Badin wins 5th straight district title

Photos: District: Badin vs. Urbana

Robert Leifheit/The Badin Lady Rams battle Urbana for the Division II district final, at Bellbrook, Thursday, October 29th, 2009.

2-0 win over Urbana moves Rams into a regional semifinal against Wyoming.

By Jay Morrison, Staff Writer Updated 8:25 AM Friday, October 30, 2009

BELLBROOK — Like leaves dropping from trees, children begging for candy and clocks falling back, deep tournament runs by the Badin High School girls soccer team have become a staple of late October.

The Rams captured their fifth consecutive Division II district championship and ninth overall Thursday night with a 2-0 victory against Urbana at Bellbrook’s Miami Valley South Stadium.

The win moves the Rams (11-4-4) into a regional semifinal match at 7 p.m. Wednesday against unbeaten Wyoming (17-0-2) at Centerville High School.

“When tournament time rolls around, it’s like something takes over us, and we’re like this huge snowball that just keeps on rolling,” senior captain Sydnee Fields said. “I think it all boils down to tradition. The underclassmen play for the seniors and the seniors play for the women before us who worked so hard to build this program.”

Urbana, by contrast, was making its first ever appearance in the district final after compiling a school-record number of wins in a 10-7-3 season.

“We had a tremendous season,” Hillclimbers coach Lance Jackson said. “I’m disappointed for the kids because they played so hard, but we’ve never been this far in school history. Badin has a great history. We’ve watched Badin beat teams in our conference year after year after year, teams we thought were going to go to state.”

Urbana appeared to take a 1-0 lead 15 minutes into the game when Lillia Steffenson jarred the ball loose from Badin keeper Caitlin Shafor following a direct kick by Christy Finney. But after a meeting by the officials, it was ruled Shafor had complete possession of the ball and the goal was disallowed.

“If that first goal counts, who knows what happens,” Jackson said. “From my viewpoint, I thought it was the right call. I thought (Shafor) had it. But if we put that one in, that’s how we won last two tournament games. We scored first and sat back and played defense.”

Nine minutes after the disallowed goal, Kim Golden took a pass from Morgan Pater and popped a 10-yard shot over the head of Urbana keeper Adaleine Jackson for the first score of the game.

Allie Crossley added the insurance goal in the second half on a rocket of a shot from 25 yards out with 16:53 remaining.

“That was a big, big goal,” Badin coach Keith Harring said of Crossley’s score. “Even though (Urbana) only took a few shots, they’re still in the game at that point. And we all know anything can happen.”

Badin finished with a 27-4 advantage in shots, with Shafor registering four saves for the shutout. Adaleine Jackson had 10 saves for Urbana.

“Five (district titles) in a row has to be close to a record,” Harring said. “That’s something to be very proud of. I told them they should feel very honored. It’s a legacy now.”

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