Streaking Eagles pull away for 42-10 victory over Badin

It’s been a difficult season for Badin High School’s football team, and it’s not getting any better.

Visiting Chaminade Julienne cruised past the Rams 42-10 on Saturday night at Hamilton’s Virgil Schwarm Stadium, dropping the hosts to 2-7 overall and 1-5 in the Greater Catholic League Coed Central Division.

Adding to the dejection was the persistent injury bug. Badin’s top two offensive weapons, running backs Andrew Walsh and Lavassa Martin, were knocked out of the game by first-half injuries.

“Tough night. We really are depleted,” Rams coach Bill Tenore said. “But I don’t believe we quit. Kids are pretty resilient. I hope that we can put together a great effort for the seniors so they can have a memorable last game. We want to send them out the right way.”

Badin will close the year with a Senior Night contest against McNicholas on Friday at Schwarm Stadium. The Rockets (3-6, 3-3) have already clinched their fifth straight Central championship.

The Rams are in the midst of their worst season since going 2-8 in 2004.

“It would be great to win the last one,” Tenore said. “We’ve got things to work on in the offseason. As a team, we need to get bigger and stronger. We have young players, but we’re physically weak as well.”

Martin rushed 19 times for 86 yards and a touchdown. Walsh has been Badin’s quarterback all year, but Tenore decided to move him into a running back position and go with Jordan Flaig at QB.

Walsh (eight carries, 32 yards) suffered a shoulder injury late in the first quarter, and an ankle injury sent Martin to the sideline late in the second period. Neither returned to action, and Tenore wasn’t sure about their Week 10 status after the game.

“Andrew Walsh is an excellent running back, and without Kegen Rogers — who’s now out for the year — we needed more of a two-back attack,” Tenore said. “They did a nice job together back there, but one by one, they got hurt. We couldn’t really get much going when they went out of the game.

“That being said, it was a close game for a while. Big plays hurt us, and we were terrible in special teams tonight. That was discouraging.”

The Eagles scored thrice on special teams with Jac’Quel Freeman (kickoff return), Noah Walusis (blocked punt return) and Darian Jones (punt return).

Ryan Peltier completed 9 of 10 passes for 191 yards and three touchdowns, hitting Freeman, KeShaun Owens and Mike Fugate for scores.

“My coaches said we were going to throw the ball a lot today, and I’m always OK with that,” said Peltier, a 6-foot-1 junior. “It’s always tough to come here and play, but we’ve been getting better and better each week, and I thought we had a really good chance to come down here and get a big win before we hit Week 10.”

CJ completed the contest with 28 unanswered points to extend its winning streak to five. The Eagles are 6-3 overall and 5-1 in the GCLC North Division, and they’re still alive for a share of the North title and a Division IV, Region 16 playoff berth, but they’ll need to beat Alter (9-0, 6-0) at Springboro on Friday.

“I’m very happy. That’s where I’m at right now,” CJ coach Marcus Colvin said. “For us to have the opportunity we have in front of us with a league championship, a playoff berth and playing our rival … I’m very proud of the kids. Alter’s a really good football team, but we understand the challenge. We’re going to work ourselves to death next week trying to get ready for them.”

Flaig only threw two passes in the game. The Eagles were called for interference on the first one, but Jones came up with an interception on the next play. Twenty seconds later, with only 0:37 remaining in the first half, Freeman turned a short pass from Peltier into a 66-yard touchdown.

Zachary Bridgett’s third of six extra points made it 21-10 at intermission.

“We’ve just been clicking and being very opportunistic,” Colvin said. “I thought we had a chance in the second half to really put the game away, and we did. We talk about special teams being one third of the football game, so let’s be the best third out there, and tonight we really were.

“I give Badin credit. Early on, they gave us some things we weren’t ready for. (Walsh and Martin) are really tough, and when those two guys go out, they become a little different. We pray those kids are going to be all right, but it kind of helped us that they couldn’t finish the game. This is a tough place to play. We haven’t won here since 2004.”

Matthew Schweinefuss kicked a 40-yard field goal and Luke Tabler picked off a Peltier pass for the Rams. They had won the last four games in the series.

“They have some good athletes that we had a hard time bringing down,” Tenore said. “It wasn’t like we were playing a sub-par team. They’re really improving.”

CJ 14-7-14-7—42

Badin 3-7-0-0—10

C: KeShaun Owens 13 pass from Ryan Peltier (Zachary Bridgett kick)

B: Matthew Schweinefuss 40 field goal

C: Jac’Quel Freeman 92 kickoff return (Bridgett kick)

B: Lavassa Martin 1 run (Schweinefuss kick)

C: Freeman 66 pass from Peltier (Bridgett kick)

C: Noah Walusis 20 blocked punt return (Bridgett kick)

C: Mike Fugate 18 pass from Peltier (Bridgett kick)

C: Darian Jones 64 punt return (Bridgett kick)

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