By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Lafayette seniors Jaron Saunders and Kingston Oliver made school and state history earlier this season in a week two football game against Atchison, KS.
Saunders threw for a staggering 698 yards in a 50-21 at Atchison on September 3rd - a new school and state record. His top target that night was Oliver, who had 398 receiving yards - also a state record.
State Senator Tony Luetkemeyer, representing Platte and Buchanan Counties, had read about the accomplishment soon after it happened, and wanted to honor the Irish with a Senate resolution.
He presented Saunders and Oliver with that resolution at Lafayette's football practice on Wednesday afternoon.
"I had seen that both of these guys had set not only the school record, but also the state record for single-game passing and receiving yards," Luetkemeyer said. "I said, 'We have to do something special.' So, we were able to get a couple of senate resolutions for them. It's just a small token of appreciation to show them the honor and respect that the Missouri Senate has for their great accomplishment."
Saunders was honored to get such a recognition from the state level.
"It shows that people care about us and shows that in Missouri, we have good representation," Saunders said. "Obviously, he's from the Senate, so that's huge for us, knowing that the representation from Missouri comes out and shows their support. It shows we have people from all around who are backing us here."
Oliver gives credit to his teammates for making such a record and achievement possible.
"It just feels good," he said. "Them guys helped me get the record by opening me up. The chemistry with Jaron, it's been like that since 5th grade, so it's just coming to light now."
Oliver also had four touchdown catches against Atchison, which tied the single-game state record also.
As nice as the honor is, Saunders says he and the team are looking ahead to bigger things, as the Irish get set for a key, MEC battle at Chillicothe (3-2) this Friday, and then home games against Cameron (1-4) and St. Pius X (5-0) in the weeks to follow.
"I mean, the feeling of it is always great," Saunders said of the record. "But, we're trying to move on to bigger and better things from that. We're trying to win an MEC title right now and hopefully go onto a district title and hopefully just keep going forward from there."
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