#2 State, #1 in our Hearts

12/16/2025

Championship Game
ATLANTA — Benedictine football coach Danny Britt is known for his fiery style on the sideline and for his ability to instill the toughness he showed in his playing days at Georgia Southern into a new generation of players recognized for their never-say-die attitude.
Britt has led the Cadets to four state championships in his 15 years at the helm, and the Cadets were looking to take down No. 1-ranked Creekside for another title Monday night under the bright lights at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Creekside took an 18-point lead midway through the second quarter and again at the end of the third, but Benedictine never backed down. The epic Cadet fight fell just short as a talented and tough Creekside squad held on to beat the Cadets 42-39 to finish off a 15-0 season by winning the GHSA Class 4A championship.

"Creekside is a great team, and they just made a lot of plays tonight and did a good job of keeping us off balance," Britt said. "But I'm super proud of our guys and the fight they showed tonight against a really talented team. It was just three point,s and losing this game doesn't change how I feel about them or how they should feel about what they have done."
Creekside started strong as Gary Walker broke loose for a 45-yard scoring run on the Seminoles' first possession. BC showed that it was going to go deep into its offensive playbook on its first possession as Stephen Cannon threw a backward pass to Bubba Frazier, who just missed Bennett Conaway in the end zone as the Cadets had to settle for a 28-yard field goal by Parker Lewis. Offensive coordinator A.J. DeFilippis kept up with the creative playcalling all night.
Creekside's quarterback Cayden Benson had a 49-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter, and Ced Kelley scored the first of his three touchdowns on the night as Creekside went up 21-3 with 6:22 left in the half.
But BC responded immediately as Cannon found Eron Mallard down the right sideline for a 74-yard touchdown on the next play from scrimmage. After the Cadet defense forced a three and out, Cannon hit Stanley Smart Jr. for a 14-yard score that cut the Creekside lead to 21-17 with 4:01 left in the half.

Then sophomore Jonathan Black made the first of his two interceptions on the night, and Cannon went to work again. He rolled to his leftand fired an off-balance bullet to Smart Jr., who was tackled on the 1-yard line. DeFilippis then called a play with Texas Tech-bound edge LaDamion Guyton lined up in the Wildcat formation, and Guyton looked like he was going to run it in before jumping up and throwing a one-yard scoring pass to Conaway with 40 seconds left in the half as BC took a 28-24 lead at intermission.

But Creekside came out strong in the third quarter with three unanswered touchdowns to go up 42-24. Benson had a 45-yard scoring run and connected with Kelley on a 17-yard touchdown pass. Kelley added a 20-yard scoring jaunt with 1:33 left in the third.
Cannon and the Cadets kept fighting back. The Texas Tech bound senior hit Mallard for a 32-yard score with 11:33 left, then scored himself on a 1-yard plunge before hitting Frazier for a two-point conversion as BC closed the gap to 42-39 with 1:04 left. But Creekside recovered the onside kick and was able to run the clock out.

Benson was 9 of 17 passing for 161 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions, and the senior ran for 133 yards and two scores on 13 carries. Walker rushed for 149 yards and a score on 17 carries, and Kelley had 62 yards on 12 attempts as Creekside racked up 325 yards on the ground.

Cannon was 11 of 24 passing for 213 yards and three touchdowns, and was under heavy pressure all night as he was sacked six times. Mallard, the standout junior, had six receptions for 140 yards and the two scores. Larson Little led the Cadets with 10 tackles, and Jayden Houston added seven.
"Coach A.J. (DeFilippis) called a heck of a game," said Cannon, who was recently named the Region 1-4A Offensive Player of the Year. "We had all the tricks in the bag that we thought we could use this game, so we didn't want to leave any of them uncalled. There was not a next game, so we left it all out there. It sucks that we lost, but it meant a lot for us, especially our senior class to get here. Sadly, it didn't end the way we wanted it to."

Defensive tackle Kam Cody was all over the field once again in his final high school game before he starts at Clemson for the spring semester. He wished it had ended differently, but was proud of the Cadet's effort.

