A Second-Half Comeback Helps, But Badin Can’t Keep Up With Fenwick And Absorbs First GCLC Loss
Fenwick High School's C.J. Tippmann (24) breaks up a pass intended for Badin's Reece Donges on Oct. 2, 2026, during a Greater Catholic League Coed Division football game at Yeager Field in Middletown. The host Falcons won 40-24.
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By Rick Cassano
MIDDLETOWN – Badin High School’s recent football dominance of rival Fenwick came to an emphatic end Friday night.
The Rams went on the road, never had the lead and gave up nearly 500 offensive yards as the Falcons celebrated homecoming with a 40-24 Greater Catholic League Coed Division triumph at Yeager Field.
“Fenwick was a better football team than us tonight,” Badin coach Nick Yordy said after the Rams’ six-game winning streak in the series was halted. “I don’t know if it was effort or anything like that. We talk a lot about the target being on our back. Sometimes it takes something like this to happen to realize that instead of just saying it.”
Badin, seeking its ninth straight GCL Coed championship, slipped to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in the league, while Fenwick improved to 4-3, 1-1, and savored its first win over the Rams since 2018.
The contest marked just the second time in Yordy’s 10 years at the helm that Badin has allowed 40 points. The Rams lost to McNicholas 42-20 in the 2017 season finale.
“As a team, we took Fenwick lightly,” Badin senior safety/wide receiver Hudson Heid said. “We saw the score (41-13) last year and just thought they were going to be the same, but they’ve turned it around here pretty good. They’re definitely a tougher team than last year.”
Heid and L.T. King caught touchdown passes from Davis Martin, who completed 6-of-18 throws for 86 yards and got picked off once.
Preston Davenport added an 88-yard kickoff return for a TD for the visitors, but Badin never could find a consistent rhythm and got spanked 470-191 in yardage.
“I feel like we’ve got to take that underdog mentality now,” Heid said. “Looking at their celebration, like Yordy just said, every team that’s going to beat us is going to think it’s the Super Bowl.
“We’ve got to come back locked into practice next week. We didn’t have a great week of practice this week. I think we have to take it week by week and never overlook anyone again because we’ve only got a few of these left.”
Fenwick began the evening in search of a statement win and found it in large part because of McCaffrey Halcomb, Hudson Kreke and D.J. Berning.
Halcomb converted 16-of-21 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns while also running for a pair of TDs. Kreke caught 10 balls for 207 yards and one score, and Berning rushed 24 times for 168 yards and tallied two touchdowns – one through the air and one on the ground.
“We believed in our guys 100 percent,” said Kreke, a senior running back and strong safety who had an interception on defense. “We’re turning the tide. That’s what we’ve been saying all week. We got that game, but that’s not where it stops. We’ve got to win next year when I’m gone. I know with our leadership and culture here that we can keep winning.
“Tonight is special. All of our guys know it. It’s good to have all the alumni back and see us play well.”
Halcomb, a junior quarterback, said the key was making sure the Rams never gained any real momentum.
“This feels great,” Halcomb said. “It feels like all of our work this week has paid off. It just proves to everybody that you don’t sleep on us. We’ve arrived. Now it’s about winning these next three games and then playoff time.”
Falcons coach Fred Cranford talked during the week about how his squad needed to sustain long drives and control the clock to keep the Badin’s offense off the field, and Fenwick set that tone right away.
The hosts grabbed a 20-3 halftime lead and scored on their only three possessions of the first half. Those drives covered 80, 80 and 73 yards and devoured more than 19 minutes on the clock.
“That’s exactly what we wanted to do,” Cranford said. “We were able to settle down and execute. You could see the poise. That’s just kids that have been there and have the experience. They’ve been under the lights. It’s polished, and that’s when you know you’re getting somewhere.
“That clock was our best friend tonight. It was clearly our best defensive player. I’ve got so much respect for Badin’s staff and what they do and how hard those kids play year in and year out. For our kids to do this on homecoming is special. Our backs were against the wall, and that was the best 48 minutes we’ve put out on the field this year for sure. We told them at halftime to do it for each other. We needed their best 24 minutes to finish it.”
The Falcons utilized a short passing game for a good portion of the first half and found significant success with it. Badin struggled to deal with that attack and also got hit with a couple deep balls by Halcomb, who was 14-of-17 for 186 yards by halftime.
