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Benedictine seniors with four years in the football program have an opportunity to bookend their high school careers with state championships.

The Cadets advanced to the GHSA Class 4A title game by eliminating Marist of Atlanta 28-20 in the semifinals on Friday night at Memorial Stadium. Benedictine (11-2) plays Creekside (14-0) of Fairburn for the championship at 7 p.m. Dec. 15 at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“That’s always been the goal,” senior quarterback Stephen Cannon said after the victory Friday when asked about the senior class. “We’ve always had that on our minds since (2022). We all came here because we wanted to do this. Now that it’s finally happened, it feels a little surreal. I don’t think it’s hit me yet.”

Benedictine has won four state crowns under head coach Danny Britt, including back-to-back Class 4A titles in 2021 and 2022. The Cadets have gotten close since then, with setbacks in the 2023 semifinals and 2024 quarterfinals.

“It’s been a dream since freshman year,” senior defensive tackle Kam Cody said. “We made it there (in 2022), came up short (my) sophomore and junior years, so to be able to go back there is just a blessing. We’ve worked so hard from February all the way to now. It’s been a journey for us, all of us.”

A journey is an apt description, particularly for Cannon and Cody, who were two of six Cadets to sign with NCAA Division I programs on Wednesday. 

Cannon, who is headed to Texas Tech, doesn’t have a storybook narrative to his freshman year, when he was third string behind starter Luke Kromenhoek, a blue-chip prospect who signed with Florida State in the Class of 2024 and played this season at Mississippi State.

“I got into one (game) as a freshman,” Cannon said of the 2022 campaign. “I think it was the middle of the season and we were playing against a pretty bad team and up by like 80.”

Cannon waited two seasons behind Kromenhoek before making his first start as a junior, only to injure his throwing shoulder against Ware County and play just seven games.  

A state champion relay sprinter and a standout basketball player, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Cannon has been stellar this season. The Region 1-4A Offensive Player of the Year has passed for more than 2,000 yards and 23 touchdowns – including a 14-yarder to tight end Bennett Conaway on the first play of the fourth quarter against Marist -- to just four interceptions.

Cannon also has rushed in 13 games for more than 600 yards and eight touchdowns, including a 26-yard score when he broke four tackles and dove into the end zone for a 21-7 second-quarter lead against the War Eagles on Friday.

Cody’s journey goes well beyond the football field because of his near-death experience as a freshman. He suffered a cardiac event during an October 2022 practice and was treated on the field before being rushed to a hospital. His life was saved, and there was the thought that his football career was over after a few varsity games, but Cody was determined to regain his health and return to the sport he loves.

He was back playing as a sophomore, and the interest from colleges continued. Cody was the region’s Defensive Player of the Year as a senior, and he signed on Wednesday with Clemson.

Wide receiver Bubba Frazier, the region’s overall player of the year, signed with Notre Dame. Frazier also won the Michael Finocchiaro Memorial Outstanding Football Player Award as the top high school football player in Savannah. 

Teammate Micah Williams, a safety, will play at Appalachian State, and offensive tackle Carlton Hall inked his national letter of intent with Liberty. Edge rusher LaDamion Guyton, a five-star prospect who began the season as a junior, reclassified as a senior and is headed to Texas Tech.

“I’m just so blessed. I played my heart out tonight,” Cody said after Friday’s victory. “I’m beyond blessed. God blessed us tonight.”

Benedictine’s Class of 2026 has now won 44 of 54 games since they were freshmen, including 18-2 in region play with three region titles. 

Cannon, who as an eighth-grade student watched the 2021 Benedictine team capture a state crown on television, had a prime seat as a freshman QB in the triumphant 2022 season.

He recalled seeing how those seniors led the squad and held everyone accountable, “because your team can’t go anywhere if you can’t hold each other accountable.

“I think that’s a huge thing,” Cannon continued. “We’ve gotten better at that as the year’s gone on. I don’t think we were the best at that early. But we know it’s not personal. If some guy is slacking off practice one day, we’ve got to pick him up because we can’t afford that at this time of the playoffs.”

Cody described the Cadets as a family that doesn’t point fingers and accepts responsibility as a group.

“If one messes up, we all messed up,” Cody said. “We’re going to pick each other up even if we get put down. In tough situations like that, that’s when we really come together as a team, as a BC family.”

Britt, the leader of the program for 15 years, said of a comparison of the 2022 season to 2025, “I’ve definitely seen similarities with the leadership from this senior class and that senior class.”

He coached Calvary Day for five seasons (2001-05) before coming to Benedictine in 2011 and going 5-6, the last time any of his teams had a losing record. The Cadets are 164-36 under Britt with 10 region titles and state championships in 2014 (Class 2A), 2016 (2A), 2021 (4A), and 2022 (4A).

“When Coach Britt came in, he built a culture,” Cannon said. “Everyone’s got to buy in to what he’s doing because he knows how to get here. He’s done it before.”

In his words to the team after the victory on Friday, Britt repeatedly told the players how proud he was of them and their performance. He praised Marist (12-2), whose legendary coach, Alan Chadwick, has 457 wins and three state titles in 41 seasons since 1985 at the helm, as a well-coached, hard-playing team.

The Cadets played physical and did what they needed to do to win, Britt said, against the War Eagles, whose triple-option offense led by senior quarterback James Lasco grinds out first downs and can wear out a defense over four quarters. 

But not Benedictine, whose defense protected an eight-point lead when Marist took possession at its 32 with 2:32 left in regulation. The War Eagles advanced to the 50-yard line before facing second-and-16, third-and-16, and fourth-and-10, when an incomplete pass with 1:26 remaining secured the Cadets’ 11th consecutive victory.

Britt said Benedictine’s consistency in contending for state titles comes from a mentality.

“I think it’s both from the school’s mentality and what we’ve implemented in the football program,” Britt said. “We have a very physical, very hard-working mentality. We are really, really hard on the kids. I think it forces them to be better or go somewhere else.”

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