"We gave it everything we had and fought to the final whistle," Cody said. "Creekside had set the state scoring record, and some guys might have been thinking about that. But once we got into our groove, we knew we could hold our own against them. Now I'm getting ready to go to Clemson and work. I want to be the best defensive lineman to ever come out of Savannah."

Smart Jr. will return for his senior season as a Cadet running back, and he said this game will serve a purpose.

"Creekside played with a lot of physicality; they were deep and strong," Smart Jr. said. "But we fought and were right there with them until the end. This feels like a terrible pain right now, but we're going to remember it. It will be motivation for us to get back here next year and win it."

Semifinal Game
The semifinal game was a matchup between two of the top coaches in Georgia as Marist's Alan Chadwick, who has 457 career wins and three state titles in his 41 years at the helm, went up against BC's Danny Britt, who now has 196 career wins as his Cadet squad advanced for a chance to win its fifth state title in his 15 years leading the program.
"I have to give a lot of credit to Coach Chadwick and Marist, they are a tough and resilient team, and they showed it tonight," Britt said. "But I thought we came out and did what we had to do — we played with physicality from start to finish. It was tough for our defense facing an offense that we never see, but they never backed down, and we got the big stops when we needed them."

Benedictine scored first in a play that resembled a lightning strike when junior Eron Mallard took the ball around left end, eluded a would-be tackler, and left Marist defenders in his wake on an 80-yard touchdown run on the game's first play from scrimmage.

Marist took advantage of a short field after a Cadet fumble on BC's second possession, and senior quarterback James Lasco scored on a 14-yard run to tie it up at 7-7 with 8:39 left in the first quarter.
BC responded with an 8-play, 80-yard touchdown drive highlighted by a 41-yard pass from Stephen Cannon to Mallard to move the chains on a 3rd and 20. Stanley Smart Jr. closed it out with a 21-yard scoring run off right tackle as BC went up 14-7.
Cannon, who signed with Texas Tech on Wednesday, had another huge game. In the second quarter, he scrambled for a 37-yard gain on a 3rd and 9, and then scored on a 26-yard run where he bounced off two-would be tacklers just two plays later. He ran for a career-high 103 yards on 13 carries and was 8 of 10 passing for 123 yards, with a 13-yard scoring pass to Bennett Conaway.

Cannon was the third string quarterback his freshman season when the Cadets won their second state championship in a row with a 14-13 win over Cedartown at Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta. Now he's going to get the chance to end his high school career on the highest of notes.

"This feels a little crazy. It still hasn't hit me yet; it probably will when I wake up in the morning," Cannon said. "But we did what we set out to do. The message all week was to outdo them physically. They played really hard, but so did we, and I think our athleticism made the difference. Eron Mallard set the tone on that first play, and he has been making so many big plays for us this year. This is really exciting, and it's everything I've dreamed about since I came to BC. Now, we need to finish it, we need to go out there and win it."

Mallard had three receptions for 68 yards to go along with his one run of the night — the 80-yard touchdown sprint.

Marist cut the BC lead to 21-10 right before the half on a 51-yard field by Tyler Baradel on a kick that would have been good from 60 yards. Baradel converted again from 35 yards to cut the Cadet lead to 28-20 with 4:03 left.

The War Eagles showed how effective their style could be to start the second half, going on a 15-play, 80-yard drive that ate up 7:33 off the clock. Parks Kaiser scored from 3 yards out to make it 21-17.

But the Cadet defense held Marist to 178 yards rushing and 239 yards of total offense. Lasco led Marist with 91 yards and the score on 24 carries.
Cadet defensive tackle Kam Cody, who signed with Clemson, was a key factor as usual. He played through an arm injury and fired up his teammates with his fiery style of play. Cody saw playing time in five games as a Cadet freshman on the state title team, before suffering a heart incident that nearly cost him his life at practice.

Cody, who was recently named the Region 1-4A Defensive Player of the Year, came back to become a star his sophomore season and has been working hard ever since toward his goal of helping lead the Cadets to another state title.

"I wasn't able to play in the state championship game as a freshman, but I was blessed to be there with the team when we won it," Cody said. "It was hard not to play in that game, but now I'm getting another chance. We did what we needed to do to win tonight, and I'll be ready to give it my all in the championship game."

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#2 State, #1 in our Hearts

Benedictine Military School