The No. 21-ranked Raven Football team finished with 353 yards through the air and 492 total yards on offense on Saturday as they earned a 59-6 win over Culver-Stockton College on O'Malley Field.
Benedictine (5-2, 1-0 Heart North) added 139 yards on the ground as they used a 21-point first quarter to win their third straight of the season and their 26th straight over Culver-Stockton (0-7, 0-1 Heart North).
Jacob Koester passed for a career high 310 yards passing in the win, connecting on two touchdown passes to Jameel Kirkland and one touchdown pass to Christian Haack. Koester also scored on the ground, pushing the Ravens up 21-0 late in the first quarter with a one-yard rush.
Kirkland accounted for the other two touchdowns of the first quarter on receptions of 45 and 27 yards to get the Ravens offense moving.
The Ravens longest offensive play of the season came on their first offensive play of the second quarter when Koester and Haack connected on a 93-yard touchdown pass.
Dre Graves got the Raven defense on the board with a 39-yard interception return for a touchdown before Andrew Zubia connected on a 49-yard field goal in the second quarter to push the Ravens ahead 35-0. Zubia finished the game a perfect 8 for 8 on point after attempts, moving in to a tie for the program record for PATs in a single game.
Benedictine added 21 points in the second half, scoring on a 20-yard rush by Lucas Jordan during the third quarter.
Edin Kovac, who finished off the game at quarterback for the Ravens, connected on a 12-yard pass to David Claypool for the final third-quarter touchdown and then found Burrell Handy on a 10-yard pass in the fourth quarter.
Defensively, Chandler Staley and Josh Rhodes led the Ravens with nine tackles to go along with the Graves interception.
As a unit, the Ravens finished with 3.5 sacks for a loss of 17 yards while 9.5 tackles for a loss of 28 yards.
In addition to being their third straight win of the season, the win over Culver-Stockton also gave head coach Larry Wilcox career win No. 259 at Benedictine moving him to second place on the NAIA's All-Time wins list.
The Ravens are off next week before hosting Graceland University on O'Malley Field on Oct. 24 as part of Homecoming Weekend.
