As preseason began for Las Vegas Lights FC, the club was a blank slate.

It had barely been two weeks since six-time Major League Baseball All-Star Jose Bautista had acquired the team in mid-January, and with no players under contract from the prior campaign, Sporting Director Gianleonardo Neglia and Head Coach Dennis Sanchez had work to do to assemble a competitive squad.

And yet, for a player like Jamaican forward Khori Bennett, it looked like exactly the opportunity he was looking for.

“I got a call from my agent telling me that an opportunity at the Lights was available for me, but it would be in preseason, a chance to earn my contract,” Bennett told USLChampionship.com this week. “I was excited about the fact that it was a new project. As you know, in the past, maybe the Lights didn’t do as well, but I was excited at the fact that it was a new project and kind of a fresh start in a very nice city.”

Bennett landed in Vegas having spent two good seasons in the USL League One with the Charlotte Independence, where he’d established his career after some early ups and downs. What he stepped into with the Lights was a somewhat chaotic opening. As the club and its staff tried to navigate starting from scratch, so did the players as they vied to impress Neglia and Sanchez.

But for Bennett, the manner by which Sanchez went about his business left a big impression.

“It took a bit of time, and it was, for sure, unusual. We didn’t have the opportunity to get to know each other from day one, from preseason, it had to be later, but I guess that chaos kind of brought us together.”

A three-game winning streak early in the campaign notwithstanding, the Lights suffered in the early going. The winning run gave way to an eight-game winless run, at which point a turning point arrived. Facing Miami FC at home, Bennett scored twice and Noël once to lead the team to a 3-1 victory, which began the starting point for the club’s upward ascent.

“I think that game, that win, was really important for the group,” said Bennett. “You know, we had a stretch of good games, but we didn’t win those games necessarily. You know, before that was Phoenix, I think, I think Louisville was in there as well, and Tampa Bay, we had some good performances, but we didn’t get the results. But I think things began to click once we played Miami and he got that result, it started to build the confidence within the group.”

Confidence built success, with Bennett and Noël leading the way. The combination of the two with Bennett as an out-and-out No. 9 and Noël a playmaker that provided both creativity and finishing in the final third began to mesh. Add in others such as versatile midfielder J.C. Ngando, who led the side in chances created, and the Lights became a team that became harder to resist defensively.

“I think it comes back down to our game plan,” said Noël. “Khori has been very successful finding balls into the box where I’m doing more a job of trying to finish, trying to create. It comes down to knowing your job and trying to get chemistry with your teammates, knowing what they’re going to do if you have the right space at the right time. Khori finding those chances and putting them away, it’s been great for us, and I try to do the same.”

The combination of growing attacking chemistry and defensive solidity saw the Lights go on a run where they lost only once in 20 league outings. That included a club record 11-game undefeated run that matched the longest in the USL Championship this season.

The combination of Bennett and Noël, meanwhile, helped the Lights score in 30 of their 34 regular season games – a mark only surpassed this year by Louisville City FC. Bennett led the Western Conference with 14 goals in his first season in the Championship, while Noël’s 10 goals and seven assists saw him rank tied for fifth in the league with 17 goal contributions.

The chemistry between the two on and off the field – alongside that of the Lights’ locker room overall – has played into that success.

“The chemistry took some time to get together, but we knew with the type of person, the type of characters that we are, we're just trying to get better as a group, and once the group is getting better, the individuals will succeed as well,” said Bennett. “It’s pretty easy to play with a very good player, very good character, very good personality.”

After experiencing a whirlwind at the start of their journey in Las Vegas, Bennett, Noël and the Lights are ready to reap the reward of their perseverance.

“It would mean the world to us as a group, and mean the world to me as well,” said Bennett. “We’ve been through a lot as a group. We’ve been through the ups and downs and, you know, we stuck together, and this would be the perfect reward for us, just to show we got something at the end of all the hard work that we put in earlier.”