LINCOLN — Final 12 months round this time, the Lincoln Railsplitters broke a 39-year soccer playoff drought with a victory over visiting Jacksonville. That very same playoff alternative was there for the Railers in opposition to the identical visiting faculty Friday evening at Handlin Discipline.
All this week, Crimsons gamers wore a sticker on their helmets with the numbers “41-28” — the rating of final 12 months’s recreation. The message from Jacksonville coach Mark Grounds: “Let’s not allow them to punch their playoff ticket at our expense two years in a row.”
It was a detailed recreation for 3 quarters, however Jacksonville’s floor recreation lastly wore out the Railers’ protection, en path to a 51-21 Week 9 victory that ended Lincoln’s season. The Crimsons will probably begin the playoffs on the street subsequent week, however as Grounds informed his huddled gamers afterward, “You guys are a really harmful 6-3 workforce.”
Certainly, it’s going to take an excellent protection to cease the Jacksonville working recreation. Senior La’Marion Williams ran for 112 yards on 19 carries and two touchdowns, and freshman Jeremiah Jackson ran for 142 yards on simply seven carries in main Jacksonville (6-3 general). Final week, the Crimsons ran for greater than 500 yards and Friday they ran for 412 extra.
The runners had been the celebrities, however the Jacksonville kicker was a significant factor too. Senior Brandon Sims had an evening that received him near the all-time Illinois state document for longest discipline aim in a regular-season recreation. Because it stood, Sims needed to accept a seventh-place tie for his 55-yard kick that received Jacksonville a vital three factors, when it was a 7-0 recreation for Lincoln within the first quarter.
Sims, who additionally added a 48-yarder to finish the primary half, tied three others in state historical past for seventh-longest, with Tucker McCann’s 60-yarder in 2014 for O’Fallon nonetheless the document.
“I knew I used to be able to it,” Sims stated. “I might really feel the center racing, however as quickly as I hit it, I knew it was good.”
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Lincoln was responsible of some dangerous clock administration to finish the primary half, and it price them these three huge factors. The Railers had the ball deep at their very own 20 with 26.5 seconds left, down 17-7. However the Railers began throwing the ball down the sphere in a rush. All that largely did was preserve stopping the clock.
The Railers had a fourth-and-four about their very own 40, with 4 seconds left. A run play was referred to as, and in simply two seconds, the run was stuffed within the backfield. These two seconds nonetheless on the clock allowed Sims to come back again on the sphere and try the 48-yard discipline aim, which sailed by means of the uprights. As an alternative of being down 10 on the half, with the ball to start out the third, Lincoln trudged off the sphere down 20-7.
Lincoln senior working again Gabe Smith, nonetheless, made two runs totaling 40 yards to get ultimately zone to start out that third quarter, making it a 20-14 recreation.
The Railers received the ball again with an opportunity to take the lead, however had been stopped on a 3rd down play, bringing out the punter. Railers coach Matt Silkowski referred to as for a faux punt, however the go was damaged up by Jacksonville’s speedy freshman two-way participant, Darren Henry.
On the primary play from scrimmage, one other freshman with velocity, Jackson, burst up the center for a 53-yard TD run to make it extra snug once more for Jacksonville at 27-14.
Again the Railers got here, nonetheless. Senior quarterback Tate Johnston rediscovered his personal working recreation, and he had some good runs that he capped off with a 3-yard scoring plunge, pulling Lincoln inside 27-21 with 2:02 left within the third.
However it was all Jacksonville from there. Sims had a chip-shot 20-yarder that made it 30-21, then the Jacksonville protection stopped Johnston on a fourth-and-three on the Railers’ 28. On the following play, Williams ran it in from 28 yards and all of the sudden it was 37-21 Crimsons with time working out within the fourth.
“We simply needed to keep affected person and preserve plugging away,” Grounds stated. “Our working recreation is about physique blows. With our huge guys leaning on you, you’re going to be a step slower and also you’re going to blink, and our backs run laborious.”
Mentioned Williams about subsequent week: “I really feel like, our greatest factor is we’ve received to come back out robust on the gate. We received to choose it up from the bounce and get transferring.”
The Railers (4-5, 4-4 CS8) received a valiant effort from senior Paytan Bunner (111 yards on 14 carries) and Johnston had a 30-yard scoring run to open the scoring. Regardless of the loss, Silkowski stated his workforce will likely be again.
“I feel this is without doubt one of the biggest senior lessons to ever undergo right here,” Silkowski stated. “We gave it all the pieces we had. No regrets. That was our motto coming in.”
Adrian Dater is a contract author for The State Journal-Register. He could be reached by means of the sports activities division at sports activities@sj-r.com.
This text initially appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA soccer: Jacksonville runs over Lincoln’s playoff hopes
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