When the Shells run onto Charles Raich Field for their opening playoff game this weekend, the senior class and two of their senior leaders will be in familiar territory. Quarterback Cohen Dugan and captain Zane Losch are part of a senior class that has reached the IHSA playoffs in each of its four years in the program.
Their postseason résumé covers a lot of ground. It includes a deep run to the state semifinals as freshmen, a second-round exit, and a first-round loss. They have seen the extremes of playoff football, and both say those experiences shaped how they approach this one.
“I’ve been there before,” Losch said. “I have experience and know what to expect. Now it’s just up to going out and performing.”
The Shells, coached by Wade DeVries, enter the postseason at 6-3 and take on Massac County at 2:00pm on Saturday, October 24, 2026, at Charles Raich Field on the Campus of Roxana High School.
Learning on the big stage
Both seniors’ playoff careers began as freshmen on a team that made it all the way to the state semifinals.
Losch said he assumed his regular-season playing time would end when the postseason began. It didn’t. The varsity built a 50-point lead in the first half of that first playoff game, and he got into the game.
“Most freshmen don’t get to play in nearly every in-season game,” Losch said. “Come playoff time, I was expecting that to stop, which was very wrong.”
He remembers the energy of a second-round win by a single point. The moment that stands out most, though, is running onto the field for the semifinal and seeing the crowd.
That experience has stayed with him. By the time he walked out for last year’s second-round game, he said, he felt no pressure at all, having already played in front of thousands of people in a semifinal. The run also gave Losch and the other freshman on the varsity roster four extra weeks of practice to learn from a senior class he calls “great.”
Dugan’s most vivid freshman-year memory is the state semifinal game against Mt. Carmel, when he ran onto the field with thousands of fans in the stands. The Shells lost, but the loss didn’t leave him satisfied with watching.
“All I wanted was to be back in that moment,” Dugan said. “Instead of being on the sidelines, I wanted to be on the field.”
The Exit That Stuck
Asked which of their postseason experiences taught them the most, both seniors pointed to the same one: last year’s second-round exit, a loss to St. Joseph-Ogden.
Losch believes that team could have gone much farther. “We couldn’t seem to finish and win hard games when faced with adversity,” he said. Seeing what might have been, he added, taught him and the other returning starters how to handle those situations.
Dugan remembers a team that came out hot and led at halftime before the opponent scored late. He said he felt that was one that got away.
“It taught me that as a leader, I need to keep my team composed and stay positive even through negative moments,” he said. “The team that stays positive is the team that wins.”
A different kind of team
Dugan said this season’s team has a different personality from the ones that came before it, and he traces it to the preseason doubts about the program. Many expected the Shells to take a step back after losing a large senior class.
“We were told leading up to the season that we wouldn’t be good because of the seniors we lost,” Dugan said. “I think that really pushes us to play hard and push through tough moments. We do it for each other, and to show everyone else who we are.”
Losch describes the group as a family, with the ups and downs that come with one. He said that closeness is new. “I don’t think there’s a person on this team that I haven’t had a conversation with,” he said. “In years past, I don’t think that was be true. Even with myself, there are some kids that last year I never spoke to.”
Proving The Record Wrong and The People Up Front
Both seniors said their season-defining moment came in a stretch of games that tested the team early.
For Losch, it was a week-four meeting with Mater Dei. The Shells arrived with a 1-2 record. Mater Dei arrived receiving votes as a top-10 team in Class 3A. Roxana won 54-29.
“Our team had the confidence that we would win,” Losch said, “but the game definitely showed that our 1-2 record did not represent how competitive we are.”
Dugan pointed to the game just before it. Against Chicago Bulls Prep, the Shells fell behind 14-0 after a rough start but fought back and took the lead late in the fourth quarter. They ended up losing by five. Dugan said the game still proved the team’s resolve, and the following week brought a strong win over Breese Mater Dei.
