Railer football team put forth
solide effort but is outmatched by no. 2 ranked Rochester, 56 - 0
[September 13, 2025]
ROCHESTER -- In the most recent IHSA Associated Press poll
released 9/10/25, Rochester was ranked as the No. 2 in the state in
Class 4A.
It took the Rockets all of a few minutes against Lincoln to show
why.
As the Rochester offense fired on all cylinders and compiled 384 net
yards of offense, the Rocket defense held the Railers to -37 yards
overall. Rochester was never challenged in a 56-0 win over Lincoln.
The Rockets opened the game with a 5-play drive culminating with a
39-yard touchdown pass from J.P. Leonard to Nate Swaney.
After Lincoln was unable to move the ball on its first possession
and punted, Rochester marched downfield and struck again as Leonard
hit Eli Cox on a 34-yard play-action pass.
Following a punt to end a 3-and-out possession for Lincoln,
Rochester hit on a 35-yard screen pass from Leonard to Kaiden Stout
to make the score 21-0 with four minutes remaining in the first
quarter.
The Rockets were never challenged as they moved the score to 42-0 at
halftime. The final two quarters were played with a running clock as
Rochester improved to 3-0 with a 56-0 win.
Marcus Gile
While the scoreboard may not show it, the Railers did show
improvement over their previous performances. Lincoln cut down on
its penalties, only being whistled for two infractions all game.
Several Railers made big plays, including Marcus Gile stripping the
ball from a Rochester player and Preston Hunt recovering, Seth
Durbin making a tackle-for-loss and Lucas Melton and Durbin each
making 7-yard runs on offense. Lincoln freshman backup quarterback
Logan White completed a couple passes. But the game belonged to
Rochester, as Leonard threw for 187 yards on 6-for-7 passing. The
Rockets also had six players with net gains of 20 or more yards.
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Although he certainly would’ve liked to have seen a closer score,
Lincoln head coach Matt Silkowski was pleased with his team’s effort
against the No. 2-ranked squad in Illinois.
“They’re the No. 2-ranked team in [IHSA Class] 4A for a reason,”
Silkowski said. “There were some things we wanted to see, and we did
do those things. I thought we played as hard as we could; I thought
we didn’t just roll over. I feel like we fought as hard as we could
until the end.
“When our Number 1s were in, we didn’t really make too many
penalties. We weren’t putting the ball on the ground today. I
definitely saw some improvement on some things from Week 2.”
Lucas Melton
Melton led the Railer rushing attack with 32 net yards according to
unofficial statistics. Paxton Lora gained 6 yards and Durbin added 4
yards.
Railer quarterbacks hit 50 percent of their passes, as starter
Briggs Davenport completed 1 of 2 pass attempts while backup White
went 2-of-4 on the night.
Quinten Mead and Colby Merriman each caught a pass for the Railer
offense.
Next on the Railer schedule is the LCHS Homecoming Game. Lincoln
hosts Normal U-High on September 19 in a 7 PM game at Handlin Field.
[Loyd Kirby]
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