders, Gabe Smith and Jayce Washam. Senior Sloan Green served as a manager for the squad this season as well.

“I would argue against anybody that this is the greatest senior class that has ever gone through here in football,” Silkowski said. “Their freshman and sophomore years, we were 4-and-4 Week 9, and last year obviously we were 5-and-3 Week 9, and here again 4-and-4. So every year that they’ve been here, we’ve had an opportunity to go to the playoffs.

“There’s some really good players in this class; obviously a lot of them played big roles on our playoff team last year. We’re going to miss them dearly; they’re such good kids and so much fun to be around the last four years. We’re just going to miss them a whole lot.”

[Loyd Kirby]


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