By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Last year, the Lafayette Fighting Irish beat the Benton Cardinals in the Class 4 District 16 championship game on a last second shot by then freshman Jodell Redman. This year, the Cardinals got their revenge.
Benton raced out to an early lead and never let Lafayette back into the game, winning against their crosstown rivals 65-46 and bringing the first district title since 2007 to the southside.
After the Cardinals raced to a 6-0 lead to start the game, the Fighting Irish cut the lead to as much as two before Benton pulled away and led at the end of the first quarter 19-8.
While the second quarter was closer, the Cardinals continued to show a potent offensive attack and stifling defense to keep holding Lafayette down, going on to lead 35-18.
Benton Head Coach Jared Boone says the team knew they had to come out early and set the tone.
"We knew they were going to come out juiced up, especially after the way they played yesterday," Boone tells reporters following the game. "They're in this championship game year after year after year after year, I mean they've owned this district year after year after year after year, so I mean they have that championship pedigree, we knew it was going to be tough."
"KB (Lafayette head coach Kevin Bristol) did a good job, hats off to them in towing the load, but I mean we had a good start and we didn't look back."
Benton went on to outscore Lafayette 30-28 in the second half of the game on way to the district championship.
Boone says it means everything to bring the first championship in 18 years back to the southside
"It's why I came back, to try to deliver this to this community this school, I mean I have no words, it's amazing," Boone says. "It's all contributed to these guys, their hard work, their belief in me, and what we're trying to do here and what we're trying to build here."
"You know they put their hard hats on and come to work every single day, and we've had our ups and our downs and our heartbreaks and days where we've been at it, but it's all for this, it's all for this."
Senior Lincoln Goodwin led the team with 21 points. Junior Mach Mayom scored 14 while senior Myles Bachali added 11. Bachali says waiting a whole year for this rematch, after a heartbreaking loss last season, is what motivated the team
"Just having to wait 365 days, just keeping in the back of our mind we got beat, everyday it haunts you the whole year," Bachali points out.
Beating a team that has been as dominant as Lafayette could bring pressure to any other team, but not Benton, according to Goodwin.
"I mean not really pressure, this is what we're built for, we work hard every single day, we're built for the moment," Goodwin tells reporters.
Benton will matchup with St. Pius X to open up the Class 4 quarterfinals on Monday. MSHSAA has yet to announce the host or tipoff time. In their one matchup this season, Benton beat St. Pius 64-53.
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