BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — Excitement all across the Buffalo Public School District as it celebrates a major victory for one of its high school football teams.
The Bennett Tigers bringing their first football NYSPHSAA Class AA championship back home to the Queen City.
The team defeated the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks 42-8 Sunday night inside the dome at Syracuse University.
There was overwhelming excitement for the Bennett Tigers on the football field Sunday night as they captured the major win becoming state champions.
I met with three of the players at their home field at All High Stadium outside Bennett in Buffalo.
“How are you feeling?” Buckley asked. “It’s an unbelievable feeling,” replied Xzavier Goodman, player, and senior.
“Tears of joy,” declared Jayden Lewis, player, and senior.
“How are you feeling?” Buckley questioned. “I feel amazing right now. It feels great to overcome obstacles like this and finally win it for Bennett and all of Buffalo Public,” responded Rashard Perry, player, and senior.
Bennett Football Coach Steveson McDuffie tells me he's so proud of his team and the young men he has coached and mentored.
“I just can't believe it — where they've been — where they came and they're going on to be very successful — to me that was the part — I get a little choked up over it sometimes,” remarked Coach McDuffie.
McDuffie says he has known some of the players since they were five and six years old.
“I'm just so proud of the kids and I feel so honored to have coached a great bunch of young men,” noted McDuffie.
The win is even more impressive for the team when you consider the adversity the team faced earlier this season when it was forced to forfeit four of its games.
Section VI found a Bennett player ineligible, but the coach says it was a "clerical error" on their part, however, his team pulled it together.
“You know when those kids battled back through all that adversity and stayed together and learned how to fight, it resembled what I'm really trying to teach them around here which is our three D’s — dedication — discipline, and good decision making,” McDuffie said.
“We just had to buckle down, realize it wasn't about the loss that we had, but what we can do, to keep going forward to make it to that point,” described Goodman.
“It really fueled used to come back and win it all now,” Perry reflected.
“I'm happy we could finally do this. It took a long time — a long journey,” commented Lewis.
Coach McDuffie said it pushed his team all year long.
“You know what they told me? We're not going to leave anything for doubt here coach. I was just really, really proud of them. I don't know what to say. I'm still smiling — I'm still smiling — I'm feeling really good right now,” laughed McDuffie.
It was also redemption for the Tigers after losing the state championship on the same field last year.
But these players persevered, all while juggling academics and their home lives.
“For us, football is like life for us. It has a chance to get us out of places that no other people get and this our only chance we can provide for our families,” Perry explained.
Their coach says this state championing win is one for the history books.
“They just came through and 20 to 30 years from now we'll be a very unique team to win the state championship because everybody is always gonna want to know hey what's the story behind being 7-6,” recalls McDuffie.
Perry, tackle, says he will be attending college at Syracuse next year and plans to play football. Lewis, receiver and running back, says he will be attending the University at Buffalo in the fall and will also play football.
But Goodman still hasn’t selected a college. He wants to play football and major in physical therapy.
“There’s a next chapter to everything. Some of us are going off to college to play, so for us, who still have no offers, we still got to focus on that,” Goodman said.