“It showed that we wouldn’t lay down for anyone,” he said.
The people up front
Asked which teammate has surprised him most this season, Losch chose senior Nick Miles. Miles was not expected to be available this year, and he did not want to play defense. He ended up there anyway and has become a strong defender.
“I’m not surprised at his performance,” Losch said. “It’s him stepping up and playing a position that he didn’t originally want to.”
Dugan, whose passing game depends on protection, had a bigger answer: the entire offensive line. He credited Wyatt Harris, Marshall Doyle, Mason Shaw, Parker Hankins and Bennett Luck with the offense’s success this season.
“They made holes for our backs to run through and gave me time in the pocket to throw the football,” he said.
“Being in the locker room is like being a part of a family. You love and play for every guy next to you.”
Cohen Dugan
Leaving a Legacy
Both seniors say leadership has been harder than it looks, and both leaned on lessons from older players.
Losch has captained track teams for years and said football is a different challenge. His biggest takeaway from the older players he looked up to, including Evan Wells, James Herring and Nick Newton, was to talk to the younger guys. He believes that habit faded after they graduated, but he still remembers the conversations those players had with him as a freshman.
“I hope that by talking with the younger kids, I can make them feel more a part of the team and leave an impact on them,” Losch said.
Dugan said the hardest part is holding close friends accountable. He patterned his approach on Evan Wells and the 2023 team, a group whose leaders could be hard on their friends and then be fine with them right afterward. “I’ve taken that to heart,” Dugan said, “and tried to replicate that.”
Pressure and freedom
The two seniors approach the postseason from different angles.
Losch said the playoffs bring a level of focus and intensity that regular practice doesn’t. The drills look the same, but everything else changes. He hopes younger teammates understand that, and that the atmosphere of a playoff game day is unlike anything else.
Dugan has the opposite message. “It’s just another football game like we played all regular season,” he said. “The minute you worry about the game too much, you will tense up. If you play like it’s another game, you will play free.”
Both said the locker room reflects those approaches. Losch said the coaching staff and team leaders have framed pressure as a privilege, and that the team’s mindset has become more intentional as a result. Dugan described a group that is excited and loose.
“Being in the locker room is like being a part of a family,” he said. “You love and play for every guy next to you. We know if we play our game, we’re gonna be just fine.”
More than a playoff run
As their final postseason begins, neither senior is thinking much about his own legacy.
“I don’t necessarily care to be remembered, really,” Losch said. “I just hope that I can be a good enough leader to have left an impact on my younger teammates and to have helped raise the standard and expectations for Roxana football.”
Dugan said he hopes people notice the work the senior class has put in. He cares less about how people see him as a Shell than about what his teammates know.
“I just want my guys in the locker room who have been with me since the beginning to know that I’m playing my heart out for them as they are for me,” Dugan said. “A deep playoff run means a lot, but it’s the people that I played with that truly mean a lot to me.”
When they look back, they said, they won’t pick out a single play. Losch will remember playing alongside close friends like Logan Prater and Lyndon Thies, though they shared the field for only one season. Dugan will remember the season as a whole. He singled out team breakfasts and laughs in the locker room as his favorite memories.
A program on the rise
Losch also sees the senior class as part of something bigger. When he was growing up, he remembers seeing Shells football teams consistently 2-7 or 1-8, and that continued right up until he reached high school. Now, he said, the program has the expectation of being a good playoff team and winning games.
“There’s a sense of pride that comes with being a part of our football program and running out onto the field on Fridays and Saturdays with the expectation of winning football games,” Losch said. He hopes to remember a deep run, “not just as a freshman watching, but hopefully this year too as a senior leading the team.”
Dugan put it more simply. “It has meant the world,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to play anywhere else. Running out on the field and feeling a whole community of people behind you really means something.”
This weekend, the Shells and their four-time playoff seniors get the chance to add another chapter to their legacy in Shell Country.
