“Yeah, a little bit,” the coach laughed when asked if he had trouble waiting for the ceremony to conclude. “My wife was getting on me, telling me to enjoy it a little bit, and I probably need to do that a little bit more.”
Even with the slight sense of unease, the first half could have gone much worse for the Rams. The nerves of the Rams were settled after senior Carson Cheek bobbled the opening kickoff, then returned it 95 yards for a score.
“It was huge,” Yordy said. He even bobbled the ball a little bit. But the biggest thing is, these kids knew this was going to be a battle. To get off to a start like that to settle everybody down, it was a huge thing for the coaches, players, everybody.”
Badin rode that early momentum on its way to a 28-3 win in the Greater Catholic League Coed Division opener for both teams. The Rams (6-0, 1-0) extended their regular-season winning streak to 34 games.
“You can’t do that to a good team; you can’t spot them seven points on special teams,” Fenwick head coach Mark Mueller said. “They work it, we work it, their kids performed better. Our kicker needs to put that in the end zone, and that doesn’t happen.”
Badin scored on its first offensive possession after feeding sophomore running back Lem Grayson in the red zone. Grayson scored from 5 yards out, the first of his two touchdowns. Grayson finished with 106 yards on 17 carries.
Fenwick cut the lead to 14-3 with a Derek Morris 26-yard field goal in the second quarter.
The Falcons drove deep into Badin territory in the third, but turned the ball over on downs.
“They played another outstanding game,” Yordy said of his defense.
“Obviously, you’re playing a sound defense,” Mueller said. “You’re playing a team that hasn’t given up much points. I thought our kids executed the game plan very well. We just didn’t finish on certain drives.”
Grayson’s 2-yard TD run in the third and Zach Yordy’s 1-yard plunge in the fourth capped the scoring.
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