“They’re a solid team,” Yorby said of Roger Bacon, which reached a Division V state semifinal last season and was 3-0 while allowing only 33 points in its first three games. “They’re well-coached, and their running back (Jah’Mal Hutsell) is the quickest we’ve seen so far. I think they’ll make a nice little run in the playoffs.”
Badin senior quarterback Landyn Vidourek ran for two touchdowns and passed for a third and sophomore defensive back Carson Cheek returned an interception 15 yards for a touchdown as the Rams extended their winning streak against Roger Bacon to at least eight games.
“They’re a really good football team,” Spartans coach Mike Blaut said. “We knew that going in. We didn’t make the big plays we thought we’d make. When they keep moving the changes, it’s tough.
“We were pretty well-prepared. We didn’t make the plays when we needed to.”
“They were probably the most solid team we’ve seen,” said Vidourek, whose team had allowed a total of just 14 points over the first three games and was coming off a 35-0 blanking of Northwest, a Southwest Ohio Conference team. “Their linebackers were calling out a few of the plays that we were doing.
On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Badin’s student section eschewed it’s usual green-and-black in favor of patriotic red-white-and-blue garb. Red-white-and-blue smoke was released from behind the team bench to celebrate the win.
After taking a 14-3 lead into halftime, Badin took control in the third quarter with a pair of touchdowns in less than a minute. Vidourek scored on a 12-yard run with 2:06 left in the quarter, and Cheek followed on the next Roger Bacon possession with his interception and touchdown for a 30-3 lead with 1:23 left in the game.
Two Spartan touchdowns in the fourth quarter left the Rams with a sour taste.
“We need to finish strong,” Vidourek said. “The way we finished wasn’t too clean.”
‘We’ve got to finish,” Yorby said. “That was my message to the team. We have to finish. Our defense has played well. Our offense battled through. We’ve got to be able to start faster.”
Badin clobbered Ross, 41-7, on Ross’ home field in last season’s opener. Badin also knocked Ross out of the 2019 playoffs with a 46-14 win, so Vidourek is anticipating an even edgier rematch.
“We’re looking forward to it,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes. It’s going to be a big game. I don’t think we’ll have seen that many fans in a long time, but we’ll adjust to it.”
Ross is 3-0 after seeing it’s game against Dunbar this past Friday cancelled. Yorby hopes game’s such as Saturday’s against Roger Bacon help his team get used to playing in a post-season level atmosphere.
“We’re playing another undefeated team,” he said. “It’s another big game. Every game seems to have a playoff-type mentality. Tonight was like a GCL game. It’s a shame they’re not part of the league, but we’ll keep them on the schedule.”
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