NEW LEBANON, Ohio — History was made this past Friday as Preble Shawnee football completed a perfect 10-0 regular season, going on the road to defeat Dixie 63-13.
With the win, the Arrows also clinched sole possession of the Western Ohio Athletic Conference football championship, the first football title in school history.
“It feels good,” Preble Shawnee coach Dave Maddox said of the accolades. “They set this goal beginning of the season and they worked hard and stayed focused and was able to achieve the goal. Very happy for them and proud of them more than anything.”
While the goal this season was always to win a league title and go undefeated, Maddox said going 1-0 each week was the focus.
“Our big goal was to go 10-0, but you have to focus on each day getting better, working hard, and then win each week,” Maddox said. “That’s what we said, we’re going to take this one week at at a time. Each game that we won we said, “Alright, that’s one down. That’s two down. By God, let’s keep working, let’s stay focused, and let’s do what we set out here to do.’”
The game started in dominant fashion for the Arrows as they jumped out to a 14-0 lead after two touchdown runs by senior Hunter Crockett (eight yards and 49 yards).
Dixie’s offense struggled to move the ball and Preble Shawnee took advantage of the field position, scoring quickly on most of their drives.
Despite just being in the second quarter, this contest was quickly put to bed with a jaw-dropping 35-point frame for the Arrows.
Crockett got on the board three more times during the second quarter (on touchdown runs of 20, 35 and 31 yards) as junior Malechai Stephenson hauled in a 29-yard touchdown pass from junior Brayden Doran. Doran also took in a 32-yard touchdown himself to make it 49-0 at the half.
“Coach [Josh] Koogle kind of talked to them before the game and he said, ‘Let’s leave no doubt,’ because there’s still people out there that say we aren’t as good as our record shows, and he said, ‘Let’s leave no doubt,’ and I believe they did that. They knew had a job to do and they came out and got it done.”
The Arrows’ defense stayed the course throughout the rest of the contest as Preble Shawnee’s offense score 14 more points in the fourth quarter – Stephenson with a 94-yard kickoff return and freshman Isaac Blankenship with a three-yard touchdown run – to make it a 63-13 final.
Crockett led the Arrows on the ground with 200 yards on just 14 carries, five of which went for touchdowns. Doran added 63 yards on the ground and a touchdown.
In addition to Stephenson’s kickoff return, junior Cooper Roell assisted on special teams with a 7-of-8 clip on extra points.
On defense, junior Dylan Zornes forced a fumble and Blankenship intercepted a Greyhound pass. junior Aiden Walters led with 10 tackles, followed by freshman Brody Lynch with nine and Roell with eight. Junior John McKnight finished with six tackles.
“Everybody played hard,” Maddox said. “Overall, offensively and defensively, everybody played hard and did their job.”
Now that the Arrows have completed the undefeated regular season, the message to the team is clear.
“Keep going,” Maddox said. “That’s what we just said – the only thing better than 10-0 is 11-0, so we’re going to keep going one week at a time and keep working, keep getting better and hopefully we can keep winning.”
Preble Shawnee, ranked No. 3 in Division V, Region 20, will host No. 14 Greenon (6-3) on Friday, Oct. 30, to begin the playoffs with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