“Clearly we know they bring heat and pressure all over the place and that can disrupt the pass game, and we know they’re going to man up everywhere. That’s Badin defensive football,” Cranford said. “You just study and watch film and figure out where you need to get the ball to. A lot of those passes were extensions of our run game. We knew where we had to get the ball to.”
Fenwick runs a Wing-T offense, so the Falcons will hand off a lot in every game and piled up 204 rushing yards against the Rams. But Halcomb said the passing game is getting more and more of an emphasis.
“We’re trying to pass the ball more so we’re not one-dimensional,” Halcomb said. “We expected to come out there and play our game. That’s what we prepared for all week. We wanted to play our tempo and run the ball, but I always feel confident in the passing game. You saw the game plan, dink ’em and then throw over the top, and it worked well for us.”
“It starts off with our O-line,” Kreke said. “We’re a Wing-T team, so if we can’t run the ball, we can’t do anything. We wanted to punch Badin in the mouth and wind the clock down. Our offense is our best defense.”
The Fenwick offense wasn’t as crisp after halftime, but the Falcons scored on two big plays – a 60-yard pass from Halcomb to Kreke and a 66-yard run by Berning – and got a 13-yard touchdown scamper from Micah O’Connor.
Badin reached the end zone twice in a span of two minutes in the third quarter, with Martin hitting Heid for a 29-yard score and Davenport going the distance on a kickoff return after taking a pitch from Cooper Clay.
Those scores closed the gap to 10 (20-10 and 27-17), but Fenwick always had a quick answer to keep the Rams from creating a sizable surge.
“We asked the kids at halftime, what are you going to do? Are you going to sit here and tuck your tail between your legs or are we going to go out there and fight and get back in this game?” Yordy said. “I’ll give our kids credit for that. We battled and got it down to 10, but we just couldn’t get that break to keep going. As soon as we got the momentum, they made a play and got it back.”
Heid admitted it was “super frustrating” to watch so many short passes get completed in front of him. He did like the fact that Badin showed some grit after halftime.
“We came out with a little fire at the start of the second half and got some good offensive things going,” said Heid, who had four receptions for 73 yards. “Our kick return was really good tonight, so we had a lot of good field position. We’ve just got to finish in the end zone.”
Chase Even ran 14 times for 98 yards, Gabe Miyahara kicked a 25-yard field goal and Clay had an interception for the Rams, who will host Dayton Carroll for homecoming next Friday.
“Credit to Fenwick. It was a great job by their players and coaches,” Yordy said. “We’ll learn from it and lick our wounds a little bit. I’m still confident in this team. We had a loss to La Salle and I told the kids that we’re going to get everybody’s best shot, especially when we get into league play. We’ve kind of earned that. Now we’ve got to realize what it takes to go out and win these league games.”
Kreke said the Falcons played reasonably well in last week’s 33-20 road loss to Kettering Alter and have continued to gain confidence. Fenwick will be at home against Dayton Chaminade Julienne in Week 8.
“We’ve had two really good weeks of practice going up against two really good GCL opponents,” Kreke said. “Last week was a tough loss. We didn’t play bad, but we knew we could be better. Tonight showed our momentum. We want to have Fenwick take over the GCL.”
Halcomb missed the second half of the Alter game with an arm issue, but he came back with a forceful showing against Badin. His father Grahm is Fenwick’s offensive coordinator.
“Grahm called an absolutely incredible game,” Cranford said. “I’m sure it’s special to watch his son command that offense. It’s rewarding to see a kid who’s taken his licks as a three-year starter show that kind of poise. We even let him call a couple plays because we trust him.”
The Fenwick coach said he hopes this win will subdue any doubts within his team.
“It’s almost like you can finally breathe,” Cranford said. “As a program, we’re going to enjoy this one for sure. It doesn’t make you Super Bowl champs by any means, but it’s certainly rewarding with all the hard work these kids have done and all the nights you wake up and think, ‘What am I doing?’
“We’ve been hard on these kids. I told them this afternoon after chapel, ‘We’re hard on you because we see more in you.’ I think as adults we believed we were close and we could get there, but we’re talking to teenagers.
“It’s a great win for the program, and I’m super proud of the coaches. Now it’s finding a way to get everybody grounded again. Next week’s another GCL game. We can beat anybody in this league. It’s all up for grabs. Now I think we’ve got a bunch of teenagers starting to believe it.”
