BREESE — Kaden Rakers paused before describing his reaction to Breese Central's football team being 7-0 for the first time in program history.
"It feels normal for me," said Rakers, a senior. "Once we get farther away from this, graduate and go to college, it’ll sink in then."
For fellow senior Griffen Becker, the magnitude of the moment hadn't sunk in.
"It’s unbelievable," Becker said.Â
Breese Central outpaced Roxana on Friday night to notch a 35-6 victory in a Cahokia Conference Mississippi Division contest at Breese Central to move to that historic unbeaten milestone.
"I don’t know if they realize how special it is," Breese Central coach Brian Short said. "I think we realized how special this season could be and I think they're starting to understand that and realize that now."
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Breese Central (7-0 overall, 4-0 conference), the No. 4 small school in the rankings, earned a share of the conference title with a chance to win it outright with a date against Columbia (5-2, 3-1) next week.
"Massive amount of respect for Roxana and Columbia and we know it’s going to be a dog fight next week," Short said.Â
Breese Central is looking to win the conference outright for the first time since 2021.
After last year's loss at Roxana, which gave the Shells the conference title, the Cougars were ready for this matchup from the start.
Rakers took the first offensive play and scampered 40 yards to set the tone.
"All week, we talked about last year," Rakers said. "They brought it to us then. This year, we’re going to change that. We’ll do our best to (take it to them) and that’s what we did."
The Cougars pushed the pace from the get-go, scoring on their first three drives to take a 22-6 lead.Â
Rakers slammed it in from 6 yards to get the scoring started before starting quarterback Preston Baker lit up the Shells' defense.
The 6-foot-2 gunslinger went 12-for-19 for 247 yards and three scores, finding Benny Lehman, Carter Deien and Becker for the scores.
While all three TD passes were highlights, Baker pointed to the tunnel screen to Becker as his favorite of the night.
"That was a really good play," Baker said. "He ran a long way for that touchdown. I’m surprised he wasn’t gassed by the time he got here."
Becker wasn't done torching the Roxana defense. The 6-foot-4 senior finished the night with six receptions and 154 yards and the score. Deien had five receptions for 112 yards and a score.Â
The offense was paced by Rakers' 108 yards on the ground on 16 carries and a score.Â
Breese Central rolled up 478 yards of offense and limited Roxana (5-2, 3-1) to just 163 yards.Â
No quarterback controversy in Breese
Short laughed when asked if a quarterback controversy was brewing for the No. 1 ranked team in Class 4A.
"I’m sure they’ll give each other crap about it," the Breese Central coach said.
While Baker slung it all over the field, Rakers also showed off his arm, going 3-for-4 for 58 yards and a score.Â
Rakers admits that he teases his quarterback each day at practice.Â
"It’s close," Rakers said. "I’m always on him about it."
Though he's entrenched at the quarterback position, Baker appreciates the new wrinkle Rakers brings to the offense with his arm.
"It sets up for really good trick plays, something the defense may not expect," Baker said.Â
Becker admits he feels bad that his late slip in the game cost Rakers' his perfect passing rating.Â
Roxana looking for answers on offense
For the past two weeks, Roxana's offense has looked stuck in neutral compared to its explosive self from last year.
The Shells averaged nearly 48 points a game last year as they stampeded to the Class 3A semifinal round.Â
In stark contrast, Roxana has only mustered 18 points in the past two weeks.
"I have to figure something out to get that fixed because that’s a lot of weeks that we haven’t had a lot of answers on offense," said Roxana coach Wade DeVries, whose team had a five-game losing streak snapped.Â
Roxana had some traction on the offense when it marched down the field and scored its lone touchdown in the second quarter after a 15-play drive.
The Shells followed that drive up with a nine-play drive, but that drive ended with a fumble that cost them a chance to cut into Breese Central's lead.
"That was huge," Short said. "All the momentum was on their side. Coach DeVries does a great job, and we knew they’d have wrinkles we hadn’t seen, and they did that today. It was good for our guys to feel that adversity and we knew that would happen."
Roxana junior Sean Maberry totaled 57 yards on the ground and a score on 16 carries.Â
Roxana turns focus to next week
With a chance to lock up a playoff spot and potentially seven wins for the third successive season, DeVries was only focused on Week 8.
"We've just got to regroup," DeVries said. "There’s going to be highs and lows, but I felt the kids stayed together and they fought for the 48 minutes. All we can control is getting healthy from this game and get ready to play Wood River. That’s all we can control."
With a win, Roxana will lock up its playoff spot for the third consecutive season for the first time since 2001-03.