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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